Then and Now

Play in the 1940s compared with now (not everyone of course).

 

 

 

 

Even if my Transatlantic friends don't recognise some of the games and words, Reallio for instance - a chase, catch and escape sort of game.  German bombers and Spitfires well bombs, bombers and overhead dogfights were no strangers to Liverpool kids in WW2 and often got mixed in with the universal game, Cowboys and Indians.

 

 

 

Reallio sounds

As Hero speeds through the den;

Shrill voices trill,

Liberated boy sopranos

Run free.

 

Already

As Hero is clapped on the back,

‘Knockino double twitches'

Ends new-found freedoms

While an upbraided Den Guard

Determines not to be raided again.

 

Tousled,

 

         Hatless,

   

                Boot-shod in the sunshine

      

                         Excited kids play,        

 Free.

 

As a German bomber crashes

On some cowboys;

Indians whoop in delight;

 

Who can tell;

   Which is Colt,

    Winchester,

Or Spitfire's cannon?

Among such cacophony.

 

So many players throats

With serious utterance:

 

'Cchhh!   Cchhhh!   Cchhhh!'

 

Sound the children's

      Universal gun.

 

Warbling Indians

 Reluctantly desist

      From scalping a confused Nazi pilot

          As, play over, departing ululations

Spin with the years

 

       Emerging

 

From computers

    Whose universal alien guns

       Penetrate the ululululu with

         

'Cchhh! Cchhh! Cchhh!'

 

 

Betraying no excitement,

Hunched figures sit

Under silly inverted hats

 

   Exercising -

 

       Only fingers,

 

As aliens explode and

Space-age Den Guards

       

Imprison

    Muscular Earthlings

           That no 'Reallio!' can loose.

 

A thousand pound 'Giga-box',

At the behest of

A mega-bitten fingernail,

And hundreds of megabytes of Edo

 

Ram

 

Butts its way into Zark Bastions.

Gloop Gloop over white sound!

 

A hundred pound trainer     (note:  that's money, not weight)

 

    Odourising well,

 

          Twitches

                

                  With emotion?

 

A turned round peak protects a neck

 

         From what?

 

Two clones slouch into daylight,

  

Make a purchase;

       

      Hide pallid faces

 

                Behind

                             

                          Burgers.

 

Through limp lettuce,

 

   Lubricated by lukewarm mayonnaise,

 

      Words clamber

            Over fragmented dietary

 

   Dross,

 

 

"I'm bored"

 

 

John L. Berry, 24th February, 2000

Reviews

[Emily B]

This is an interesting reminiscence. I can only imagine.

I was reminded of a little girl crying when a group of soldiers came through their little neck of the Kisatchie forest. She was afraid they might break her one good possession, a china doll named Susannah.

Or maybe I imagined that day in 1864 Louisiana. . .