Whata palava at bedtime.

Three grown up folk and four children.

Two double beds and one single

No wonder my mam was bewildered.

Now my Nana she had the little bed.

And my Mam and my Dad had a double.

That left only one more for the children.

And that’s why we had all this trouble.

We tried all roads to sleep with some comfort.

Length ways and cross ways we'd lie.

There were elbows and legs all over the show

It were easy to get poked in your eye.

"Stop turning over" one would shout out.

"Give me some blanket" cried another.

Get your elbow out of my back.

Give over or I'm going to tell mother.

I remember brown paper we used have on the bed.

To cover us, instead of a sheet.

It were hard to lapse into a really deep sleep.

Because of the rustling in the middle of the night ( neet. )

When it got cold in the winter.

An old army coat was a must.

Though one thing I never worked out.

Why they never cut the buttons off first.( fust )

I remember one story from years ago.

When we had a posh aunty come round.

So my Mam got us together and said listen here.

I don't want you making a sound.

Now we had'nt been in bed more than five or ten minutes.

They had barely started to eat.

When our Raymond poked me in the middle of my back.

And of course we started to fight.( feight )

"Mam…. Our Raymond has pulled the overcoat off of the bed"

I shouted down, with no guilt.

"It's not an overcoat"….. my Mam whispered back.

"Whilst we've company…We call it a quilt"

Ten minutes went by ..we were fighting again.

Again I shout down with no guilt.

"Mam…will you come up and give him a smack.

He's just pulled the sleeve off the quilt"

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Copyright © 1998 Jeff Unsworth

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