going and the Morse Code dit dit dit dot. I hear mandolins, guitars,
Spanish bagpipes, the drums of Africa, boatmen wailing on the Nile. I
see sailors on watch sipping mugs of hot cocoa. I see cathedrals, sky-
scrapers, cottages. I see Bedouins in the Sahara and the French Foreign
Legion,cowboys on the American prairie.I see goats skipping along the
rocky coast of Greece where the shepherds are blind because they mar-
ried their mothers by mistake. I see people chatting in cafés, sipping
wine, strolling on boulevards and avenues. I see night women in door-
ways, monks chanting vespers, and here is the great boom of Big Ben,
This is the BBC Overseas Service and here is the news.
Mrs. Purcell says, Leave that on, Frankie, so well know the state of
the world.
After the news there is the American Armed Forces Network and
its lovely to hear the American voices easy and cool and here is the
music, oh, man, the music of Duke Ellington himself telling me take the
A train to where Billie Holiday sings only to me,
I cant give you anything but love, baby.
Thats the only thing Ive plenty of, baby.
Oh, Billie, Billie, I want to be in America with you and all that
music, where no one has bad teeth, people leave food on their plates,
every family has a lavatory, and everyone lives happily ever after.
And Mrs. Purcell says, Do you know what, Frankie?
What, Mrs. Purcell?
That Shakespeare is that good he must have been an Irishman.
The rent man is losing his patience. He tells Mam, Four weeks behind
you are, missus. Thats one pound two shillings. This has to stop for I
have to go back to the office and report to Sir Vincent Nash that the
McCourts are a month behind.Where am I then, missus? Out on my
arse jobless and a mother to support thats ninety-two and a daily com-
municant in the Franciscan church.The rent man collects the rents,mis-
sus, or he loses the job. Ill be back next week and if you dont have the
money, one pound eight shillings and sixpence total, tis out on the
pavement youll be with the skies dripping on your furniture.
Mam comes back up to Italy and sits by the fire wondering where in
Gods name shell get the money for a weeks rent never mind the arrears.
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