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| Rosa 'Ketchup & Mustard' 30 June 2026 |
My memory
has played strange tricks in my years of existence. As an example when I was
born I remember that a photographer with a magnesium flash almost blinded my
entrance into this world.
When I was 8
in 1950 in Buenos Aires we had a live-in housekeeper called Mercedes Bazaldúa. One
morning my mother told her, “Mercedes ve
a la almacén de la esquina y pedí una botella de cátsup.”
Not long
after that we were invited for dinner at the home of my Uncle Harry who was my
father’s older brother. I watched him put sugar into his mixture of Colman’s
Mustard. Since then I always use Coleman’s (also called Keen’s) and I put a bit
of sugar.
Uncle Harry
had been born in Manchester and he and his parents moved to Buenos Aires in
1901. At the time the custom in my family was that the firstborn male would
have the middle name of Waterthouse. When my grandparents and Uncle Harry
arrived to Buenos Aires my father found out that his parents had gotten married
in Buenos Aires. He immediately told himself that his brother was a bastard and
that he, my father George was the true first born. So he started using the name
Waterhouse. When I was born he tried to have the name Waterhouse in my name
George Alexander. At the time names in a foreign language that could be
translated into Spanish, were prohibited to stand in the foreign language. When
my father then insisted on Waterhouse, he slipped a coima (a bribe) an told the registrar that my surname was
Waterhouse-Hayward.
And yes I
eat my French Fries with Catsup.