The Green One

MACLA: Metheringham Magazine: The Green One

MACLA, for a 'green one', comes out of the blue, unexpected... something treasured, taken out from a box or a drawer every now and then and considered for all it's worth... though the container in this case is the time between issues and each issue is new and intriguing.

A village, however close to hamlet or verging on town, is held together, if it is a community at all, by various social bonds: pub, post office, shops if there are any, village hall, and a magazine - if it is fortunate enough - which announces and involves and entertains. These essentials are the fabric. At the heart is people, folk, residents, dwellers, but these social glues, and the willingness of a few to be organisers ambassadors, promoters and workhorses keeps a village alive as opposed to merely ticking over.

Maybe the key of keys is the village magazine, broadcasting the day to day and sustaining a gentle cohesion. A community magazine is inconclusive. All can be authors, information givers, relaters, anecdote dispatchers... spreading news, wisdom, knowledge, wit and amusement. You can offer history, review, opinion, open up discussion, pass on tips, club reports and recruitment, entertainment dates, allow space for immediate locality advertising and even verse; all creating anticipation for village events and then the means to explain in as much detail as you wish, how they went. To communicate is all!

You can keep in touch, know what is going on, via this reliable vintage grape vine. Metheringham's MACLA, the 'Green One' is an exemplary village magazine, packed with attributes, and a credit to its 'staff': Peter Ford : a substantial and significant publication and well worth reading.

Support your Green One, extol it, ring its praises, be proud of it. Long may it publish. MAKE THE GREEN ONE SPREAD.

David Lockyer