Stephanie ‘Psycho’ Carter

8th February 1950 – 14th November 2020

Psycho came to join us in the Herts Hash House Harriers along with Skip, and their children Little Hole and Party Animal, having started their Hashing life with the City and London Hashes - as parts of Barnet were once within the boundaries of Hertfordshire and as a Hash we do venture out to that area.

Psycho gained her Hash name for the fact that she was a Psycho Analyst, which was a long way from when she started work as a ‘Rubber Knees?’ girls [Number Please?] on the telephone switchboards, later on she would discover that was a start in working life that she would have in common with Sis, who also worked at a telephone exchange.

Psycho’s Hash name also led to her family all being grouped by the Hash under the collective name of ‘The Nutters’

It soon became obvious to the rest of the rest of the Hash Hash that Psycho, and Skip, were not the best for time-keeping, often arriving at start of the Herts Hash as the rest of the Pack were running off or well underway on the Trail.  This trait was not just for a weekly Herts Hash, but also they would often be the last to set off at Away Weekends, a fact that was first picked up on at a Herts Hash Skegness weekend.

One winter, on a cold wet Shiggy of a Trail that had plenty of overnight rain, Psycho and Skip arrived and after faffing about to get ready for the start, the Circle which they had held up were now shown what the delay was about, Psycho had the idea of placing plastic bags inside their shoes, wishfully believing their feet being inside the bags would remain dry!  All was well until the Trail went through a flooded ford and the water level was high enough to flow over into the bags and fill them up, now the there was no way for the water to drain out, some would end up with little toes like gold fish in a fair ground prize bag.

Normally on the Hash a person’s work is one of the subjects that shouldn’t be mentioned, Psycho had a change of heart with her profession started working for Relate, this would lead her to study hard to become a qualified Psychotherapist, skills that she would subtly and quietly use to benefit a few of our members.

Psycho was our very own Hash Marge Proops, or dear Deidre if you read the sun.  She helped a few of the Herts with a few issues, though she couldn't help with and that was Ketchup with his punctuality with his time keeping for attending the Hash.

It wasn’t long before Psycho proved to have the qualities to be elected our Hash Cash, basically she turned up at one of our AGPU’s & was due stitched up elected, Psycho soon put her stamp on that position with a style of collecting our Hash subs that could have taught the Kray Twins a few things about payments, often tis efficient extracting of monies took place while some were at their most vulnerable whilst getting changed.

Psycho had a passion for dressing up, putting on the glam, which was one reason she and Skip loved the Herts Hash Black Tie Christmas Party, which they would follow up a week or so later with the Yorkshire AGPU (Annual General Piss-Up) each year, again a chance to put on the finery for a weekend away, with one year really memorable for the two of them won the upgraded Hotel Suite prize!

Fancy Dress allowed Psycho to demonstrate her creativeness, being adept at transforming Skip with his Quaker outfit at the Herts 1,500th so he looked like he could have fallen off of the cereal packet!  Then there was always their splendid efforts for our annual Día de los Muertos Hash Trail

Another of Psycho’s classic outfits was her Boy George attire and make up for a 1980’s event that Herts Hash attended.  She also took the part of Camilla Duchess of Cornwell for one of the Herts Team entry for our annual Braughing Wheel Race entries, this being in the year of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

A different time for dressing up came around for a Family Wedding out in the United States of America, the dress code for the men had ‘Highland attire’ as an option.  So, Psycho persuaded Mr X to loan Skip his Kilt, Price Charlie, Sporran etc. Though Skip had to find extra space and make a change for the extra weight of this outfit he would now be taking out with him, it was worth it as Skip did look rather dapper in Royal Stewart Tartan.

In our humble opinion Psycho was skilled enough to be a winning contestant on Great British Bake Off, perhaps we should have sent off an application in her name?  Though the Pride Rainbow cake she once made did have one slight problem and the mnemonic “Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain” would now have read as “Richard Of York Gave In Vain Battle” as the colour bands of the rainbow ended up in slightly different order

For Hash events and Birthdays Psycho would often baked celebratory cakes, these creations normally reflecting the Hashers character, each looked far too good to eat, Psycho created for Kylie a large Train engine and tender on matchmaker rails, and no one would forget Sparky’s ‘George’ cake for which we were led to believe Skip posed for? 

On one joint Hash Birthday weekend we saw the most amazing busty Basque for Tops and cute panda face for Panda, both works of art.  Though Psycho would later be up for a Down-Down from Hoggy as he found out that as it was a combined birthday, Psycho had unboxed the cakes and then discovered she was short of a zero, which meant she had to dash off to a shop for the one extra decoration, and when asking for “One Zero!” the assistant replied “Who celebrates a Zero Birthday?”  My Lil’s Barbecue’s is another yearly event that would be graced by one of Psycho’s baking specialities.

While on the culinary topic, Mr X was converted to eat Coleslaw, something he never really thought much of, until the day he was around at Psycho and Skip’s house and she offered him some of the Chilli Coleslaw she had made, adding that it was a far too hot for the rest of the household.  It was one of the best things he has ever had, now he carries a bottle of chilli sauce to add to coleslaw when he’s eating out and stop it from going to waste!

One not so good committee decision was for the Herts 1,250 Weekend, instead of celebratory T-shirts, the committee decided after a lot of pondering a suggestion from Psycho and Skip, that we should have a practical offering in the guise of an embroidered Herts Hash Bath Towel!  Psycho and Skip ended up with 250 large towels stored around their House, and then they had the logistics of getting all of these from Barnet to Letchworth Rugby Club for the event.

Another of Psycho’s recent highlights in the Hash year was the trip to the Adult Panto, on their first visit Psycho and Skip were seated at ‘ease of access area high at the back of the auditorium, but having seen the rest of us in the front rows getting wet and having things thrown at us by the cast, we soon had Psycho asking for front seat tickets for the next year’s performance where the two of them joined the rest of us in getting a soaking from the stage.

Perhaps one of the reasons Psycho was able to enjoy the Hash and various associated events was the fact that in her youth she was a Competition Swimmer, as well as being a part of her local Guides Sailing Club.  This may be why Psycho was always one to muck in, before Herts became too big for a single Christmas lunch, Psycho would forsake the Trail to stay behind and help Sis with all of the cooking of the festive lunch.  Thankfully both were saved from this when we started to have Christmas Away weekends.

Travelling with the Hash was another highlight, attending UK Nash Hash, UK events as well as travelling further afield, like EuroHash in Kraków Poland.  None of us would forget the Herts Hash meal we had in Perth Australia, for InterHash 2008.  Even Psycho was left flabbergasted when the bell sounded for last orders and being Hashers a ‘night cap’ was in order, what wasn’t ‘in order’ was literally having just 5 minutes to drink it up in!

Her funeral service fell under the Covid Lock-Down rules of the 30 maximum attendance, so only a limited number from the Hash could attend.  However this did not prevent 60 Hashers from live-steaming the service.  Herts Hash finally paid our respects at a Memorial Hash at the end of June 2021.

As a proof of her popularity, over £2000 was raised in her Memory for the Church Mission Society.  I bet she would have laughed at the scroll of donations, with Hashers names popping up, like those of Porntip, Thunderthighs, Mother, Lemming, Sludge, Flanders as well as Mr X, to name a few.