Don't know whether anyone remembers what whitewash
was/is, its burnt lime mixed with water in a bucket or tub the brushed
onto the cowshed walls. It dries very white, and very often also used on
the ceilings in the house. After the coating of lime
had been refreshed a couple of times a year for
the previous forty or fifty years there builds up a
thickness of lime and this eventually becomes brittle.
When us kids started jumping about in our bedroom above
the kitchen, flakes of whitewash would fall onto fathers head and into
his paper as he was resting and reading after a long day’s work. This
he did not appreciate.
Father
Used His Slipper
Father always
used his slipper, when we were being naughty,
But we were
quick and dodged about, for he was over forty,
He chased
upstairs into our room, he thought he’d got us now,
We dived under both
the beds, to reach us he dint know how.
Looking back he
never hurt us, he slapped his slipper on the floor,
The noise and
shouting gave us speed, that we never had before,
Old farmhouse
two lots of stairs, up one set and down the other,
Dad soon got out
of puff; and shouted for our mother.
A couple of
smacks across the bum, and on he put his slipper,
And told us off
when we did wrong, but never was he bitter,
Respect was what
he taught us, and elders must not cheek,
Listen to what you’re
being told, with P’s and Q’s must speak.
Pillow fights at
bed time, when we should be fast asleep,
Jumping high up
to the ceiling, were not counting sheep,
Our room was buv
the kitchen, and noise he couldn’t stand,
Heard him
rushing up the stairs, for piece and quite demand.
When he came in,
were in bed, feathers floating round the light,
Pretending were
asleep, bulb still swinging from the fight,
Settle down we
had to now, if he came up a second time,
We’d all be in
trouble, twas the stairs that he had to climb.
He had done a
hard days work, and had settled in his chair,
And running up
the stairs at night, enough to make him swear,
Slipper slapping
on the treads, we knew what he had got,
So fast asleep
pretend to be, looked like he’d lost the plot.
Owd Fred
