Winnie
written & produced by George Moorey & Shane Young
artwork by Zariq Rosita Hanif
Winnie is my wife's maternal grandmother. She died over a decade ago but if she was alive today she'd be over 100 years of age.
I found some video footage of her chatting to my wife about her childhood and other memories as a young adult.
Winnie was a triplet and one of 17, but only 14 of them made it to adulthood and one of her triplet siblings died when he was 2. She grew up in the forest of Dean, back when the villages there were a long walk away from other towns and villages and were actually surrounded by woods.
We wrote in the song that she was married on VE day and there's an audio interview of her where she says she did, but according to my wife she was engaged on that day. She wasn't always so clear with her broad forest accent! She did meet her husband at the YMCA though, which is opposite the primary school my youngest son goes to and where my oldest son graduated from in the summer.
I have my own personal memories of Winnie. She was truly one of the most adorable old ladies I have ever met. She had a broad Forest accent and often pronounced words incorrectly, for example she would say "Burnigan" meaning "Birmingham". Every time I took her for a ride in the car for a visit to family she would without fail always comment that our car (at the time a pretty unspectacular and road worn Toyota) was a "nice smooth ride".
I remember her telling stories of having to sleep with her twin in the bath because there was no room in the bedrooms when people visited and stayed over. Another tale that sticks out is when she would go scrumping for apples in the nearby orchards. They were spotted and so the children ran away and all the stolen apples that she had put in her knickers fell out as she made her escape!
She was very fond of my wife, her grand-daughter so had a soft spot for me too and the feeling was mutual.
Winnie's song has a ragtime bluegrass vibe which my wife thinks is really suitable style that represents Winnie. I agree totally. Shane and I feel we've made something that sounds authentic. Lucky because it could have gone wrong very easily. It could have been a disastrous pastiche. The key was involving some really great musicians.
