At times like this Mam tells us to stay inside.We have nothing but
bread and tea and she doesnt want the tormenting neighbors to see us
with our tongues hanging out, suffering over the lovely smells floating
up and down the lane. She says tis easy to see theyre not used to hav-
ing anything the way they brag about everything. Tis a real low-class
mind that will call out the door and tell the world what theyre having
for the supper. She says tis their way of getting a rise out of us because
Dad is a foreigner from the North and he wont have anything to do
with any of them. Dad says all that food comes from English money and
no luck will come to those who took it but what could you expect from
Limerick anyway, people who profit from Hitlers war, people who will
work and fight for the English. He says hell never go over there and
help England win a war. Mam says, No, youll stay here where theres
no work and hardly a lump of coal to boil water for the tea. No, youll
stay here and drink the dole when the humor is on you.Youll watch
your sons going around with broken shoes and their arses hanging out
of their trousers. Every house in the lane has electricity and were lucky
if we have a candle. God above, if I had the fare Id be off to England
myself for Im sure they need women in the factories.
Dad says a factory is no place for a woman.
Mam says, Sitting on your arse by the fire is no place for a man.
I say to him, Why cant you go to England, Dad, so we can have
electricity and a wireless and Mam can stand at the door and tell the
world what were having at dinnertime?
He says, Dont you want to have your father here at home with
you?
I do but you can come back at the end of the war and we can all go
to America.
He sighs, Och, aye, och, aye. All right hell go to England after
Christmas because America is in the war now and the cause must be
just. Hed never go if the Americans hadnt gone in. He tells me Ill have
to be the man of the house, and he signs up with an agent to work in a
factory in Coventry which, everyone says, is the most bombed city in
England.The agent says,Theres plenty of work for willing men.You can
work overtime till you drop and if you save it up, mate, youll be Rock-
efeller at the end of the war.
Were up early to see Dad off at the railway station. Kathleen
OConnell at the shop knows Dad is off to England and money will be
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