YOUR CONTRIBUTION
THE WORLD OF FORGOTTEN
MEMORIAL
by Alex Vodden
Poem
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Poem
1
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Brierley-that
village overshadowed by the
Power
of industrial Grimethorpe
so
it was – not so anymore
Brierley
– the ancient hamlet of medieval heritage
captured in pictures by Gazza.
Not of footballing fame,
but with a photographers flare.
Gazza a denizen of Brierley, who ruffles our feathers and
whets the appetite of our nostalgia.
Oh – how we like to remember the friends, foes, feared
and flights from the people of our
childhood’s:
‘Oakie’,
who could lay a hedge and walked the streets
of our
community with sack gaitered
legs
‘Mossy’,
who cleaned your windows if he liked
you, propped his
ladders on your sills on the
frostiest of morns and
peered
through your bedroom windows
through the portholes of his breath.
Many is the wife who retreated
into the warmth of her bed covers because Mossy had arrived
early and caught her little lie in
‘Losh’,
who gleamed the fire of the Horseshoe’s taphole
and beamed with the chuckle of
his secrets of the
village where he was king:
When you could buy a horse, a
cauli’, parrot or
poached rabbits on every day
of the week at T’Hoss
Shoes.
Jack
in the ‘House of Commons’ snug of the same pub
Who sets your rates and
threatened to go to Persia to
buy a carpet for Brierley Hall ‘if questioned again’.
Harry,
who proposed not one gondola on the dell, but two, so we could breed with them.
They’re
all here in Gazza’s memory lane.
Come along and discover
yourself in places or hats you never thought you would
see again.
Remember
Maggie – that famous of all Brierley Postmistresses who prided
herself on being the first citizen of the village to vote
on polling days
And
Tommy W of racing dog fame who stopped a sure winner by giving it a pork pie before
the race.
Now I know why they call pork
pies growlers
Thanks
to Gazza for giving back so much.
All his own work – all his
own efforts.
No generous grants to Gary
from anywhere
Just sheer hard work, his own
enterprise and
wonderful enthusiasm
No fancy prizes for his work
– no seeking of fame
Thanks
for the memory Gazza.
Alex Vodden February 2000
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