My first talk of 2022 was a return visit to Hatch Ladies. A new venue and a new time. From the conversations that I’ve had with clubs and organizations it seems that, since the restrictions of the last 18 months, many have had to change venues and very many of them are now having afternoon meetings. I don’t object to the afternoon meetings, especially in January and February.
I’ve just taken another booking for January; the MNO club in Eastwood.
The club’s founder was a health visitor, running clinics for expectant and new mums at Kent Elms Corner.
She thought that Eastwood was too isolated from the rest of Southend, and that the only options for new mums was church based. The National Association of Women’s Clubs offered help in starting the club; with that help it was started at Kent Elms Clinic in 1967 with a membership of over 100 at its height.
The founder, Joyce Kipling, came up with the club’s title from looking at a car number plate MNO, prompting a thought process that lead to “Mums’ Night Out.” It was a very different world for mothers in 1967.
With changing work and life patterns the membership has decreased in recent years and, sadly Joyce Kipling died last year.