Wednesday, February 11, 2009
THE SIEGFRIED LINE
I've decided to devote the next couple of posts to my millions upon millions of LOCAL readers who want to read about LOCAL issues.
These posts are dedicated to them, even though they tend to have weird respiratory diseases and anger management problems.
In fact, I love them so much that I'd love to gather them up in a big old group hug. Well, if they didn't all smell of used ash trays, urine and dead breath, that is.
* * * * * * *
They bravely walked FIVE MILES through all of that snow ...
... so that they could play a snooker match.
We're not told if the snooker match was indoors or, possibly, outdoors in a beer garden.
To the Bexley Times, this invokes THE DUNKIRK SPIRIT.
Absolutely. Who could ever forget that day in 1940 when an entire regiment of Our Boys swam across the Channel, only aided by a motley collection of rusty bathtubs, rubber dingies, and in some cases, water wings, flippers and smeared in a month's ration coupons' worth of goose grease?
All of this so that they could play a game of cribbage at the Flag And Lamb pub in Deal!
Fair warms the heart, it does.
Back to the snooker players though - former RAF man Larry Parnes (89) had this to say:
"I think it's a rummin' disgrace they're not running the buses, trains or aeroplanes. In 1947, during the Great Snow Of 1947, they just used to keep the buses running all the time and we used to just carry on playing snooker as if nothing had happened. They were a different breed in those days. I don't know how they'd cope if there was a war now. They'd be too busy putting their lipstick on to have a game of snooker."
A few pages on in the newspaper, in Bob Ogley's "Times Past" column there are some old pictures of buses that ran adrift in snow or skidded off the roads in the 1940's.
Some people attempt to board a bus via the top deck in the 1940s in some snow, with life carrying on as normal.
Labels: beer gardens, Bexley Times, local issues, snooker, snow, the 1940's
Comments:
Are you sure it isn't the 'Drunkirk spirit'.
They usually have very cheap beer at these snooker halls.
They usually have very cheap beer at these snooker halls.
The surgical spirit probably.
You have to hand it to these old 80 odd year olds travelling all that way to play snooker though don't you?
I'm going to refer to them as the "Far Cue" generation.
You have to hand it to these old 80 odd year olds travelling all that way to play snooker though don't you?
I'm going to refer to them as the "Far Cue" generation.
Snooker players used to be dead hard, not like the pansies who wield cues these days.
Alex Higgins would have made it to the North Pole if there was a Guinness or ten to be had.
Alex Higgins would have made it to the North Pole if there was a Guinness or ten to be had.
Tim - in the pictures of Bob accompanying the column he's become more and more alluring, with the top buttons of his shirt undone. What a silver fox!
MJ - the only Canadian Spirit I could find on Google was a company that sold clothes for the cold weather. See, I know where I am with Polish Spirit (vodka), drinking of which is a better way to cope with cold weather.
Kaz - exactly. I know blokes of that age who would walk twenty miles for a cheap pint.
MJ2/Kaz2 - don't mind me. I am a laydeh and never drink before 6pm.
Rog - I'm so glad that you managed to shoehorn a Far Cue gag in. I find that an application of surgical spirit is the best way to stop a cold sore in the early stages.
Garfer - surely it's just Alex Higgins who was a really hard snooker player? Most of them are fairly pasty faced and weedy. I don't think that Steve Davies used to run with street gangs, but I could be wrong.
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MJ - the only Canadian Spirit I could find on Google was a company that sold clothes for the cold weather. See, I know where I am with Polish Spirit (vodka), drinking of which is a better way to cope with cold weather.
Kaz - exactly. I know blokes of that age who would walk twenty miles for a cheap pint.
MJ2/Kaz2 - don't mind me. I am a laydeh and never drink before 6pm.
Rog - I'm so glad that you managed to shoehorn a Far Cue gag in. I find that an application of surgical spirit is the best way to stop a cold sore in the early stages.
Garfer - surely it's just Alex Higgins who was a really hard snooker player? Most of them are fairly pasty faced and weedy. I don't think that Steve Davies used to run with street gangs, but I could be wrong.
