No, No, my child, 'twas different then:
The big man wanted all;
He'd beg you to go fishing
And rob you in the fall.
He said "No unemployment
For those who toil and strive.
We'll give you a little something
If you reach seventy-five."
The babies got no bonus then;
No talcum for their hide:
When Sunlight Soap got in their eyes
Don't wonder if they cried.
Give them a slice of 'lassy cake
And sit them on the floor,
In rushed the hens and took it all,
And then they scratched for more.
Poor Granny, that was awful stuff,
How did you live at all?
Were there any television,
Or light switches on the wall?
Was the power house in Lockston?
The forebay and the flu?
And when the lights went out too soon,
What did your mommy do?
Now that's an easy question;
We had no power, my child;
And when the lights went out too soon
We blamed the kerosene oil.
Sometimes it was the burner,
More times the wick was short;
Then mother joined some yarn on,
She was poor but she was smart.
How did you do your washing then,
With no electricity?
To wring these quilts must be a job
For Hard Boiled Haggarty.
What did you cook your moose on,
Had you a modern stove?
Did you burn coal or oil,
Or nugs from Bunyan's Cove?
My boy, we had a Waterloo
Poor John brought home one spring;
That was your boy for green stuff;
He'd chew up anything.
He wasn't much to look at,
And he was low on legs,
To keep him going killed poor John,
Ten dogs and seven nags.
When we did want a load of wood
John went to Rocky Pond
I used to be uneasy
All day when he was gone.
He used the swinging tackling
Because he had no bolt
To take her down from Dwyer's Marsh,
Poor man, how he did scote.
Now, Granny, what about it
When the snow was on the ground?
Did the people keep their cars in
Till the 'dozer came around?
Who plowed the roads in winter
To let the busses through?
And those big trucks from Bonavis'
With Mammy's loaves for you?
My child, there were no busses then,
No snow plows came around
And caused us to say bad words
By breaking fences down.
We had no cars or tractors,
No trucks to shake the bog.
We wouldn't look at baker's bread
Unless 'twas thick with fog.
Now, Granny, what about the time
You fell and broke your wrist?
Did your doctor come and set it
Or send you to Bonavis' ?
Was the cast you had real heavy?
Could you hold it out in front?
And if you went out jigging,
Would that upset the punt?
Oh, no, my child, in those days
The doctors they were good
And they could fix a broken bone
With two old bits of wood.
They didn't use those casts,
No needles or no pills
To poke into their patients
When they had dizzy spells.
Now, Granny, I forgot to ask
What did your mommy do
When she sent up to Eaton's
To get some things for you?
Did she scrape the money for it,
A way she couldn't see?
Did she take chances on it
And have it C.O.D.?
She couldn't look at Eaton's, boy,
She didn't have the means
To send away for hockey sticks
Or pipe-stem-legged jeans.
But if she did I'm pretty sure
She'd pay the money down.
The only C.O.D. she knew
Came from the fishing ground.
Now, Granny, one more question:
Where did you get the cash
To pay all your expenses
With the things in such a hash?
Were there any exhibitions
Or local road work then?
And did they have four bosses
For ten or a dozen men?
My child, they kept the local roads
As fit as any fiddle;
The drains were always on the side
And never in the middle.
They always pinned up those returns
My, my, who'd ever think
This age with plenty of everything
We'd be so short of ink?
So now, my boy, I'm finished.
I could tell you all I could
About the time when I was young,
About the bad and good.
Hard times men didn't live long,
No backy killed the most.
The government was Responsible
When John gave up the ghost.
