On June 24th, 2000 I set off from London to make a long-awaited pilgrimage to Gipsy House, Roald Dahl’s home. My companion for the day (we’ll call him Snookums) and I took the train from Marylebone and arrived in Great Missenden on an overcast, gray Saturday afternoon. The village was having its “Celebration Day” festival and we found a poster detailing all the day’s events.
We joined the crowd on the High Street (that’s Main Street for us Yanks) and just wandered along, enjoying the festival atmosphere. Our favorite event was “Birds of Prey”, where you could hold a falcon or owl for only £1! Unfortunately we chickened out so there’s no picture of that.
At the risk of sounding like an American idiot, I’d like to point out that Great Missenden is one of the quaintest, English-est villages I’ve ever been in. They had garland dancers, for goodness’ sake! I was a happy Anglophile. That’s why I took so many pictures of the festival for you to enjoy.
A local man pulls a wagon full of children and parents with a miniature steam engine. (Looks more like a garden tractor to me!)
Why did I take a picture of the bouncy castle?
I have no idea.
Steel drum band. Fun at the time… but I guess you had to be there. *grin* By this time we’d had about enough of the festival so we decided to tackle the real missions of the trip: find Dahl’s grave and visit his house.