39th Marlboro Morris Ale

Wandered downtown yesterday afternoon for the big Saturday show put on by the dancers attending this years Marlboro Morris Ale. One little rain shower, but then things cleared up, and most of the dancers were able to proceed without problems.

The highlight, and no, it was not the dancing, was our conversation with the gentleman in the picture above, stalwarts of the Goathland Ploughstots, who came all the way over from their tiny village near Whitby in the north east of England. To hear them tell it, the Goathland Ploughstots (as much fun to write as to hear them say) is the oldest sword dancing group in England. The red stripes on their trousers are a remnant of uniforms worn during the Crimean War… The Crimean War!

We would have learned more, including additional amplification of their feelings on the disastrous policies of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, but they were called away, “for some imbibing.”