Ramblings

When I'm Sixty Four (64)
~ After The Beatles

If you want the tune to sing along to click here

 
When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now.
Will I still be climbing on the Matterhorn
Or standing on Whernside watching the dawn.
 
If I'd been out to Joshua Tree
Would you lock the door,
Will you still belay, will you still catch me,
When I'm sixty-four.
 
You'll be older too,
And if you say the word,
I could second you.
 
I could be handy, reading the guide
When your sight has gone.
You can set the tackle if we have the time
Sunday mornings go down a mine.
 
Digging the route out, clearing the choke,
Who could ask for more.
Setting a handline, crossing the plunge pool,
When I'm sixty-four.
 
Every summer we can set our tent down,
In the Climbers site in valley Blanc
We shall watch & wave
Grandchildren on the wall
Billy, Tom & Dave
 
Drop me a top rope, haul on the crux,
Knees and aid for me
Standing on the belay ledge of Cemetery Gates
Feeling colder, long belay waits
 
Can I still climb it, tick off the peak
Exploring evermore
Will I still need it, can I still do it,
Now I'm sixty-four.

Or if you prefer

 

 

 

 

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The ties that bind & food for thought 

The YRC has been through one of those ‘political’ years. Starting off with the membership policy & finishing with the new rules & by-laws these two issues have exercised the committee and the membership quite considerably. But as we approach the end of the year what has changed?
Well some people are unhappy and some are happy about the decisions made; and I suspect a good number remain as unconcerned about the decisions as they were 12 months ago. But there were no resignations by ‘disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’, I saw no ‘fisty cuffs’ at the AGM and the heated debate was just that: debate. So how is it two members can argue passionately, noisily and at times aggressively, about an issue and then retire to the bar, or the crag, the hill or the cavern, and stand like old friends chatting and laughing.
Once you leave the ‘more beaten track’ I have never met someone on a mountain or crag; or for that matter canoeing or sailing; with whom I could not strike up a conversation and enjoy their company. Even people I don’t seek out when safely back at home I can go into the hills with; and sit for hours chatting and laughing with around a slowly melting pan of snow or lounging on a warm belay while watching the sun set slowly over Tremadog. Age equally is no boundary, as JK Rowling said “you will never really know yourself .. until .. tested by adversity” and I would expand that to say the knowledge that others have chosen to test themselves gives you a common bond. As an aside if you haven’t seen her speech it is worth 20 minutes of your time; an exemplar of a speech in delivery & content http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/730.html.
So what, we all know that don’t we? Well yes, but sometimes the obvious needs restating. The YRC is a fantastic club, with a membership which, above all, shares a common passion and set of core values. Over time the club has changed; Arthur was telling me the other day of the club he joined where it was all landed gentry & mill owners not “working class lads like me”; and I believe it needs to evolve and change now. 
David Smith wrote an article in the Summer 2000 journal where he posed a number of questions about the club membership. I looked at some stats recently and we have certainly not addressed his questions.
 
Age on Joining
% all members
% members who joined since 2000
 <30
51.4
11.1
<45
17.8
19.4
<55
15.8
16.7
<65
11.6
41.7
<75
3.4
11.1
Note: excludes members where no DOB held
In other words whilst more than half our current members joined at age 30 or less, in the last 9 years nearly half of the 37 people were between 55 and 65. This is not actually surprising, with more than 60% of the club now over 55, the number of people with friends 20 years younger being small, and as we currently ‘recruit’ primarily by word of mouth I cannot see many under 30s being recruited outside of our immediate families. A club is for its members but if we continue this trend the club will not reach its Bi-Centennial and that, I suggest, is a sad prospect.  
We need to look long and hard about what we do & why we do it. Most of you know my views on membership; it is not some politically correct dogma that drives it but a strong belief that it is necessary to reverse the trend of aging membership. Similarly I would suggest that we need to look at our meets programme with wall meets, crag meets and even sponsored lectures needing to be added to get the name of the YRC back in the imagination and mind of the people who will be organising the YRC winter meet in 2045.
Some of what was traditional in 1892 is no longer considered acceptable by most people, and what we accept now as ‘normal’ will not be so in 50 years. Tradition is all very well but it is not only traditional but repeatedly proven that not changing is fatal; ask the Neanderthal man, the British Car industry or DEC computers (who once rivalled IBM). 
There is however a tradition, a core value, which was stated by the clubs founders and remains true today: The objects of the Club are to organise walking, mountaineering and skiing excursions, to encourage the exploration of Caves and Potholes and to gather and promote knowledge concerning Natural History, Archaeology, and Folklore and kindred subjects. 
 This is the tradition the club must never lose.

 

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In a chat with Mick yesterday we were talking about the connotations of being Ramblers. Mick wondered what the original context was that led to the Yorkshire Ramblers’ being selected and whether it had changed meaning over the years. Well it has!!

In the 17th century Ramble meant “To go out in search of sex” and so a rambler was someone who went in search of sex (i.e. a whore) - A dictionary of slang and unconventional English By Eric Partridge, Paul Beale 1970. Not the promising start we might have hoped for.

In 1750 The Rambler had clearly taken on its literary guise as it was a “twopenny sheet” which Samual Johnson contributed to; but it only existed for 2 years.

By 1846 “The Rambler” was an esteemed publication of the Catholic Left so clearly the sexual connotations had gone by then ‘Phew’.

So what did it mean in 1892?  The short answer is pretty well what it does now. I found a reference to the OED stating 'rambler : a person who rambles or goes rambling. ramble : a walk (formerly any journey) without definite route or other aim but pleasure'. And a definition of ramble “to explore idly”.

So my best guess is that it was selected to convey the sense of gentlemen whose aim was to explore the mountains and caves of the world not for glory or with a great purpose but purely for pleasure; or to paraphrase Mallory ‘because they are there’. I rather like that.

Andy Syme 25 Aug 2009

P.S. Seems I'm not alone, Jeff just sent me this, originally published in Punch in 1952. Reprinted 1954  YRC Journal Vol 8 No 27:

THE significance of the word ‘rambler’ appears to have changed considerably since the Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club was formed. It has had ample time to do so. That body is celebrating this year the Diamond Jubilee of its foundation. It has spent the sixty glorious years since 1892 in indefatigably clinging by its teeth to overhanging crags, swarming up wholly inaccessible pinnacles and plunging through torrents of cold water into vertical abysses. There is only one thing it has failed to do in those sixty years; it has never, in any normally accepted sense of the term, rambled.





Last updated: 21-Dec-2009