Gibbs505
SERVORUM DOMITOR
I agree, there are a couple that are very foretelling! One is "The secret of the machines."
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Odds And Ends And Anything You Fancy
- Thread starter Eulalia
- Start date
old slave
FELIS RESPICIENS
At 1:00 there is a mule train; my father was there, and one of his duties was driving the mules laden with supplies. A memento he bought about his war is a slim volume entitled "Along O'My Old Brown Mule" now in my possession. The title comes from Kipling's poem Screw-Guns
Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,
I walks in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule,
With seventy gunners be'ind me, an' never a beggar forgets
It's only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets.
For you all love the screw-guns -- the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we call round with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do
Jest send in your Chief an' surrender -- it's worse if you fights or you runs:
You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from the guns.
They sends us along where the roads are, but mostly we goes where they ain't:
We'd climb up the side of a sign-board an' trust to the stick o' the paint:
We've chivied the Naga an' Looshai, we've give the Afreedeeman fits,
For we fancies ourselves at two thousand, we guns that are built in two bits.
For you all love the screw-guns -- the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we call round with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do
Jest send in your Chief an' surrender -- it's worse if you fights or you runs:
You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from the guns.
If a man doesn't work, why, we drills 'im an' teaches 'im 'ow to behave;
If a beggar can't march, why, we kills 'im an' rattles 'im into 'is grave.
We've got to stand up to our business an' spring without snatchin' or fuss.
D'you say that you sweat with the field-guns? By God, you must lather with us;
For you all love the screw-guns -- the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we call round with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do
Jest send in your Chief an' surrender -- it's worse if you fights or you runs:
You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from the guns.
Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,
I climbs in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule.
The monkey can say what our road was -- the wild-goat 'e knows where we passed.
Stand easy, you long-eared old darlin's! Out drag-ropes! With shrapnel! Hold fast.
For you all love the screw-guns -- the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we call round with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do
Jest send in your Chief an' surrender -- it's worse if you fights or you runs:
You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from the guns.
It also got Boris Johnson into trouble when, as our Foreign Minister, he was visitng Mandalay
Naraku
Draconarius
poem21045
Tribunus Plebis
Growing up Catholic in Baltimore, I never minded fish Fridays. Just the opposite! There was such an abundance of tasty seafood from the Chesapeake Bay. I just thought it was normal to look forward to the crab cakes, rock fish (striped bass from the Chesapeake are called this), clams , oysters, flounder, etc. It was the highlight meal of the week!
Maryland crab cakes
Gibbs505
SERVORUM DOMITOR
The same for us in New Zealand! Ah, Bluff oysters! Mum and I would consume five dozen fried in a sitting! Dad hated them!
poem21045
Tribunus Plebis
Ever eat them raw? I still prefer them that way, but the health dept. says it's not a good idea any longer. . .
M
montycrusto
Guest
There was an old fellow of York,
Who sat down quite hard on a fork.
He uttered a scream,
Saying “Stone me, I seem
To have skewered me sirloin of pork!”
Gibbs505
SERVORUM DOMITOR
Not for a long time. When I was working in NZ and before I married, we could order them through the social club of the company I was working for. I would get five dozen at a time when in season and mum would fry them in batter and bread crumbs. Yummy memories even though this was fifty years ago!!
Hugin&Munin
Presenter Of Images
Here in Germany they are often eaten raw, with a glass of champagne, but I prefer the Irish version, cooked and with a pint of Guiness.
Gibbs505
SERVORUM DOMITOR
This one seems appropriate these days!
Dane Geld by Kipling
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
Dane Geld by Kipling
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
Leatherchain
Magistrate
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
Britain ordinary folk '60s
old slave
FELIS RESPICIENS
Parents were definitely not as worried about kids hurting themselves as today's are. Play with whatever you could find, and wherever you could get to.
This was probably filmed in a grim neighbourhood of a city, but even in a picturesque country village, there wasn't a lot of money about in the '60s. I certainly played in farmyards, making dens out of straw bales, and climbing rock faces in quarries. All banned, or at least frowned upon, by the H&S brigade.
Was life cheaper? Were we more tolerant to the idea of tragedy because we had just gone through a war? Were we still accepting that a percentage of children died young and that shit happens?
Or is it the social pressure on parents that if ANYTHING happens to your child, it's your own fault? So now children don't play out.
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
True! Where I grew up, there were rope yards still active in the sixties. Finished ship ropes were piled up, awaiting transport. We climbed on them, ignoring that they could move and hence kill us. The same on piles of sewage pipes. We played football amidst the street. Being ten years old, we dwelled around on the street, often far from home, even alone. All things I would have forbidden my own kids.
When I heard my dad talk about his childhood, they even did more dangerous things, then.
Hugin&Munin
Presenter Of Images
I remember we used to play really differently. For example, when I was 7 or 8 years old I built a dam across a valley with friends in the forest. We had spades, shovels and axes with us. Of course the dam broke and we were knocked over by the water. There were no cell phones yet and it was at least 45 minutes' walk to the next house. I think something like that would be unimaginable for today's overly cautious parents.
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
daft idea, having an irritating voice giving you directions in your car - it'll never catch on!
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
Not to mention needing a different cassette for each route. If I carried that many in my car, how would I ever find my Barry Manilow Greatest Hits, Volume XII cassette?daft idea, having an irritating voice giving you directions in your car - it'll never catch on!
I wonder how many of our younger members have any idea what a cassette is?
connoisseurs
Senator
I just re-read a book where one of the protagonists is very proud to get one of the first walkmans
