| Date | Hare | Scribe |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Nov 2015 | Brian | Mike |
I know I have said it before, but it seems to me that fewer people are reading the hashmag now that it is only available online. When the hash started, one of the mag‘s important roles was to inform everyone about forthcoming trails and events. Now that that is done by email and all the information you need is available on the website – is the mag redundant? The mag does have another important function however – that of providing a rich historical record of the characters and the adventures they had on every run. Is that enough reason to keep it – or should we stop writing the mag as it is no longer useful?
Please say what you think (that is if you read the mag online of course) in the comments bit below.
Right, on with the addition to the rich historical record for Hash 475.
It was a glorious late autumn day of bright sunshine on golden trees and a temperature exactly right for hashing. You would have thought every man and his dog would have been there on a day like today but no; there were just eight of us. Annie and Kathy were walking and Jeremy, John, Viv, Sue, Terry, Prof Brian and your Scribe were running. GOM Brian, who was immaculately dressed (no flour dusted running kit for him) gave us a straightforward brief whilst anxiously scanning the road to see if any more of us were arriving. Nobody did, so we set off 10 minutes late. Prof Brian and I decided to run the short, me because of recent knee trouble and Prof because he kindly volunteered to keep me company. The Short trail was delightful. Out through the village, across open fields to the river and then we followed the Thames Path right next to the water as it wound eastwards towards Radcott. With open green water meadows on our left and trees in full autumn colours on the other bank of the river all under a clear blue sky in bright sunshine. You can understand why people enjoy hashing. The poor runners on the long however missed all that. They went over the fields towards Lechlade and the swung right at the Trout in a loop back towards Kemscott. When they got back to the Long/Short divide they should have then followed the short trail – the delightful bit by the river – but instead thundered on in to the village pleased to be back in time for the pub opening at 12. Everybody blamed John for that simply because he was at the front at the time.
For the après we all sat outside in the sunshine around one table and chatted and laughed and enjoyed a beer or two and we were so engrossed that we forgot to thank our hare for his splendid trail. Fortunately John remembered and spoke up and so we gave Brian a round of applause. There was no formal speech but he had our personal thanks instead. It was indeed another of his splendid trails.
My thanks to the contributors above. I have asked widely for hasher’s views on this and without exception it was that the mag was very important and nobody wanted to lose it. So, Gom Brian is working on a scheme to make it even more accessible and will be asking for volunteers to write new and entertaining mags.
Dear Mike
I have definitely read every word (as I almost always do!), and think absolutely that KVH3 would be very much the poorer if this wonderful record were not continued. I would add, though, that the paper version provided an excellent opportunity to chat to other hashers and reminisce/remind ourselves about the highlights of the previous hash. I would welcome its return. Kxxx
Whilst I cannot claim to have read every hash mag published online, I have read many and enjoy the account of the hash, and the humorous content of many of them.
They also form a more complete record of the hash history and without them we would just have a fairly ‘dry’ list of dates , hares and venues.
I think it would be good to keep the mags, and widen the pool of hash mag writers to keep them fresh and enhance the feeling of involvement.
Hashmag 475 has been on our website for a week now and nobody appears to have read it – at least nobody has felt strongly enough to add a comment. If you have read it please tell us that you read it avidly every fortnight and life would not be the same without it – or that you think that a hashmag is a thing of the past and you rarely or never read it.