This is what I did for 3 months with only Sunday's off & even then there was no real rest, we had to be at Mass by 9:00, so all the cow's must be milked by 8:00 which was no big deal.
Actually church was pretty funny if you looked at it the right way, like the priest was queer as fuck which I really found amusing (imagine a real fairy speaking with a brogue, it's fucking hilarious!!!)
I would look around the church, pew by pew, seat by seat, examining the faces & even the backs of the heads in front of me (Michael Collins was going bald)
I would try to determine what kind of person that object there was like?
I knew amost every man there because most attended regularly either Hamiltons or Gaynors pubs, which were the only 2 in the village of Leenane in Galway, Ireland.
The village only had around 30 families & all relied on sheep & fishing for income.
All grew their own vegetables (and yes, lot's & lot's of potatoes
) milked their cow's harvested hay for the winter feed for the animals) & cut turf in the family bog to be used for heat/cooking.
There was Paddy Malone falling asleep & leaning on Margaret O'Neil, whom he hardly knew.
Most of the men were still drunk from playing darts well past closing time.
No Garda (coppers
) were near & it was taken advantage of.
Some of the girls were decent looking (those I would wink at with with a sociopathic attitude
)
Beautiful place & people but it was/is hard work to farm, no doubt about it.
These are a few of the chores I performed, cutting the hay, hoping that it wouldn't rain that much so the grass would turn into hay & then making hay stacks.
Then we cut this shit, turf, so we had heat in the winter & cooking all year round.
We cut a LOT of it & this I fucking hated.
You were in the middle of this fucking swamp/bog with the wind blowing & it was cold as fuck.
Lunch was 2 large slices of home-made bread with butter & jam and a mayo bottle full of tea & it was wonderful.
This was my favorite thing to do, chasing & herding sheep for wool & market & as a food source.
This would be done once a year.
Then I'd do this
And more than once ( 16 was allowed if accompanied by an adult relative ) I'd finish the day with a glass of this magic brew (If I was a good boy)
Yup, thinking back I realize more each day how fortunate I was to have experienced that way of life, which hardly exists now, for better or for worse. ( I think worse )
Now we are more advanced & knowledgeable & more understanding/empathic, right?
Shit, even you, yes you, can fly into space if ya got a million bucks!!!!
Fuck me, I miss the Ireland of 1963, when Kennedy was alive & they LOVED Americans.
It was very, very nice, indeed
!
