I was pleased to meet up in Ilkley on 25th September with Janet Hammett from Tennessee. Over a cup of coffee she told me all about her exciting life and how her travel bug started when she was just 17. Janet originally came from Ilkley but as a teenager she moved to Italy to work as a nanny for a few years. She then worked in a secretarial job in Germany for the U.S. government and stayed there for 18 years. It was there that she met her husband who was in the American army.
They first lived in Mississippi (a state which she told me is well known for its cotton, catfish and soya beans!) where her husband worked as a teacher and she managed the municipal court for misdemeanour crimes. Janet and her husband now live in Clarksville, Tennessee and I was delighted to see the range of lottery slips she brought over from America for me. Here are photos of Janet and me in the coffee shop.
These three photographs below show where Janet buys scratch cards at Mapco convenience store in Kentucky and Minit Mart in Tennessee.
Janet receives the Dalesman magazines from her aunt who buys and collects them to send her as a Christmas present. Janet later posts them to her friend, Barbara Blades Trundle who lives in Copperas Cove Texas, outside of the largest army post in the USA. Barbara is another Yorkshire lady (originally from Keighley) who married an American soldier. I haven’t met Barbara but she has sent me these photos:
Here is Barbara with the lady who saved the lottery cards for me from the customer service department of the local grocery store.
Barbara then recycles the magazines further by posting them to another English friend (originally from Leeds) called Jane Connor who lives in Maryland.
At the beginning of September I was pleased to meet Jane Connor who was back in Leeds visiting her mother. She explained how she had moved to North Carolina in 1996 having met her American soldier husband in Germany in 1991.
Since moving to the USA 25 years ago Jane has lived in several different states. In each place she has been able to find a British expat group, a home away from home. She told me how very hard it was moving away and sometimes feeling like a fish out of water. Expats offer great support and an opportunity to share with one another all that they miss from across the pond, such as fish and chips, pubs, traditions, British humour and of course their families.
Jane never had any trouble finding other expats and several years ago formed a group of her own in Maryland. While living in Texas she met Barbara from Keighley and that is how the contact began and why she receives copies of the Dalesman in the post. By the time they reach Jane they can often be a few years old.
In May, Jane received a bundle of Dalesman dated 2018. That is when she read an article about me and my art made from discarded lottery scratch cards. She found me on Facebook. Together with Barbara and Janet they have been collecting American scratch cards for me from three different states. When I met Jane in Knaresborough, she gave me the scratch cards.
Jane also creates artwork from an unusual recycled material. She drinks lots of Yorkshire Tea, then dries the tea bags and paints on them before selling them in a friend’s tea shop. See below:
Dash In gas station in Prince Frederick, Maryland has been collecting discarded scratch cards for Jane to give to me. I will be pleased to send Jane later an image of the artwork I create with the American scratch cards.
Here are some photos from where Jane lives in Maryland near the beautiful town of North Beach on the Chesapeake Bay.
It’s all thanks to the recycled Dalesman being passed from state to state that Jane made contact with me on social media and I made a friendship with three Yorkshire ladies now living in the U.S.A.
