The recent past wasn’t all happy days and sweetness and light. We had our darker moments.

Fossil Fooled.

Nowadays when I look back on my childhood days
It's with a clear eyed not misty rose-tinted gaze,
Oh, my bright summers weren't all gloomy greys,
Only in winter did I suffer a dark depressing malaise.

Back in those dim dark days before Emission Control
Every household was heated by trusty dusty coal,
To add to my misery it was this lucky middle sons role
To drag his butt and the empty scuttle down the coal hole.

Each chill smoky grey day I'd fill the scuttle, knowing full well
I wouldn't want to go back out there once darkness fell,
When coal smoke filled the air and you could taste its smell,
So I filled that coal bucket full enough to stoke the fires of Hell.

A rundown rotten wreck of a villa was all poor Pop could afford,
We'd sit chillin', frozen backs to the wall while the fire roared,
Wind whistled through shiver-me-timbers warped weatherboards,
Somehow it had escaped being condemned, unlike our slum landlord.

The rent meant no riches left to hire a TV, even a Black and White,
Naught but an old RCA valve radio to keep our spirits up at night,
We'd turn on the crackling radio and I'd warm to its glowing light,
But to turn your back to the flames too long raised the risk of frostbite.

All too soon only hearing the radio began to pale with seeing TV,
Every damn fool kid at school knew who Shatner was but me,*
Thankfully a school mate's family took pity on me and my poverty,
Now on cold nights I'd bask in the warmth of "Star Trek's" Company.

For this nerd was besotted with Science Fiction of every kind,
But TV shows that fired the imagination were hard to find,
Till one Wednesday evening I found all my stars had aligned,
Channel Three had put on a double act that blew my tiny mind!

I found I was pulled 'tween 'Star Trek' and 'Lost In Space,'
I loved Spock's dispassionate manner, his stony face,**
And yet Judy Robinson's ass eyes made my heart race,
Talk about being stuck between Spock and a hard place.***

I'd treadle off on my 3 Speed down our smoke blacked street,
Pedaling at walking pace, visibility down to under six feet,
Blue hands gripping the handlebars, face white as a sheet,
My sweat soaked cheeks backsliding all over the banana seat.

The lampposts seemed to appear too far and few between,
Their bright white light diminished to a sulphurous sheen,
One had to ride eyes wide open and keep ones wits keen-
One can't rear-end a parked car and keep ones undies clean.

But a grittier problem was- the winter air was problematic,
Sucking up lungfuls of smoke ill becomes an asthmatic,
One freezing wheezing night I tried to remain phlegmatic
But hacking up lumps of black phlegm is beyond melodramatic.

So, a week laid up in my bed, in pneumonia and delirium's grip,
The Doc prescribed me rest, chicken soup and a penicillin drip,
He flicked his Bic with practiced flip, sparked up a charcoal tip,
Advised me to avoid smoky nights as smoke curled from his lip! 

Nowadays when I hear the praises of "the good ol' days" being sung,
Some Boomer goin' on about 'how great it was when we wuz young,'
I'm just the one to harshly tell that blithering fool to hold their tongue,
A childhood choking on smoke'n'ciggies- we should all have black lung.

Our long-ago innocent childhood days now seem too brief,
Old Father Time has shown himself to be a sneaky thief,
Still, I stand here, glad to take a deep healthy breath of relief,
But till I leave this Earth for Heaven there is this lingering belief,
What if I don't go up in a puff of smoke, but down to the Fire Chief?

* Bill Shatner, gung-ho all action hero and over-the-top actor portraying Captain Kirk of Starfleet Command.
** Leonard Nimoy, Mr Spock of Star Trek- if you don't know him then Pop Culture is wasted on you.
*** Marta Kristen, looking very pretty acting as Judy Robinson. Her actual acting, fair at best. But back then, in my quieter reflective moments, with time on my hands, in my mind I'd replay every scene she had been in. Hey, I did say I liked Sci-Fi. And Fantasy.

(This one came about after having a lunchtime rendezvous at a restaurant with an old mate and reminiscing about the good and bad old days. Compared to back then, there are blue shies and light at the end of the tunnel.)

'Don't turn tail on me Judy. I am not a robot.'     'The good ol' days? Blow it out your rear.'        

'There's a light
Burning in the fireplace,
There's a light, a light
In the darkness of everybody's life.'
Rocky Horror Picture Show, 'Over At The Frankenstein Place.'

©Obbverse.