Capstick Comes Home

I'll never forget that first day at the pit
Me an' me father worked a 72-hour shift
Then we walked home, 43 miles through the snow, in us bare feet
Huddled inside us clothes made out of old sacks
Eventually, we trudged over the hill until we could see the streetlight twinklin' in our village
Me father smiled down at me through icicles hangin' off his nose
"Nearly home now lad," he said

We stumbled into t'house and stood there freezin' cold and tired out
Shiverin' and miserable, in front of the meagre fire
"Any road, me mum says
Cheer up, lads
I've got you some nice brown bread and butter for your tea"

"Ee," my father went crackers
He reached out and gently pulled my mum towards him by the throat
"You big fat, idle ugly wart," he said
"You great useless spawny-eyed parrot-faced wazzock"
He had a way with words, me father
He'd been to college, you know
"You've been out playin' bingo all afternoon instead of gettin'
Some proper snap ready for me an' this lad"
He explained to me poor, little, purple-faced mum

Then turnin' to me he said
"Arthur?" He could never remember me name
"Here's half a crown
Nip down to t'chip 'oyl an' get us a nice piece o' 'addock for us tea
Man cannot live by bread alone"
He were a reyt tater, me father

He said, "Us 'ow workin' folk should have some dignity an' pride an' self-respect
And as 'ow they should come home to summat warm an' cheerful"
An' then he threw me mum on the fire
We didn't have no tellies or shoes or bedclothes

We made us own fun in them days
Do you know, when I were a lad you could get a tram down into the town
Buy three new suits an' an ovvercoat, four pair o' good boots
Go an' see George for me at the Palace Theatre, get blind drunk
Have some steak an' chips, bunch o' bananas
And three stone o' monkey nuts an' still 'ave change out of a farthing?

We'd lots o' things in them days they haven't got today
Rickets, diptheria, Hitler and my, we did look well goin' to school
With no backside in us trousers an' all us little 'eads painted purple because we 'ad ringworm
They don't know they're born today