There were toys to make Hay to rake Whistles to whistle Tin can for a kettle Rubber for slingshots Cans for crab and tansy pots A need to build toy boats And chasing old stinky goats Mixing pies from the mucks And building toy trucks In the spring the snow melts We have to make stilts Hockey sticks from crooked trees Boat builder used them for knees Playing hide and seek You wouldn't find some for a week There were slides to ride Crab apples to hide Catching frogs in the bogs Carving boats from short logs Playing hopscotch, piddley and four corner cush Building old smoky camps on the hill in the bush Pushing our rollers, bikes and barrel hoops Stealing crab apples - oops! Catching old stinky, sticky conners Pushing snow off the ice with our slide runners Our mothers used to say sometimes we were harden Because we were late coming home from Am Perry's garden Going berry picking at Island Pond Brook Bologna and caplin on a smoky fire to cook Some would drink tea, enjoy it and whistle Most of us had good old lemon crystal Trouting had to be the best fun of all We wanted to do it winter, spring, summer and fall CArching conners, flatties, sculpins, caplin, tom cods and squid We used homemade jiggers from hot melted lead Squid jigging was dirty, disgusting and caused quite a fuss But that was just right for boys like us Climbing rocks, cliffs, old barns and trees Getting spanked on going home for having pants with no knees On the wharfs after supper with no adults around Thanks be to God that none of us drowned Killing the gannets that came to our barrel head for scraps In the afternoon going with fishermen to their traps Borrowing the old punt from old Mr. Ed And going out in the evening to jig us some squid Playing spotlight at night On windy days flying a kite Chasing Jack-O-Lantern and spooks Wearing tin cans on our boots Tying old coats and brin bags behind our bikes was a must That way we could fly lots of dust We were always on the run Having some kind of fun Doing all the above was exciting and cool It's a wonder we found time to turn up at school I think for now that's enough of my garbles Before some of you think I have lost my MARBLES!   Submitted By: NULL