A Link, but no Connection

One of the delights of one who doesn't have a TV is watching my own choice of YouTube videos.  Most evenings you will find me sitting in the lounge as the skies in the east are already beginning to darken, looking at a small screen and enjoying a variety of familiar productions, some that I have followed for years, others that are very much 'on trial' and if I find they're not so interesting as I first thought, I can easily 'unsubscribe' with no penalty.

Occasionally my cousin will recommend something she's seen on one of the independent TV channels.  (She knows that, without a TV licence, I'm not allowed to watch BBC programmed even on catch-up.)  One such occasion was last weekend, as a result of which I spent an enjoyable hour-and-a-half the other night watching an excellent tribute to the longest-running TV comedy, "The Last of the Summer Wine". 

After a run of 37 years, it's now some while since the very last episode, and many of the stars - people like Bill Owen, Peter Sallis, Thora Hird, and Kathy Staff - have died but, in the memories of many. the stories of their characters live on. I fondly recall leaving church on Sunday evenings and calling on a former work colleague in the village to watch the programme with her and her husband before returning to my TV-less home

The series was filmed in the town of Holmfirth, which, I now find, is only about 20 miles from my new home.  I've only been there once in the past, to deliver a consignment of solar panels to a private house in the town.  The firm who sold them was a regular user of the courier firm for whom I worked before retirement and, as a gesture of co-operation with them, we agreed to wear their shirts when delivering for them.  Of course, when the contract came to an end these shirts were no longer of use and, given its quality, mine has retained a place in my wardrobe.

By an amazing coincidence, I now realise that, on the evening when I watched that tribute to 'LOTSW' as it is affectionately known, I happened to be wearing that very garment!  Now I realise its proximity, I may well take a trip to Holmfirth again, to take a closer look at a picturesque place that played an entertaining part in a phase of my life that's now long gone.