Did I accept the King's Shilling?

You may recall from history lessons how men were coerced into joining the navy.

Becoming a sailor for the King's navy wasn't a pleasant job and recruits were reluctant. To try and overcome the shortage of men for the job, 'Press Gangs' were used to find men, however unwillingly, to sail the ships. To give some morality to the task, the Kings regulations stated that the press gang master could not assault you and take to as a new recruit, He had to see you take the "Kings Shilling". A common tactic of the Press gang master was to ply a potential recruit with ale...several pints later the unsuspecting victim would find a shiny new Silver Shilling coin at the bottom of the his tankard. This was enough to seal the deal and the man was led to the ship, or dragged as was often the case. It was for this reason that tankards began to have a glass bottom, so you could check your drink in case of the Kings Shilling being slipped in.

This is an exaggerated example of the sly and underhanded tactics used to get me involved in a local community talent show. Years ago I did a 'Blues Brothers' act with a mate for his parents 25th wedding anniversary. Although we were asked to do it for some other family celebrations after that, I felt it had a limited life. To be honest it wasn't that good either, so I decided nearly 20 years ago that i'd not be doing that again.

That was until one of my new Bexhill mates called Paul came up to me just before we went away to California on vacation and said, "I heard you want to do the Blues Brothers with me for this talent show". My reply was something like.." wha...the, how? who?...no I don't..blah". It works out that my wife was speaking to one of the organizers (her mate Sharon), and told them I did this 'Blues Brothers' thing in the past, and they decided between them that Paul and I would be good at it. So we were booked in as an act, without any input from me.

After that shock, I've had some time to get use to the idea now. If you recall in past posts my desire has been to overcome my personal inhibitions and to have a go at singing. It seems that my prayers have been answered, although not quite the way I was expecting. I've decided now that I just have to go for it. Paul was hoping that we'd just get up and sing, then get back off again...but oh no. If we are going to do it, then we shall do it properly! You can't go up on the stage dressed in black with the hat and sunglasses, and not expect to give a bigger performance than just singing. The poor chap looked pale when I expressed some of my ideas. Something that makes it easier this time and no disrespect meant to the fella I did this with before. Is that this time my partner has got some talent. He can both sing and dance. This means we can have a proper go at being entertaining, and have some fun whilst we are at it. Almost every time we meet to rehearse one or the other of us has a new suggestion to improve the act.

Maybe doing this is just what the doctor ordered, I think I need an outlet, and if the truth be known I'm starting to love the idea of it all. So going back to my point at the start, did I accept the King's Shilling? Well just like a sailor I think I got this job after being press ganged by some dodgy people. I have to admit though, now that i'm doing it I do seem to have found my sea legs.