Open up the pages one by one
Amazing what you can find
When you add your imagination
You can travel over seas at will
Take on characters; live their lives in full
Find the thrill of lives in the past
Maybe a futuristic slant on things
Who knows what those pages will bring?
I love to lose myself in olden days
When times were tougher than today
Where everything must be made from scratch
No shopping malls or department stores
Just life on the land; hard with toil
Washing clothes in huge kettles a-boil
No nappies by the packet there
No bakeries with cakes for sale
Times like those I can hardly believe
Yet my parents can vouch for sure
One huge pot my grandma had
Ten children to feed each day
Everything was tossed in there
Everybody had to share
The older ones and workers too
Got to have the meat and vegetables
The little ones had to be happy
With the broth; black bread spread with lard
Must have been so hard!
My mum's family had a cow
Made butter to sell
To buy a bit tea and sugar!
They slaughtered their animals for food
Made sausages and white pudding too
Cooked up huge pots of lard
Smoked their hams; cured their meat
Made all their own things to eat!
Stored apples and vegetables in their cellars
Onions threaded; twisted up in bunches
Everything was kept for the long winters
Potatoes, turnips, cabbages, carrots
Pickled vegetables; made jam in jars
So now when I pick up a good book I know
This is how my family used to live
By the toil and the sweat of their brow!
No comments:
Post a Comment