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| Adelaide Alice Bricknell (11th February 1931 - 26th November 2014) |
A lady who had a quick wit, amazing smile and the almost lost art of
playing the spoons.
She also had a love and dedication for Kenilworth Carnival. Most people
knew her as Alice or Al, 2 of our collective knew her as Mum and I, of course,
knew her as Auntie Alice.
Years of entering the Kenilworth Carnival:
1980s – Circa 1997
Years of support:
(Which included but not limited to advice, making props, witty remarks, spectating
and of course throwing money!)
Circa 1950s – 2010
Ley and Jac spent some time thinking about their Mum and how much she
enjoyed Kenilworth Carnival and the atmosphere surrounding it. It seems that
Auntie Alice didn’t dislike any carnival theme, for Alice Bricknell (Nee
Harris) it really was the taking part which mattered. However, each and every
one of us has at least 1 carnival we dislike and for Alice it was the year we
did Glenn Miller (she’s not the only one!). What could be the reason I hear you
ask? The music, the costume or because she was playing the part of Glenn Miller
himself? No, it was actually because her hair was flattened! So it transpires
that Alice was perfectly happy to be the walking (dancing) dead, or an insect
or even a container of Seven Seas… but don’t for goodness sake flatten her hair.
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| Alice as Glenn Miller, with Ley. |
Her daughters reminded me that she had cracked skin on her fingers, each
and every year, after endless sewing of costumes and props round her sister
Carole’s house. And also back in 1988 she came out of hospital on the Friday
and was on the Carnival float the following day - all day wearing a huge padded
(very hot!) sweatshirt (made to look like Sylvester Stallone’s torso). Yes that’s
right - Alice came straight out of hospital and became Rambo for our Video Boom
lorry - what dedication to a community and family event.
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| Alice as Rambo |
There are, I am sure, other years that she entered the Carnival, but
either we don’t have the date or the photo, but here are some highlights of one
of Kenilworth Carnival’s stars:
Alice in Kenilworth Carnival.
As previously written about, the young Harris family entered Kenilworth
Carnival quite a bit in the 1950s and 1960s. Alice was busy making a home for
her young family, so we are not sure if she actually took part in those early
floats, but she would have been supporting the family with their entries.
Alice’s
youngest sister Carole entered one year with Ley (Alice’s eldest daughter who
is a current member of the Chinewrde Carnival Collective) as fancy dress
walkers supporting Mike’s Bikes in Kenilworth. Special mention should be that
this is a very rare thing for Ley to be wearing a dress OR earrings! And that
most of us didn’t realise that it was Ley until the photo was posted on our
Facebook page, and she was busted!
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| Mikes Bikes, 1967 Ley is the one wearing the red earrings, Carole is the one wearing snazzy glasses! |
In 1987, Alice
and her family entered the Carnival with their interpretation of Michael
Jackson’s Thriller, and they performed the dance routine all the way around the
Carnival procession. So yes, Alice did the Thriller dance on a moving vehicle
for approximately four hours around the streets of Kenilworth – something of a
family tradition now. I remember that Auntie Alice was pretty much in character
during the dance routine rehearsals and the whole of Carnival Day, she didn’t let
her character slip for a moment.
Alice
definitely passed the Carnival bug down to her children, because both Ley and
Jac supported the family with their 1987 entry, and then joined in with the
madness the following year.
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| L-R (Top Row): Joan, Alice, Carole, Fran L-R (Bottom Row): Kate and Tracey |
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| Jac helping out with props |
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| Ley helping out with the dramatics! |
For Video Boom (1988), each family member was a character from a Blockbuster film - Alice was Rambo! Although special mention should go to me for accidently spearing myself and Jac, who couldn’t eat at all because the Freddie Kreuger mask was glued to her face, the prize for the most awkward and difficult costume should go to Auntie Alice. She was wearing an oversized sweatshirt which had foam padding sewn into the inside and it was painted on the outside; it was huge, it was impressive and it was hot – and as previously mentioned she wore this uncomfortable torso for four hours, on a moving vehicle, the day after leaving hospital!
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| Ley, Jac and Alice |
In 1989, Alice
substituted her spoons for a saxophone! We entered as the Rock Concert, and
were all dressed like giant rocks (in huge potato sacks sewn together and
painted), wearing little hats with moss on the top! The family ‘performed rock
music’ on their various instruments, so rehearsals were a necessity for this Carnival
too. The practice sessions would often descend into laughter and silliness –
but then Alice was there, so it was hardly surprising. Her jokes, quick wit and
mischievous nature would often get us all told off because we were too busy
laughing when we should have been concentrating on our routines!
Next up was
the Harris Family’s ‘Classical Strings’. Each member of the family was dressed
in a black suit with a red cumber-band, and each had their own ‘musical
instrument’. The family ‘performed’ as though they were a real orchestra (on
the back of the lorry). As an extra, every time the wedding tune came on the
family threw confetti into the crowd. Alice played the violin and the triangle,
and again there was a need to perform on the day, so we had to rehearse again. The
practice sessions were held at Alice’s flat in Webster Avenue - and what a lot
of practice this orchestra needed! Again, I remember being told off an awful
lot because we were all being silly and messing about. Alice was NOT the one
telling us off, she was the one encouraging the silliness!
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| L-R (standing) Carole, Alice, Louise, Fran, Kate and Joan. L-R (Front) Ley and Jac |
In 1991, the
Harris Family performed the ‘Garden Party’. Based on the lyrics from the song
‘The Ugly Bug Ball’, each member of the family was an insect from the garden. Alice
performed that year as a beetle. There’s not much you can say about that
really.
In 1992, the
Harris family entered as Glenn Miller (no one remembers the actual title for
this year). Alice was Glenn Miller, and unfortunately for her that meant her
hair had to be flattened – as we know she did not like this, but at least she
didn’t end up looking like Gomez Addams from the Addams Family (me), GI Joe
(Ley) or Juliet Bravo (Sarah)! There were lots of practices for this theme too
– as the family danced all the way round the Carnival procession to the sounds
of Glenn Miller.
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| Look at those beautiful blue sheets! |
The family
had danced, they had performed amazing orchestral music and they had partied,
but for many reasons there was a hiatus between the Glenn Miller entry and the
1995 mini comeback - actually the comeback was to be the last Carnival entry as
the Harris Family. So in 1995, Alice waltzed right back onto the bed of the
lorry with her family wearing pretty pale blue, for the last ever Kenilworth Carnival
entry under the Harris Family banner – the Blue Danube. Think Crinoline, think
Strauss, think the Waltz… think we’d had enough!
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| L-R: Ley, Alice, Sara, Louise, Joan, Lex, Jac and Carole |
From 1995
onwards, the majority of the family went back to being spectators and
supporters.
A few
members of the family (Alice, Fran, Joan and Carole) continued participating in
Kenilworth Carnival as fancy dress walkers. The fancy dress walker years are
still a little vague, especially with dates and finding the correct
chronological order.
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| A balanced diet, health heart and some Seven Seas capsules! |
What we do
know though, is that circa 1996 Carole, Fran and Alice entered the carnival
with an entry about looking after your heart. Alice was a seven seas vitamin
capsules pot; Fran was a healthy diet and Carole was a heart. Also, around this time, Alice and Carole
entered with a sewing theme in the late 1990s, but it’s a little vague.
Then in 2009,
some of us entered the Carnival again (The Travelling Carnivale, circa 1932).
Alice’s
youngest sister Carole had a heart bypass and although it went well, and despite
making a full recovery, it was obvious that walking the Carnival was not a safe
option for her. Those of us who had been in the Carnival previously remembered
how much we missed it, so we entered that year with a float so Carole did not
have to walk. Alice was there at the meetings offering advice and cheeky
comments along with that amazing smile and she supported us as much as she
could. Then on the day she was there when we were nearing Randall Road, with a
huge smile on her face and the thumbs up!
In 2010, the
Chinewrde Carnival Collective was formed. And again, Alice was there with her
support and ideas!
