Wednesday 29 April 2015

Beer, beer, glorious beer


Beer, beer glorious beer!
Fill yourselves up to here!
Drink a good deal of it - make a good meal of it
Stick to old fashioned beer!
Don't be afraid of it - Drink till you're made of it
Now, altogether a cheer!
Up with the sale of it  - down with a pail of it
Glorious, glorious beer!
                                             Traditional British drinking song

Once when I was just twenty
I worked for a brewery
A labourer no less
Rolling out the barrels
As a holiday job
To earn extra money
So I could get married

Underground in the cellars
Barrels thirty-six gallons
Kilderkins were eighteen
A firkin down to nine
Pin's just four and a half
Rolled around in tunnels
Maturing in the dark

Never saw the light of day
Wearing out our fingertips
Back bent, pushing, pushing
Those damned old oaken casks
Stumbling in the passages
We cursing and laughing
Until the break of shift

At the end of a days work
In those days of long ago
The shift finally over
We queued at the counter
Given two bottles of bitter
To take home for to drink
Beer, beer glorious beer

Image found at www.embracethefunk.com













7 comments:

  1. I love how you tell the story in this poem.

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  2. I hope there was a good paycheck to go along with the beer.

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  3. Sounds as though all the hard work was worth it for the liquid reward at the end.

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  4. How fun to find a snippet to remind you of the past. Nice job, OE.

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  5. Hm. When I worked in restaurants, the last thing I wanted at the end of my shift was whatever I'd been seeing and smelling all night. I've never had much of a taste for hops, though. Maybe it's different.

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  6. Tedious but fun episode for a youth growing up! One laughs over such memories. Thanks for sharing oldegg!

    Hank

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  7. SIounds like a ' character building ' experience :)I tried a Stella Artois beer the other week....liked it !

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