People   (Re-unions, trace old friends and relatives.)

Hi,Pat,I have a lot to be thankful for with snails.Do you remember a triangular piece of land on your right as the Manchester train set off towards Ince.There was a very large deep pond at the bottom of the railway embankmet and that pond was home to planorbis corneus rubra,a fairly rare water snail in the wild.Well,local pet shops paid a tanner apiece (6 old pence to younger people)for those snails to sell for goldfish bowls.Good money for a little lad in those days.A poem we used to recite at St.Thomas's,
The frugal snail
with forecast of repose
Carries his house with him
wherever he goes,
Peeps out and if there's a shower of rain
retreats to his domicile amain.
I think that's how it went.Me and Harry have been like that frugal snail lately,just peeping out at murk,rain,hail and drizzle with the occasional gale thrown in for good measure."Just buggering about" is an expression rarely used these days,Harry,but really does capture memories of an innocent youth.