By Charlie Parker

My Great Uncle Arthur

On Monday my great uncle Arthur had his funeral. I knew him well considering how little we had interacted. I had got to know Arthur through my granddad stories.

My granddad lived an interesting life and he was a story teller. When he spoke, the room would always stop to listen.

One of my favourite stories was about the time he was living in Oklahoma driving home through a storm. The rain pelting against the windscreen so hard he had to lean forward to get a clearer view when BANG – a rabbit smashes against the screen causing my granddad to jerk back. BANG, another rabbit windscreen and an onslaught of debris starting coming from everywhere forcing my granddad swerve from side to side.

Before he knew it he was driving blind over a tired old bridge and that is when he saw the source of the mayhem – a hurricane coming straight towards him.

It was like a matador and bull situation but like my grandad said there was nothing he could but keep driving. So he pushes his foot down, heading directly towards the hurricane. All of the sudden the car skims the side of the hurricane and is propelled of the bridge, crashing down a 100 feet drop.

My granddad opened his eyes, his car has landed upside down and battered but he was alive with barely a scratch. As he steps out of the car the weather was clearing and the hurricane was fading away into the distance. It even made the newspaper with a picture of the ruined car next to the article.

All of my granddad’s stories were like that, full of excitement and adventure. Like the time he got a hole in one at a golf tournament or when his brother became the first man to survive an ejector seat only to leave the hospital crash his sport car on the way to meet him or when uncle Arthur ran away to Kenya and built a farm or the time he got my gran locked into a Mexican jail over night.

For me my granddad was amazing. He was always there for support and my favourite bit of wisdom from my granddad is why I think he would love SCA.

‘Knowledge is only knowing the right questions to ask the right person’

So my advice to the people joining SCA next year is be ready to ask the right questions – to the hundreds mentors
to your fellow peers,
of the course brief,
especially yourself
and the world around you

because if you think you already have the answers, the chances are they are probably wrong.