10p mix on way to school.
Wagon wheels were twice as big as now.
Uncle remus books were a must read.
I never even thought of colour.
Innocent stuff.
Where did it go tits up.
10p mix on way to school.
Wagon wheels were twice as big as now.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking in its brick terraced home,
Silence the wrong and with muffled drum
Bring out the good ol days, let the different run.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'hope is shred'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of compliant doves,
Let the riot policemen wear black riot gloves.
It was my North, not South, not East not West,
My working week and my Sunday best,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that nostalgia would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
edited and based on WH Auden
and we move on.....
I blame Roly. Why not?
True story. When I was a kid we had a black lad on our street who'd been adopted. He was the first black person I'd ever met and a lovely bloke. All his new brothers were white but he quickly became just another lad in the family. None of us thought of him being black or white and nor did he.
In fact, many years later when we met up again and he showed me an old footy team photo, he actually pointed himself out saying "That's me, third left on the back row". Says it all.
As a kid I grew up in the mucky industrial end of town. The kids at school were so grubby that a tribe of zulus could have joined the class and nobody would have noticed.