Picture by The Auld Yin.
Watercolour and coloured pencils.
Sorry I had to read this poem very fast
to keep it under the allowed 3 MB file.
My tongue is noo rid rid hote:(
Remember the auld day's wireless?
nae high frequencies or buttons tae press.
Remember the days whin we needed oor imagination,
the day's o' war wae a thousand an' wan percent inflation.
A wireless which really we could not afford,
the days of war whin aw luxuries went overboard.
We had a wireless for maist o' the year,
designed by Methuselah it would have appeared:(
Methuselistic valves that looked like sqeezed light globes,
mair akin tae summat like a Russian space probe.
coated in silver they gave oaf a gentle rid glow,
I liked wireless, aw they wee valves there- sittin' in a row.
Real futuristic space age stuff, in our 1940's time,
Tae this wee lad it wis jist blidy sublime.
Oor wireless had varnished wood that had seen better days,
twirly fretted cut oot fascia wae broon fabric- aw frayed.
Tae us wee yins this was like modern day gadgets,
not so compact or portable, but just as magic.
Magic tae hear singin' an' plays oan the air,
listenin' wae awe an' lyin' oan the cauld flair.
Wireless? Naw they had mair wires than hairs oan a cat's bum.
wires frae the batteries which weighed a bloomin' ton.
An 'wires tae the accumulator an' wires hingin' frae the blidy lum.
The lum wires wir arials which seemed 6 miles long....and some.
This battery cost a fortune aboot 21 shullin's- if I recall,
Sae heavy that this wee lad couldnae lift it at all.
an' it took maist o'my dad's wages at that time,
per dad worked sae hard, aw that money wis a crime.
Six months o' the year a wireless we could not afford,
anither luxury oor hoose chucked overboard.
A mentioned the accumulator before,
It wis a glass container wae lead inserts an' acid galore.
Accumulators hired frae the newsagents fur a couple o' bob,
Linked it tae the wireless so it kid dae it's job.
Jings this blidy thing lasted oanly a week,
newsagents anither couple o' bob they did seek.
Yea noo kin see the tremendous cost and' logistics then,
Jist tae listen tae the wireless in oor oan wee But'N'Ben.
All go in these days wae nae money tae spare,
bare wa's -made up furniture- an' nae carpet oan the flair.
Tae hear this weak and crackling wireless -fur us,
Yea must be wunderin' why aw the blidy fuss.
Tae us of course it was the days afore TV,
Imagination, suspense tae us -jist the Bee's knees.
Wireless was not the only entertainment we had,
during the war there was no time to be sad.
Dog fights at night wae Gerry planes in the sky,
wae hurricanes and spitfires flyin' high.
German raiders that flew over Edinburgh's sky,
Fighting pitched battles so very high.
targets over Glasgow that the Bombers missed,
would have left over bombs they had to shift.
Bombs they would off-load to save taking them back.
But the Hurricanes an' Spitfires put paid to that.
Aye wisnae dull back in those Warry days,
We laddies an' lassies made oor ain games to play.
The Auld Yin. |
