Vegetarianism & Veganism etc.

    As far as I am concerned I owe my life to my parents' becoming vegetarian.  If a doctor had not recommended that they gave up meat and turned to a more healthy diet, I would not have been born alive.   Up till 1935 my mother had had several miscarriages.   On the 23rd July 1939 (just,  it was almost the 24th!) I was born in a vegetarian nursing home in Blackheath, London.  I thought nothing much about that until I started going to school and having school dinners, at primary school, where I had either a packed lunch or I took some savoury to have instead of the meat that the other children had.   I found very few difficulties - hardly anyone bothered me about it.   Someone did ask what I had to eat once for dinner so I told them, then they said what did I have for pudding, again I told them the girl then said “Oh, so you do have something nice then”.  I remember thinking how odd.   The next time I remember anyone kind of querying my vegetarianism was when I was on a Quaker Work camp. A girl said if you are a vegetarian what are your shoes made of. I remember thinking oh dear, I hadn’t thought about that, they were leather then. So when she asked me further I explained that I was vegetarian for health reasons.   I chickened out of an argument that time.  It was partly true.   But from then on I did think more deeply about it and gradually met on holidays other vegetarian families, and some things that my parents had accepted like leather and gelatine were dropped from my eating or using.

   The next big step forward was probably our family going to the Vegetarian Society (UK) organised holiday in Swansea.  The Society hired one of the halls of residence for a month and families could book for a week at a time. We went for the middle two weeks.  We soon got settled in,  We had never seen so many veggie people before!  The younger people got together and did some things away from the parents.  One person was elected leader and he organised the events for the young group. Keith Monroe had been elected the first week of our two week stay.  We went around as a group and enjoyed our selves.   It was mainly in the evenings that we ALL got together and did all sorts of MAD & crazy things.  One night we had a pyjama party.  But on  the Friday night it was traditionally the whole holiday group’s evening self entertainment.  People volunteered to do sketches, sing, read etc.  The Young group decided to dress in the clothes of the opposite sex.  We went round the whole evening like this, including going out to the sea and a children’s play area (Swings etc) after the social. A group photo and an enlargement of me are shown here!!!  The following week I got elected the Leader of the group and on the Friday we had a fancy dress party, where I went as King Neptune in a homemade seaweed skirt!

 

BVYM  (British Vegetarian Youth Movement)

     It was at that Swansea holiday that I decided to join the above organisation.  It was great, really meeting other vegetarians. It was through this organisation that I met and started really dating girls.  But even here I found it difficult at first.  I just didn’t know how to deal with girls!  I was still shy, even after 5 years at a mixed college. 

      At the college I had taken an active role in student life, after a year I had joined the drama group and started a college magazine.   The drama side will be told in the Drama pages and the rest of the college happenings in another page.

       My going to that veggie holiday also helped me to get a place at Swansea University the following year as a college lecturer suggested I applied .   Well the interview was in Jan 1963  and I got a teachers’ Diploma course place on condition I passed my degree, which I did (JUST scraped), this was a the first time I passed all the exams that I needed to get my certificate   Till then I had had to repeat every course for another year! (O level; A level and 1st year degree).  So I was three years behind!

(Continued next page)

 

 

These  pictures  were taken at the  fancy dress parties  held at the  family Vegetarian month at Swansea in August 1962.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VEGETARIAN /VEGAN

Page 1

My parents became vegetarian, and I was born as a consequence.

Email:   Chris

Veggie Sites worth visiting

Http//clubs.yahoo.com/veggiebritts

Veggie Spot

Raw food

Vegan Camp,

In The Veggie Pot

 

Change of sex party

Pretty me!!!!

Fancy dress party

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