You know when something goes round and round your mind and you can not shake it off? Like a tune, or a conversation (usually one that ended badly and needs a better conclusion)? Well, odd phrases, quotes, comments typical of those I have known have been buzzing around my head for some time now.
Example - The wreck of the Hesperus (as in 'you look like...').
Sans hair, sans eyes, sans teeth. (I thought maybe this was some mangled French from the war years, but no....)
In eighteen hundred and forty one, the American railway was begun... (something we sang as a family, but no idea when this great enterprise started.)
De loo (as in de luxe, describing those very thin, disc-like mint imperials, not the lavatory..)
One go, two stop, three full up. (Now who admits to being old enough to recognise this reference?)
My well-read offspring have provided some answers, tinternet others.
The wreck is a quote from Longfellow.
Sans hair etc is also a quote, Shakespeare, of course. As You Like It, the 'All the world's a stage...' speech.
The song about the railway was a folk song recorded some time between 1938 and 1942.
I realize now my parents were both well read and up to date with sing-a-long songs. I would be hard put to recognise any current songs and the only bit of poetry I remember from school is -
Macavity's a mystery cat,
He' called the Hidden Paw
For he's the master criminal who can defy the law.
He..... (and I've forgotten the rest).
I had also forgotten that it is by T. S. Elliot (offspring to the rescue again).
They say education is not what it used to be, but perhaps it is, now. It just missed a generation (mine) and left it the poorer.
Oh, and the last one is bus bells!
