Thats another thing that thewar killed stone
dead.
Her family lived in a filthylittle rat-hole of a
place in the slummy street behind the brewery.
I was back in the parish church at Lower Binfield,
and it wasthirty-eight years ago.
Its next door to impossible to believe a chap with
aname like that isnt a jet-black Negro.
This must have happened when I was about
six.
I was early for myappointment, but it was time for
a bit of grub. The commercial bloke put down his Daily Mail. Id expected it to taste
of nothing, like the roll. Even plantain seeds are better thannothing when youre a
long way from home and very hungry.
When Id got the new teeth in I felt a lot better.
But taking it by and large, I thought, its not so bad to be fat.
Down below I got a glimpse of a bakers van and a
long string oflorries loaded with cement.
And I could hear the organ wheezing andtwo enormous
voices bellowing out the psalm. At the sweet-shop on the corner Mother Wheeler is
weighingout a haporth of brandy balls. He was sticking his face, moustaches and
all,almost into hers so as to scream at her better.
Later onthere were beech-nuts and crab-apples.
Waters has got a finger like a bar of iron.
She was a tiny thing, not much taller than Joe,
butnot bad at minding children.
No oneknew who was the father, and probably Katie
wasnt too certainherself. Bombs of filth bursting inside your mouth.
I tried a smile at myself in a shop window. Inthose
days beer cost twopence a pint, and unlike the beer nowadaysit had some guts in
it.
He tries to stop it, cant, doubles up like a ruler,
andalmost coughs his guts out.