Bubbles

When our dad passed away, we used a B&W photo of him blowing bubbles, taken by our mum, in the order of service for the funeral. We even had a bubble machine whirring away in the church as the coffin was carried out. This was a deliberate homage. Dad was essentially a bit of a hippy for most of his life, embracing the peace movement during the 1960s and supporting CND and Greenpeace right up to his passing. To him blowing bubbles was a kind of symbol of his philosophy and he loved taking photos of friends and family blowing bubbles. What could be more innocent, fun and peaceful than blowing some bubbles, right? So you might find it surprising to learn that, in 1967, our parents were both arrested in the centre of London for this seemingly innocent gesture, in an incident that made the national press. In true hippy fashion, they had gone to Piccadilly Circus to (in Dad's words) "cheer people up" through the blowing of bubbles.

Unfortunately they soon found themselves being firmly instructed to desist with the bubble blowing by a policeman, on the grounds that their bubbles were wafting around being a nuisance to the other tourists. When our parents both refused to oblige, arguing equally strongly that they were not annoying anyone, the policeman took exception and arrested them both on the spot, carting them off in a black maria. Believe it or not the whole case ended up in court, where Dad acted as his own defence on the charge of "using insulting behaviour" - and promptly lost! He was bound over to keep the peace for 6 months - oh the irony. The day after the story broke it even made it on the David Frost TV show, with the famous host handing out bottles of bubble mixture to his studio audience and encouraging them to blow bubbles and get arrested.

Needless to say this amusing episode became a favourite family anecdote ever since. It also perhaps goes someway to explaining why we were always being presented with little pots of bubble mixture throughout our childhood, and then, when we had kids of our own, Dad would buy them bubble pots too and encouraging them to blow bubbles in the street to spread peace, and possibly annoy some tourists. A trouble maker to the end - haha!