Books and Birds

If you didn't have a slovenly mum like Dodge, or your old man did not work in the chip shop like Daz and Skinny's, then getting out on a mid-winter evening took all of the cunning the Cows Gate Gang could assemble. Milky White naturally was again able to Hush Puppy as he pleased in the dark, only he elected to stay inside doing his science homework or banging his triangle. Wormhole had to remain in the warm if there had been a mist, allegedly, because it rusted the metal plate in his head. There was a collection box for him down at the chapel so the Wormholes could send him to a private garage to have it galvanized.
Then Daz asserted he saw Milky a couple of times coming back home from the library in the dark at 6.30.
-What, I revealed. With books ?
-Nah, wiv an 'orse under 'is arms
-Nay lad, I revealed, just like Milky would have.
-Yeah, Daz asserted. 'F your old woman will not let you out to play, then join the library. Then, right, just say you 'ave to take 'em back or Ena Sharples'll fine yer.

It was alright for Daz. His ma sent him up the chipshop every night to bring their dinners and thin went to help him carry it. Dodge was out ferretting with his dad or doing rag & bone. But me, I was a caged under the we-want-you-where-we-can-see-you principle. Dark is dark, and in the dark boys get up to mullarky. So I joined the library, and the cage door opened one night a week.

The issue was what to do with the books. Obviously we could not read them. Ena Sharples wasn't expecting me to either.
-You ! She said when I walked in. This is not the chip shop, Cedric. It's a public library.
The library was in the old fire station so it was only as large as a town fire-engine. Ena Sharples was at a desk in the middle where once there'd have been a pool of oil and sawdust. Best spot for her too, face like that. Her James was at the grammar college so she looked at me like the firemens' pole was still stuck up her nose.
-I do not wish to find jam sandwiches squashed within the pages when you bring these back
Daz was waiting outside.
-Well, you got me one ?
-Yeah yep, I got us one each.
-That one's no good, yer cory !
-I'm gonna look at that one. It's Jack Hargreaves. 'S got fishin' pictures in it. The other two's foryou know what.
We were given to the top of the concrete slope. I handed Daz his book, the second biggest in the library, a good 2ft square : Ships of the Earth. Mine was far larger : Greeks and Trojans. Conditions were good. A light frost on the nobbly concrete, a chill mist muffling the streetlamps. We put the books on the ground, spine forwards and sat on them, tucking our fingers under the flaps. The 1st couple of yards we were like dogs with itchy bums, scooting ourselves with our heels until we hit the frost and down we went on our bobsleigh books, grinding to a halt on the pavement grit at the bottom, bobble hats contorted.

We were making our way back up the slope for a second run when Milky White came out of his backdoor and started making his way up the cinder path.
-'E prob'ly saw us, I said. Wouldn't put it past 'im to split on us to Ena.
-Let him, Daz claimed, always the realist. She'll find out anyway, the state of this book.
He held up his Ships of the Earth. Looked like Shipwrecks of the world now, gigantic graze down to the bare card beneath. I was thinking I had 2 weeks to fix it with, I am not sure, some paint, or I could stick on another picture, when this voice came down the drainpipe. Well, it came from above, the open window of the closest house, Milky's neighbour :
-You're in difficulty now Flower Petal.
Daz was fast, gabbed at the rate of sound Daz did :
-You're mouth's so big Muttley, I am surprised you can also get in your bedroom.
It was Muttley Murphey. And wherever Muttley was, Toothpaste Gibbs was bound to be. Sure enough, she opened wide :
- We'll see 'ow big your mouth is when we tell Ena Sharples you are sledgin' on 'er library books.
I do not know what it was about those two, but wherever the Cow's Gate Gang went, Toothpaste & Muttley appeared to be already there. What were they doing? They weren't playing girls games, just gnawing on the spot, leaning against walls and staring. Now and then they came out with bits of song solely to ridicule the gang, then they'd crack up
laughing. Toothpaste once had all the boys on bikes in the village follow her as she did a ride through in blue eye shadow and her mum's gold earrings. Her long black hair was always stuck in her eyes and on the oily side. She was wearing long cardigans down to her knees and called all boys "buster". We never admitted it, but we would have all been crazy about her if it were not for Muttley.

Muttley was her inseperable "gaurd dog", tall and lankey with six siblings. Muttley wore her hair in a bun like her mummy and her great dishevelled dungarees made her look like her old man. She suspected she was special just because she lived next door to Milky White, but he called them the Steptoes, and Muttley the Nag. We couldn't get near them for lip, and they both ran like the clappers anyway.

Just then, Milky appears at the end of his path with a duffle bag his mother had embroidered library books on.
-Look at 'im, Daz asserted. Taking his books up the laundrette first.
-The Whites've got a washing machine, Muttley said. I can see your mum aint whether or not yer name is a packet o' soap powder.
-What's that make 'im then, White Spirit ? I announced thumbing at Milky who was passing under the streetlamp like the sole boy in the world.
-I'll tell you 2 what that makes 'im
And that's's when she dropped her bombshell. I'll tell you what she said in Episode 8, coming shortly to under a streetlamp near you.

Article Source: http://www.gamblingarticlessite.net

Before you buy your 70s fancy dress make sure you check out Beau Brock's excellent website www.escape-to-the-seventies.com

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated