The washing whirls round
Seemingly endlessly;
In the air the constant sound
Of busy machinery.
Young lovers kiss while they wait;
Life-worn women
Fold their washing.
"Are they late"? they wonder
For the children from school,
The husbands from work.
An old woman smokes by a drier
Full of tumbling clothes,
While toddlers run and laugh
And one lone man packs a machine.
I wrote this poem quite a number of years ago. If you can find a launderette now I think that it will not be so busy as they all used to be.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Then and Now
This will not be an easy piece of writing. I am going to try and compare the time I lived through as a 1930s child with the time I live in now and what it must be like for present day children. Remembered thoughts from the time when I was about four come into my mind. This was the time when I was living in Highams Park. How different my childhood was to that of the child of today. I cannot say which was the best as constant change has been part of the human condition through the centuries, and it will go on that way as long as the human race exists. That is one thing we can be sure of.
Today’s children seem to be so much older than I did at all the different times of life, excluding, of course, babies and toddlers who have probably been much the same through the ages. I feel that today’s children have more to worry about, or is that not true? Is the reality just the fact that yesterday’s children had different worries? Let me have a ponder. How was it in the 1930s? There were many children who lived in the poorest of poor families whose parents struggled along as best as they could. They lived in unsuitable accommodation, wore hand-me-downs and probably did not eat enough. Filling up with bread and jam, or bread and dripping, was well known. To what extent these kids worried I do not really know. The average height of today’s children is taller that those of my childhood. I was taller than most but that was in my genes as would be said today. It must be said that I do not feel particularly tall these days as there are many more tall girls around. Is this because, on average, they have a more nourishing diet?
I think the worry about education must be very great now. Parents are frantic to get their sons and daughters into the best of schools. I am concerned that children whose parents manage to get the school of their choice receive a very good education and go on to university, and that the children who have to go to schools which are now considered very second rate leave school with not a great deal of hope for the future. These low grade schools seem to have many of the roughest and most unruly of children which makes an impossible situation for teachers and the more academically minded students. In the 30s many children left school at fourteen and started work at that much too early age as it would be considered today. Many must have been worthy of a better education than they got, though there were evening classes available to the truly enthusiastic. I think that the worry levels of today are probably much the same as they were during the Depression years of the 30s.
As for myself the possibility of war began to come into my mind as it must have done for many children. Although today there are many states of war in different parts of the world, at present there is not the immediate prospect of war in the EU.
I remember that when I was about twelve years old that there was a shop in Southend that for some reason unknown to me had a window full of shoes from the 1920s. These seemed most ridiculously old fashioned to me. Although the number of years back to the 1920s was comparatively small It seemed great to me. I must remember that today’s kids probably feel the same way about the 1980s. The 1930s must seem an impossible time ago.
Everything I think of is either before the war or after the war. I cannot stop thinking in that way. Childhood was before the war and adulthood after the war. In between was a period of growing up in a very unstable time.
In this year 2002 in London there seems to be constant noise, violence and pollution. A fair part of this feeling of mine must come from the fact that I grew up in an Essex village where noise was slight and not a great many people owned cars. There were tractors in the fields, but also there were cart horses still in use for ploughing, beautiful great creatures with flowing manes and huge hoofs covered with long hair. At certain times of the year a farm labourer would ride up my road when he had finished work for the day. He would be sitting sideways on the back of his horse. His trousers were tied in with string below his knees. I have seen four carthorses released into their field after working all day. They galloped round the field, rolled on their backs and had a wonderful time. Where would you see that today?
The local coalman had a magnificent cart horse to pull his wagon load of coal. There were occasions when he let me travel round the village with him, and hold the reins when he was delivering the coal. This period, of course, was at the very end of the delivery of goods by horse-drawn vehicles, and there were plenty of motors taking bread, milk etc. But there was still what might have been some of the atmosphere of a quieter but not necessarily a better era.
.
These days there is an decidedly different attitude towards marriage than there was in the 30s. Young women who had babies outside marriage were not accepted by most people, though if their family supported them there was more chance for them to come through this experience and continue with their lives. I don’t know what proportion of these mothers kept their babies. I should think that most gave them up for adoption which was a sad state of affairs. Today there are many teenage girls who are not much more than children themselves having babies or abortions, which is by no means an ideal state of affairs, but at least they are not held in contempt to the extent that they were in pre WW2 DAYS.
When I was a young child I remember a girl a few years older then I who was being brought up by her grandparents. She was a friend of mine. Their daughter was not on the scene and I never remember seeing her, but at least I don’t think that the child was held in any contempt by the general community. She was always involved in the various fetes, dancing classes and so on that went on in the village.
I don’t think that I can say whether such happenings are more or less distressing now than they were then, but surely abortions, or even if the baby can be kept, it can never be an ideal thing to happen even in this free and easy era.
I am now having difficulty deciding whether this time or the 1930s was a better time for children to be born. I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is an impossible decision to make. People grow up in the time during which they were born, and usually, as they grow older, they don their rose coloured spectacles and wholeheartedly believe that their time was the best time. Or else some prefer to believe that the present day children have everything easy and should be thankful that they did not live in the ‘bad old days’! That is what it all comes down to, ‘the good old days’ or ‘the bad old days’.
What I should wish for all children of the world is enough to eat, a stable environment in which to grow up, and a chance to have an education that would enable them to become responsible adults able to make up their own minds on all matters of importance. Also, and I think this is important, a chance to play.
My good wishes go to all the children of this difficult world in which we live.
Today’s children seem to be so much older than I did at all the different times of life, excluding, of course, babies and toddlers who have probably been much the same through the ages. I feel that today’s children have more to worry about, or is that not true? Is the reality just the fact that yesterday’s children had different worries? Let me have a ponder. How was it in the 1930s? There were many children who lived in the poorest of poor families whose parents struggled along as best as they could. They lived in unsuitable accommodation, wore hand-me-downs and probably did not eat enough. Filling up with bread and jam, or bread and dripping, was well known. To what extent these kids worried I do not really know. The average height of today’s children is taller that those of my childhood. I was taller than most but that was in my genes as would be said today. It must be said that I do not feel particularly tall these days as there are many more tall girls around. Is this because, on average, they have a more nourishing diet?
I think the worry about education must be very great now. Parents are frantic to get their sons and daughters into the best of schools. I am concerned that children whose parents manage to get the school of their choice receive a very good education and go on to university, and that the children who have to go to schools which are now considered very second rate leave school with not a great deal of hope for the future. These low grade schools seem to have many of the roughest and most unruly of children which makes an impossible situation for teachers and the more academically minded students. In the 30s many children left school at fourteen and started work at that much too early age as it would be considered today. Many must have been worthy of a better education than they got, though there were evening classes available to the truly enthusiastic. I think that the worry levels of today are probably much the same as they were during the Depression years of the 30s.
As for myself the possibility of war began to come into my mind as it must have done for many children. Although today there are many states of war in different parts of the world, at present there is not the immediate prospect of war in the EU.
I remember that when I was about twelve years old that there was a shop in Southend that for some reason unknown to me had a window full of shoes from the 1920s. These seemed most ridiculously old fashioned to me. Although the number of years back to the 1920s was comparatively small It seemed great to me. I must remember that today’s kids probably feel the same way about the 1980s. The 1930s must seem an impossible time ago.
Everything I think of is either before the war or after the war. I cannot stop thinking in that way. Childhood was before the war and adulthood after the war. In between was a period of growing up in a very unstable time.
In this year 2002 in London there seems to be constant noise, violence and pollution. A fair part of this feeling of mine must come from the fact that I grew up in an Essex village where noise was slight and not a great many people owned cars. There were tractors in the fields, but also there were cart horses still in use for ploughing, beautiful great creatures with flowing manes and huge hoofs covered with long hair. At certain times of the year a farm labourer would ride up my road when he had finished work for the day. He would be sitting sideways on the back of his horse. His trousers were tied in with string below his knees. I have seen four carthorses released into their field after working all day. They galloped round the field, rolled on their backs and had a wonderful time. Where would you see that today?
The local coalman had a magnificent cart horse to pull his wagon load of coal. There were occasions when he let me travel round the village with him, and hold the reins when he was delivering the coal. This period, of course, was at the very end of the delivery of goods by horse-drawn vehicles, and there were plenty of motors taking bread, milk etc. But there was still what might have been some of the atmosphere of a quieter but not necessarily a better era.
.
These days there is an decidedly different attitude towards marriage than there was in the 30s. Young women who had babies outside marriage were not accepted by most people, though if their family supported them there was more chance for them to come through this experience and continue with their lives. I don’t know what proportion of these mothers kept their babies. I should think that most gave them up for adoption which was a sad state of affairs. Today there are many teenage girls who are not much more than children themselves having babies or abortions, which is by no means an ideal state of affairs, but at least they are not held in contempt to the extent that they were in pre WW2 DAYS.
When I was a young child I remember a girl a few years older then I who was being brought up by her grandparents. She was a friend of mine. Their daughter was not on the scene and I never remember seeing her, but at least I don’t think that the child was held in any contempt by the general community. She was always involved in the various fetes, dancing classes and so on that went on in the village.
I don’t think that I can say whether such happenings are more or less distressing now than they were then, but surely abortions, or even if the baby can be kept, it can never be an ideal thing to happen even in this free and easy era.
I am now having difficulty deciding whether this time or the 1930s was a better time for children to be born. I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is an impossible decision to make. People grow up in the time during which they were born, and usually, as they grow older, they don their rose coloured spectacles and wholeheartedly believe that their time was the best time. Or else some prefer to believe that the present day children have everything easy and should be thankful that they did not live in the ‘bad old days’! That is what it all comes down to, ‘the good old days’ or ‘the bad old days’.
What I should wish for all children of the world is enough to eat, a stable environment in which to grow up, and a chance to have an education that would enable them to become responsible adults able to make up their own minds on all matters of importance. Also, and I think this is important, a chance to play.
My good wishes go to all the children of this difficult world in which we live.
Monday, May 22, 2006
The Wonder of Attics
There’s something about attics,
I’ve always thought,
Something romantic, exciting,
Anything may be there.
What may we find?
Boxes of books,
Ornaments for which there is no space.
Cameras redolent of long ago holidays,
Pictures someone thought worth painting
Then thrust away.
Not Van Gogh, I’m afraid,
Not Renoir,
But someone’s dream.
Over there a cot awaiting a grandchild,
And over there a chair which no one will use.
In some attics there is the joy of a rocking horse,
Dappled and splendid,
But such glory is not for many, I fear.
That box of disguises was a child’s joy,
Another of mini cars a delight.
As for the monkey in rubber boots,
What fun, what comfort.
Piles of boxes, suitcases galore,
Surely there is treasure in one,
Something forgotten,
Waiting to come to light.
That is the pleasure of attics.
ANYTHING MAY BE THERE!
I’ve always thought,
Something romantic, exciting,
Anything may be there.
What may we find?
Boxes of books,
Ornaments for which there is no space.
Cameras redolent of long ago holidays,
Pictures someone thought worth painting
Then thrust away.
Not Van Gogh, I’m afraid,
Not Renoir,
But someone’s dream.
Over there a cot awaiting a grandchild,
And over there a chair which no one will use.
In some attics there is the joy of a rocking horse,
Dappled and splendid,
But such glory is not for many, I fear.
That box of disguises was a child’s joy,
Another of mini cars a delight.
As for the monkey in rubber boots,
What fun, what comfort.
Piles of boxes, suitcases galore,
Surely there is treasure in one,
Something forgotten,
Waiting to come to light.
That is the pleasure of attics.
ANYTHING MAY BE THERE!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
A House in le Touquet
This is such a jolly looking house, I think I would like to live in it. I am standing in front of it with Sue and Keith.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
A Tramp
Where are you going,
Walking down the street,
Pushing that old barrow
Through sun, rain or sleet?
Were you ever young
With friends, maybe a sweetheart?
You sort through dustbins.
Could you have felt Cupid’s dart?
You knock on a door for water,
On another for milk and tea;
You drink your tea on the pavement
In the shade of a roadside tree.
What made you take to the road,
To walk through your life like this
Alone? Have you no one
In the world you miss
On your long treks, no one
Who awaits your return? Where
Can you go when you have no friends,
No loving comfort? Do you despair?
What’ll be your end?
Death under some wayside hedge,
Or in a prison cell, perhaps?
What first drove a wedge
Between you and us?
You’ll go on your lone way
Towards Eternity. Who’ll
Miss you when you reach your last day?
The Old Royal Daffodil
I went on holiday to the Isle of Sheppey when I was a child (many years ago), boarding the ship at the end of Southend pier and leaving it at Sheerness. This was a most exciting way to travel to one's holiday destination.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
A View from the London Eye
I took this view from the London Eye a few years ago. I wondered before hand how I should feel in the Eye but found the experience wonderful once I was in.This picture could be clearer but I am glad to have it as a memory.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
A Day In the Brecon Beacons
Reaching the mountain top
Was a worthwhile attainment;
Aching footed and out of breath
We sat in enveloped in the joy of it
While the winging larks filled
The air with their summer song.
The surrounding azure vault
Stretched away to infinity,
And we were replete with satisfaction.
Maternal ewes with attendant lambs
Roamed the green distance
While far below diminutive vehicles
Sped on their frantic, fuming way,
Leaving the hills to us.
thebreconbeacons
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Away With You Wild Winter
Away with you wild winter,
We are welcoming the Spring,
Snowdrops, crocuses gleam the garden,
Sweet birds are on the wing.
Warmth of sun’s bright beams
Swelling Life’s new growth,
Slanting rain-spears softly falling
Fill flower buds, leaf buds, both.
Winter-thin hedgehogs venture
Forth for fattening food,
Snouting about the burgeoning garden,
Searching in rotten wood
For insects fat and juicy
To strengthen their frail, thin blood,
To help them find their prickly mates
And bring forth plump, fresh, broods.
Sing joy for advancing Springtime,
Farewell to Winter’s woe.
Hail to the whole of Creation’s wonder
And the seasons’ rotational flow.
Awaywithyouwildwinter
We are welcoming the Spring,
Snowdrops, crocuses gleam the garden,
Sweet birds are on the wing.
Warmth of sun’s bright beams
Swelling Life’s new growth,
Slanting rain-spears softly falling
Fill flower buds, leaf buds, both.
Winter-thin hedgehogs venture
Forth for fattening food,
Snouting about the burgeoning garden,
Searching in rotten wood
For insects fat and juicy
To strengthen their frail, thin blood,
To help them find their prickly mates
And bring forth plump, fresh, broods.
Sing joy for advancing Springtime,
Farewell to Winter’s woe.
Hail to the whole of Creation’s wonder
And the seasons’ rotational flow.
Awaywithyouwildwinter
The Launderette
The washing whirls round
Seemingly endlessly;
In the air the constant sound
Of busy machinery.
Young lovers kiss while they wait;
Life-worn women
Fold their washing.
Are they late? they wonder
For the children from school,
The husbands from work.
An old woman smokes by a drier
Full of tumbling clothes,
While toddlers run and laugh
And one lone man packs a machine.
I wrote this some years ago. There are not many of the launderettes now, I think.
Seemingly endlessly;
In the air the constant sound
Of busy machinery.
Young lovers kiss while they wait;
Life-worn women
Fold their washing.
Are they late? they wonder
For the children from school,
The husbands from work.
An old woman smokes by a drier
Full of tumbling clothes,
While toddlers run and laugh
And one lone man packs a machine.
I wrote this some years ago. There are not many of the launderettes now, I think.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Blogs
Blogs seem to be taking up rather a lot of my time lately. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Woodland
How I loved to climb a tree,
To sit up the top of my leafy palace,
Queen of my glorious woodland,
A magical faery world.
A sream ran rippling through the wood,
Steeply banked and deeply pooled,
Bordered with flowers according to their season.
Windflowers, celandines, starred the banks with Spring
And my memory with enchantment.
Woodland
Blankness
I can't think of a thing to write,
My mind is blank like this page;
No thought, not a single idea in sight,
It's enough to put one in a rage.
New blog
As this is the first time we have set up a blog we have had an exhausting time working it out.This is 'we' as Joe, my husband has been helping me. I shall now do my profile.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)