Wednesday 9 July 2014

The wicked stepmother and the jar of coffee



I had one of those friends in the last year at school who wasn't what I'd term a 'proper' friend. She sort of latched on to me for some reason, but it was always a bit of a one-way relationship. She was 'more transmit than receive', if you know what I mean.

I never went round her house, although she was found frequently knocking on my door waiting to pour out her latest news. We had little in common apart from once having shared a boyfriend... we just hadn't known we were sharing him at the same time. Other than that though I can't think of what we talked about, but then again I was probably only ever doing the listening. There was a good reason why I was never invited back to her house, mind: she had a wicked stepmother.

Wicked Stepmother had a thing against me. She'd seen me in town on Saturday afternoons wearing my leopard-spot trousers and gravity-defying hair with Eric the plastic skull key-ring hanging from my ear, and strongly disapproved – well, apparently. I never knew who she was, never saw her, but One Way Friend delighted in telling me that I'd been spotted by this unknown woman. “She thinks it's disgusting the way you dress. She thinks punks are the pits,” she'd tell me at school on Monday mornings. It's no surprise then that, in my mind, Wicked Stepmother took on the personality of Cruella Deville with the physical features of the Duchess from Alice In Wonderland.

In the Summer of '79 we left school and One Way Friend went to live with her sister in Ipswich, which seemed a million miles away even though it was only fifty. In a bid, perhaps, to continue our 'friendship' in spite of the distance, she offered me cheap tickets to see Ian Dury & The Blockheads at the Ipswich Gaumont one night, so off I went with my (new) boyfriend; we had a good time at the gig, all was well. As a small return favour One Way Friend asked if I could deliver something when I got back home. She gave me a jar of coffee – special coffee (I don't know why it was special, was it some brand that you could only get in Ipswich?   'Tractor Boys' Coffee?) and asked me to drop it round to her old house for her stepmother.

I fully intended to do this, honest. I put it on my little desk in my bedroom and decided I'd go round there the next weekend. The next weekend came and I felt a bit nervous about finally meeting Wicked Stepmother. “No, I'll do it next week,” I decided, imagining somehow, magically, I would feel differently then.

Next week came and the jar of coffee was still on my desk. Meanwhile, in my mind, Wicked Stepmother had taken on the personality of Attila the Hun, with the physical features of Hitler.   I was too busy really, wasn't I? I couldn't spare the time this week, I'll have to go round in a few days. I'll just put the jar of coffee in the cupboard until then.

“Have you taken that coffee round yet?” my Mum asked the following month.

“Oh no, I'll do that next week...”

Meanwhile, in my mind, Wicked Stepmother had taken on the personality of Godzilla, with the physical features of... Godzilla.

In 1983 I moved out of my old family home. I packed up my clothes, records, books, etc. I threw away a load of old papers, dolls and games that had been stuffed away in my bedroom, out of sight and mind for years. Right at the back of the cupboard I found a dusty jar of coffee.... I threw it out too.  I mean, I was hardly going to go round and deliver something to Wicked Godzilla Stepmother four years late - she'd have thought I was the pits.  Disgusting.

11 comments:

  1. Brilliant. The thing is, if you'd ever actually met Wicked Stepmother, you'd probably have found her to be a delightful lady. I bet One Way Friend just didn't get on with her and so exaggerated her perceived awfulness. If you had've knocked on Wicked Stepmother's door sometime in the subsequent years, for all you know, you might well have been invited in....possibly even offered a cup of coffee...well you would have, if she hadn't run out of her favourite brand back in 1979.

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    1. Haha - thanks - I'm sure you're absolutely right about Wicked Stepmother. Although I also wondered if OWF just hung around with me to wind her up. Either way she was probably still nothing like I'd built her up to be in my mind.
      I never found out if she was expectantly waiting for that coffee delivery. If she was then she probably wrote me off as being a thief'n'all...

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    2. Hi Gin G - many thanks for dropping by and for your lovely comment. I'm glad to know you might have done the same. But of course the longer I left it the harder it got, I've *tried* to learn something from that....

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  2. Meanwhile, 35 years later, Wicked Stepmother sits in her kitchen thinking, 'Wish I had some bloody coffee!'.

    Nice story, C. I certainly would have chickened out as well.

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    1. Oh don't, I feel guilty now! Well, just a little... hmm... or maybe not...

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  3. It's probably that instant coffee that made her so mean.

    I do this same thing...usually once a week. There are some people I have to deal with that are gigantic bores. Most everybody's great...especially the people I see on a regular basis... but there are some who I dread. I always intend to knock them out on Monday...and don't make it by until Thursday at the very last minute. I don't have a choice by then.

    Still, we know you were up to no good back then...don't try to down play it.

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    1. Oh I know the feeling. In every sphere there are those ones that you really wish you could avoid and do so if at all possible. They're the human equivalent of cleaning the oven.

      Oh but I was sweet then and of course I still am ;-) I was a Pollyanna in a Poly Styrene's clothing. I should've shown her not to be so judgemental, but I missed a trick there.

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  4. I could not have stopped myself, I would just have had to meet her and be as charming as I could. Or maybe it was a plot to get you inside and you would never be seen again. The things they do in these dungeons.

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    1. Good point - I could have really used it to my advantage... but would I still be here to tell the tale?

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  5. Replies
    1. Seems funnier now than at the time, at least...

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