Third Thursday Club: The Joy of Turning Up
There is something rather lovely about an October evening with the roof down.
It may not be everyone’s idea of sensible motoring. But driving towards Denton tonight, with the cool air around me, I was very happy with my choice.
Clouds moved across the dark sky. Stars appeared between them and trees passed overhead. As the road rose and fell, lights appeared across the landscape.
Perhaps I was already doing what our October Make Life Special Challenge asks us to do.
Pause. Notice. Enjoy what’s around you.
I was on my way to The Jackdaw for Third Thursday Club.
TTC is nearing the end of its third year and remains deliberately uncomplicated.
Each month. One pub. Third Thursday.
8pm to 9pm. That’s the deal.
If you come, stay until nine. Arrive earlier if you like. Stay later if you wish.
There is no need for endless “are you going?” messages. There is no real coordination.
Just turn up. Or don’t. Both are absolutely fine.
If something has gone wrong, the pub is closed or you’re running late, let people know. Otherwise, silence is golden.
It’s for a drink and a chat. Food is optional. Bring a friend if you like.
Some nights will be busy. Some will be quiet. Both are part of it.
And then there’s my favourite guideline:
Try and imagine a world before phones.
Tonight was one of the quiet nights.
The Jackdaw looked wonderful in the darkness. Warm light shone from the old building into the October night.
I went inside, found a table, ordered half a pint and opened my book.
Nobody joined me.
And that really is absolutely fine.
The point of TTC has never been to fill a table. It’s simply an encouragement to make a little room in our lives for something increasingly easy to miss.
Each other.
For all the remarkable ways our phones allow us to stay connected, there are things a screen can’t reproduce.
The brightness in someone’s eyes. The change in their voice. A smile. A mannerism. Laughter.
And conversation.
Real conversation doesn’t behave like a message thread.
It weaves in and out and back again. Someone remembers something. One thought interrupts another.
Before you know it, the conversation has travelled somewhere completely unexpected. Neither of you can quite remember how you got there.
You’re not following someone’s life remotely.
For a little while, you’re sharing it.
I think that’s something worth making room for.
Perhaps that’s also why I like pubs.
Not wholly out of nostalgia. A good pub is still somewhere lives can overlap.
The Jackdaw has been providing somewhere for that to happen for a very long time. Its history stretches back to 1645. It became a licensed alehouse during the eighteenth century and, as The Red Lion, hosted village meetings, auctions and other community business. There is a lovely literary connection too.
Richard Harris Barham, who lived nearby at Tappington Manor and wrote The Ingoldsby Legends, frequented The Red Lion. His The Jackdaw of Rheims eventually inspired the pub’s present name. I noticed that story on the wall tonight.
Beer, book, old stories and an October evening.
I was quite content.
This month’s Make Life Special Challenge encourages us to find seven pauses in October. To stop for a moment and notice the things that make autumn feel like autumn: the changing light, the air and those familiar things we wear, cook and reach for. Tonight was certainly one of mine.
And nothing remarkable happened.
That’s rather the point.
The roof was down. I looked at the sky. I drove through the autumn night to an old village pub.
I had half a pint and read my book.
There was an empty chair opposite me.
Next month perhaps somebody will be sitting in it.
Perhaps they won’t.
Either is fine.
Third Thursday Club isn’t really asking very much of us.
Make a little space.
Go somewhere.
Look up.
Put the phone down.
And when the opportunity presents itself, sit beside someone instead of experiencing their life through a screen.
Turn up.
Sometimes that’s all it takes to Make Life Special.
A little more
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