The Big Untidy Magazine

SHUFFLING THROUGH MEMORIES

Then the totter came shuffling down the street

Pulling his cart behind him

Flat footed and wearing a cloth cap

Collecting any old junk you didn’t want

He had to make a living.

 

The rag and bone man had more sophisticated means

With his horse and cart

Ringing his bell,

His war cry echoing down the street

“Rag and bone

Rag and bone

Any old rag and bone”

He too had to make a living.

 

The coalman came round

With his sack on his back

Also the paraffin van

They were means of keeping warm in the wintertime.

 

We had a coal fire in our council flat

I cleaned the hearth out on a Saturday morning

To the sound of Brian Mathews and Saturday Club

On the BBC Light Programme

I earned myself some pocket money.

 

Then I would go to the bakers by the swimming baths

On Wandsworth High Street

And buy some delicious bread pudding

The smell of Young’s Brewery hung in the air

And the River Wandle flowed by.

 

The River Wandle flowed by.

 

On Sunday morning

I went to that church on the hill

The church on the hill

With the pepper pot tower

The pepper pot tower,

Pepper pot tower,

Pepper pot tower,

Pepper pot tower,

Praise God..

 

On Sunday afternoon

I listened to Alan Freeman

And Pick Of The Pops

On the BBC Light Programme.

 

Then there was the youth club

Where I listened to Cliff and The Shadows

The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.

 

Then John Lee Hooker

Bob Dylan

Howling Wolf

And many others

Came into my life,

Sometime this story will continue.

 

- Frank Bangay

Summer 2000

This poem relates to memories of the area of Wandsworth around East Hill, York Road. Garratt Lane, and Wandsworth High Street High Street as I remember it during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Wandsworth may seem like a different world now, but it is I feel good to keep these memories alive as they are a valid piece of history. The church on the hill with the pepper pot tower is a reference to St Anne’s Church on St Anne’s Hill Wandsworth, near to Wandsworth High Street. Most other pepper pot tower churches that I know of are in East London. I attended St Anne’s Church when I was young. I also attended the church youth club. A good place to hear the latest blues and soul releases. I remember with fondness hearing things like John Lee Hooker, or John Mayals Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton and the excitement I felt. Also I have memories of Bringing It All Back Home By Bob Dylan on the mono record player. A few years earlier it was The Shadows, The Searchers, The Hollies, and other gems from the beat boom including early Beatles and early Rolling Stones. All of this created excitement in me too. I stayed at the church until I was well into my teens. Then I drifted away. Like a lot of teenagers from that period of time I left school at the age of 15 for the adult working life. I turned 15 in 1966. Recent years have seen me return to a Christian path.

August 06