For their last meeting before Christmas the members of the Newton Abbot Probus Club resorted to the magic of Zoom rather than meeting face to face because of the worsening Covid situation.

A period of lighthearted virtual chat was enjoyed before chairman Bob Clowes introduced the speaker for the meeting, Nigel Colledge who would recall some of the spirit of Christmas past and before we knew just what ‘lockdown’ meant.

Nigel told us of his most memorable Christmas when his daughter was born on Christmas Day in Montego Bay in Jamaica and how all of the nursing staff were anxious to see the Christmas baby.

He went on to explain that he had put together recordings of popular songs from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s and used these to evoke some happy festive memories.

Amongst other hit songs he included Bing Crosby singing ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer’. We heard songs from David Whitfield, Ruby Murray and and Harry Belafonte singing ‘Long Time ago in Bethlehem’.

Not to be forgotten were The Goons singing ‘Walking Backwards to Christmas’ (who remembers ‘The Goons’?) and seeing video of Jerry Lee Lewis setting his grand piano on fire whilst singing his Number One hit ‘Great Balls of Fire’ in a crowded auditorium.

Nigel reminded us of a number of other hit songs including The Scaffold with ‘Lily the Pink’, Russ Conway, The Beatles and many others dating from a time when most of the members were in their youth.

Chairman Bob conclude the meeting by thanking the speaker for an evocative presentation and that hoped that we would soon be back to our new venue in Highweek where we have been welcomed with help and goodwill.