Saturday 17 May 2014

What you never had you never miss --213


  They always say what you never had you never miss, and I've no doubt there is one or two who will read this will think back  on how they felt when growing up just after World War2.


The war time food rationing, petrol rationing, the blackouts,  the clocks were moved two hour for summer time for a while,  I remember the poultry and laying hens out in field pens would not go to roost to be shut in until nearly mid night sometimes.  


The things we never had (In the Forties Fifties)

On looking back on how we lived and the thing we ate,
Every day of every week, had plenty on our plate,
Rabbit Chicken beef and pork, taters carrots and beans,
All caught and grown and dug and cooked as well as all the greens.

No such thing as cooking oil, that’s to oil ya bike,
Lard was what we cooked in, for everything we liked,
Bread and dripping, fried the bread, floating in the fat,
From cooking all the bacon, in the frying pan it spat.

No such thing as frozen food, and a fridge we never had,
Only had a meat safe, way back when I were a lad,
There to keep the flies at bay, the meat from day before,
Eat it up before it turns, good food they won’t ignore.

Orange squash and lemon squash, with plenty water drink,
Never had the fizzy stuff, till Corona Pop to village shop they linked,
Bottles had to be returned, so we looked after them,
Money back for every bottle, from that our savings stem.

A phone box in the village, and the farms they one for each
A wireless in the widow, for the wartime news to reach,
All around the countryside, the news it travelled fast,
Nowadays its picture phones, I feel I’ve been outclassed.

Be careful with ya money, that’s what our parents preached,
Don’t waste anything you worked for, as out ya pocket leached,
By all and sundry they will ask, lend us this and that,
It’ll come back bent and worn-out, chipped or even cracked.

But overall we had everything, that life for us we need,
We never had to do without, cuz our parents set the creed,
Life’s only what you make of it, work to earn ya crust of bread,
And anything on top of that, helps smooth the path ahead.

Owd Fred