Keiths Memories In Time: "Summer Holiday" Voice from the Past

Keiths Memories In Time: "Summer Holiday" Voice from the Past: I made the most amazing discovery last night that I could not believe. I did not recognize this person that I have watched for more than th...

"Summer Holiday" Voice from the Past

I made the most amazing discovery last night that I could not believe. I did not recognize this person that I have watched for more than three years on Sherlock from the BBC. The actress was Una Stubbs

and the discovery brought back memories of a movie that I saw when I was only a teenager and fell in love with it was called Summer Holiday: starring Sir Cliff Richards and The Shadows as well as Una Stubbs. I know most of you are scratching your head going what is he talking about well let me explain Una Stubbs plays the character of Mrs. Hudson on the BBC's Sherlock and she also played Sandy in Summer Holiday.

I know you are still wondering why this would really matter well let me give you just a brief history, in the United States in the late 50s early 60s we had a young gentleman known as Elvis Presley who dominated the music scene and in the United Kingdom they also had a young man who dominated the music scene and his name was Sir Cliff Richards he was what we would call the Elvis Presley of Great Britain. The only time that I ever really saw anything of Sir Cliff Richards was from the movie summer holiday in 1963.

It was about three young men trying to show the British transportation system that they could make money with a double-decker bus touring the European countryside. On their summer holiday they took a double-decker bus to show British transport that it would be possible.  While on their holiday they ran into a trio of girl singers that desperately needed a different mode of transportation than what they had the gentleman offered to take them for a ride.

It is a British style beach party you know the ones with Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Yet however it was very British and the dark bobbed haired girl was known as Sandy in the movie, she was Una Stubbs

that was the star of the trio of girls as she is a brighter personality than the others just as Mrs. Hudson in the BBC's Sherlock is a bright personality.

The reason I found out who she was from my past was I was searching through the BBC's who do you think you are on YouTube and found that she was one of those that they had picked for their version, which by the way is the original version, the American version is not the original it is a copy of the British version of who do you think you are. They had stars like Robin Gibbs from the Bee Gees, Martin Freeman from the BBC's Sherlock, Graham Norton talk show host from the BBC, Stephen Fry from the BBC's Dr. who and Sherlock Holmes game of shadows and last but not least Julie Walters Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter.

These are shows that we have never seen and it tends to aggravate me immensely that we never see them. I was so happy when I saw a few years ago that we were getting BBC America I thought wow we will now get to see some British programming, but there is very little British programming on the BBC America it is mostly American programs such as Star Trek the next generation. It was a complete letdown for me that I seldom watch it anymore.

Una Stubbs was one of those dancer actresses that got her start because she was multitalented I was so ashamed that I did not recognize her, but I knew that her voice was so familiar. Who do you think you are had a small clip of her dancing on one of either hers are Sir Cliff Richards British TV special together and I recognized her immediately and it came to me like a bolt of lightning that voice, her voice was that of Mrs. Hudson's voice and was the same as Sandy on summer holiday I knew it immediately my wife double checked on the Internet movie database.

I was astonished I could not believe that I had not recognized her on my own. She has not changed really like all of us she has gotten older but she still has that bright bubbly personality she puts in her acting.

I have always admired the British actors and actresses for their down-to-earth approach to acting and also when they are not in character. It's a different world for actors in Britain than it is in the US. I hope someday I might have some of my favorite British actors and actresses autographs. Any time we go to Great Britain I scour the markets to find those that have autographs and pictures of the British actors and actresses, because we never seem to have any of them at our autograph shows other than the most famous.

Just another of my memories in time that I love to think about.

The season of holidays is now upon us and families prepare for feasts and reunions that go along with these holiday seasons. I'm so deeply afraid that the young people today don't follow those traditions as our parents did and we tried to do. As I have gotten older it is harder to make the trips to see my family, but somehow I endeavor to try at least once a year to make contact with those still living in my family.
I came from a large and loving family from both sides of my parents and if you've ever seen me in the last few years you'll understand when I say that they were some of the greatest cooks I have ever known.I can't help myself I love the style of the southern cooking ladies that made up the chefs of my family.
I know I have told you all the stories of trying to make the buttermilk biscuits or the turkey and dressing with giblet gravy. that brought me to tears when I finally discovered how to make them taste as my family had made them taste when I was just a child. The flavors the smells and yes even the arguments that seem to happen every year are some of my fondest memories of my mother and father's family and of my mother and father.
You can say what you will about them but my family was not wealthy and they may not have been prim and proper all the time, after all they came from a long lineage of indentured servants and farmers that travel to this country as early as the 1620s. What my family did have was a strong and abundant love for family. Family always came first in our house when I was a child and the love shown to me was extremely great and fulfilling to one so young.
I feel the sadness come over me every year in October because that's when I lost my mother and a lot of my family, but that sadness did not come this year. The tears that I cry each October did however come but as I remarked to a very dear friend who lost their mother just a day ago. This time when the tears came they came with overwhelming joy knowing how much my mother loved me knowing how much my family love me no matter how much of a pain I seem to be to them. I have learned that these silly little things that sparked the memories that made me sad were not put in my life to make me sad they were put in my life to remember who I am and where I came from. They were put in my life help me remember my mother and my family.
This holiday season I am hoping that you have family surrounding you with love and I hope that your family remembers that our time with them is growing short. I, as you, am the patriarch of my family, that you tell your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren how much you love them and that when you're gone and they remember you because of some silly little thing, that the memory that comes flooding to their mind is not there to make them sad it's put their to remind them that you walk with them side by side and you are still with them in their heart. These memories that they will carry with them the rest of their lives are not sad memories but happy memories of the magic of the love that you and they made for each other