A VILLAGER has turned from running wedding discos to helping “bring together” his fellow residents today for the 75th anniversary of VE Day.
Paul Palmer who runs Thames Valley Discos is already flying a Union Jack flag in his Hurst front garden.
Through the 437-member Hurst Residents Coronavirus Action Group Facebook page, he’s urging fellow villagers to join in, not with street parties but front garden picnics.
Nationwide, street parties to mark peace in Europe after the Second World War have been cancelled. Instead stay-at-home parties are suggested.
Paul said: “We’re encouraging Hurst families to decorate the front of their houses with red, white and blue. Provided the weather is good, everyone can picnic in their front gardens so they’re safely distanced but feel together.”
Hurst is usually a busy and sociable place.
Paul said: “I started the Facebook page to help keep the village together while we’re not together.
“The cricket club, for instance, would have been running their colts’ training on Friday nights by now.”
The barbecues for players’ families after training are a highlight of village summer life.
The popular Hurst Show and Country Fayre has been cancelled and Hurst Football Club’s Party in the Park music festival has been postponed. Both events were due in June.
The show raises vital funds for many good causes. Paul said the festival was the football club’s main fundraiser.
Paul says that weddings he was due to provide music for are being rescheduled because of the virus.
Hurst residents have enjoyed an online Great Hurst Bake-off competition with 54 entries, thanks to Paul.
One entrant Charlie Vaughan, 12, made his 72-year-old grandfather a birthday cake which he showed him in an online Zoom party.
Charlie’s mum Becky, said: “We sang Happy Birthday – and then ate the cake ourselves. My mum made my Dad a cake and my sister-in-law made her family one.”
The Bake-off — where presentation was judged using Likes on the Facebook page — was won by Charlie’s sister Emma, 16, who made jam tarts.
Paul is also running a weekly online pub quiz. More than 30 families take part on Friday evenings. Last Friday fellow villagers Catherine Pearce and Anne Marie Scott helped set and ask the questions.
Contestants mark their own scores and then post them for others to see. “I trust them implicitly, Hurst is a very trustworthy place,” said Paul.
Today there is a special VE Day quiz.
