The peoples attitude towards the Governmentwas
really the same. Its chiefly the print and the illustrationsthat have changed. In
summer they used to go fishing and bird-nesting.
In those days even a house-proud woman likeMother
didnt see anything to object to in blackbeetles.
Certainly, unlike mostbullfinches in cages, Jackie
never turned black. The houses in the bad streetbehind the brewery, where Katie
Simmons lived, were overrun bybugs. Throw them in the air and skewer them like
frogs, Itell you! Old Brewer got so fed up with the kidsyelling
Krooger!
The houses in the bad streetbehind the brewery,
where Katie Simmons lived, were overrun bybugs.
I wanted to stay and go fishing with the
gang.
The line jerking and straining and a fish on the
otherend of it! It seems to youthat they were always doing exactly the same
thing.
Very occasionally, however, shedcut you off a thin
strip of candied peel.
The poor dying bruteflapped up and down and his
scales glistened all the colours of therainbow. However, he got a caning from
theheadmaster of the Grammar School next day. Allanimals were dangerous, except
Nailer, the two cats, and Jackie thebullfinch.
We left all the rods behind andalso the fish.
Certainly, unlike mostbullfinches in cages, Jackie never turned black. Gutting his
poor wife up and burying herin the coal cellar!
Itwas a hot still day, too clear for
fishing.
Mother never said grace: it had to be someone of
the malesex.
I used to like to watch Mother rolling pastry. You
could see deep down into the wateras though you were looking into a kind of dark
green glass.
The fish had slipped off the hook and fallen into
the wildpeppermint under the bank.
Raw potatoes were deadly poison, andso were
mushrooms unless you bought them at the greengrocers.
It was her firm belief that a hired woman
alwayssweeps the dirt under the dresser. If he saw one lying in the grasshe used to
fling himself on it like a spread-eagle. In those days the heroine had to look like
anegg-timer and now she has to look like a cylinder. Itwas a hot still day, too
clear for fishing.
So Id had three hidingsthat day, one from Joe, one
from old Brewer, and one from Mother. Its quite different from the way it moves when
you twitch yourline accidentally.
You know the kind of kitchen people had in those
days. Which would yousooner listen to, a bluebottle or a bombing plane? Very
occasionally, however, shedcut you off a thin strip of candied peel.
She never went into the loft behind the yard and
very seldominto the shop.