Novel Chapter 16

 

Chapter 16

A Day Out

Carmel and Patrick decided to give Finbar a treat, and take him on the train to London. It meant a bus ride to New Street Station, which was in the city centre, and Finbar took with him a little bag which had a drink, a meat paste sandwich and his harmonica.

They walked down the hill to the station and his daddy found the platform they needed. They had been there before a number of times, which was usually late in the day, as they travelled over night on the boat to Dún Laoghaire and the Irish train into Dublin.

To Finbar, Dublin was a green place: green post boxes, green telephone boxes and a kind of seafaring feel about the place.

He had been taught about London at school: the Festival of Britain and the Festival Dome, but he was disappointed when Patrick told him the 'Dome' was no longer there. This wasn't too long after the coronation and his last year at the junior school which had a few weeks to go till the end of term.

He remembered the coronation as he went to a party, on the day, which the woman in the fish'n'chip shop on the main road threw for the children of the neighbourhood; maybe twenty kids turned up of both sexes. That was where he was introduced to meat paste sandwiches for the first time. He told Carmel, who had never heard of them, that he liked them.

He played his harmonica at the party which went down well. One of the organisers got the children to sit down, as an audience, and asked if there was a 'Johnnie Ray' in the house. He was a well known pop singer crooner at the time, and one boy rushed up onto the 'stage.' He obviously sang at home or pretended to be Johnnie Ray, but as soon as he got onto the platform his face dropped. Everybody was looking at him: “what are you going to sing for us?” said the organiser.

Silence.

“I don't know.” said the boy eventually.

He was in a terrible state. Finbar didn't know any Johnnie Ray songs but started to play, very gently High Noon, and suddenly the little plaintive voice of the boy started to sing “Do not forsake me oh my darlin' - it was all on the one note - and when he got to the part where the lyric is 'oh to be drawn twixt love and beauty, sposing I'd lose my fair haired beauty, look at that big hand move along, nearing High Noon' both Finbar, vamping, and the kids clapping along, gave the boy confidence and everybody sang 'what will I do if you leave me?'

Then the boy found the tune.

It ended well and there was a big applause and cheering at the end, and the organiser whispered to Finbar “Thank you.”

It was the first time Finbar had stood up in a crowd and played. Other times he would walk along playing and when people were interested in his playing, it encouraged him: when the boy at the party suddenly got stage fright, Finbar understood immediately.

As the train pulled out of New Street, someone had left a window open and smoke from the engine came through; Patrick jumped up and closed it.

Little Finbar looked up at that huge train, standing at the platform and said to Patrick “will this train pass our house on the embankment?”

“No, son, the trains leave from Moor Street which pass us.”

As the green fields flew by he thought about that party, and about the two different railway lines going to London, and what a waste of time that might be and he thought, again, about the party and how he liked playing his mouth organ in front of an audience.

Patrick was sitting by the window, with his back to the front of the train seeing where he'd been, and Finbar was opposite seeing where they were going, Carmel was in the seat next to him.

As he looked up, there were some cables, wires or something, which were telegraph cables, and as they travelled, the cables seemed to be going up and down and it reminded him of a musical stave, with no crotchets and quavers, minims or semibreves. The cables hypnotized Finbar and with the sound of the train, jiggerty can, jiggerty can, jiggerty can, jiggerty can, he could feel his eye lids getting heavy and, sure enough, he fell asleep.

“Look at him.” said Patrick.

Carmel made him comfortable. He had recently started wearing long trousers – longers, his father called them – and looked like a little man dozing there. He cuddled up to his mother and soon the three of them were away.

Big place, London, Finbar thought as they entered the tube station. He noticed the red circle of the tube and the blue word Railways across it. Finbar knew the letters LMS which were on some of the trains he had seen on the embankment at home.

Everybody on the tube train, seemed to be smoking, and when the train went into the dark tunnel he found it exciting. A bit of a difference from going through the tunnel at New Street Station as the tube was a continual tunnel. It had the same circle on the windows with 'railways' replaced by 'Piccadilly Circus' at that station.

They saw a beggar who said “any spare change, mate?” when they came up the steps to Piccadilly Circus, itself,

Patrick shook his head, then another man, in a railway uniform said “get a job, like I have to.”

Finbar noticed they had a strange way of speaking; the beggar said 'mate' with no 't' at the end. The man who said, get a job, spoke funny too.

“Are we going to Buckingham Palace?” said Finbar.

“We may do” said Carmel.

They actually did. They had a nice walk through Green Park, which was just up the street from Piccadilly Circus, saw the guards at the Palace, and took a tube to the East End for a 'pie and mash shop' where they ate the traditional East End meal. Finbar said the green stuff, which he thought were peas, tasted funny.

Then off to number 10 Downing Street and Finbar stood on the step of the Prime Minister's residence.

He was most impressed with the number of theatres they found back at Piccadilly Circus. They walked down The Haymarket and a theatre was on either side of the street; one had 'Paint Your Wagon' playing, which was a musical and on the other side of the street was 'The Apple Cart.'

There was a queue outside each theatre, waiting go in, and entertaining the queue were two men: one playing an accordian and the other, wearing a long fur coat, was singing. When the queue had gone in they crossed over the street and played to the other one.

Finbar sneaked his harmonica out and started to play quietly, nothing much just vamping; some of the crowd heard him and when the song finished the entertainers gave Finbar a round of applause. The entertainers, or the buskers, which is what they are called, asked Finbar to come closer when without warning he started playing Genevieve. It was a couple of years old, the music, but the three of them played to great applause, and as the singer wasn't needed, he took his flat cap off and tap danced along the line, passing his hat with each shuffle and - change-weight, as the taps echoed along with the music.

“Here you are son.” said the singer as he handed a coin from the hat to Finbar.

Half a crown!! “thank you” said Finbar.

“Shame you can't come every night, my son” said the singer as he patted Finbar on the head.

That was the second half-a-crown Finbar had been offered and, this time, he took it.

It was a great Saturday, in London, and when he woke the next morning for mass, his legs were stiff, after all the walking, and his father said “Stay there if you want – we'll go to Saint Anne's at noon.”

“High Noon.” said Finbar.

He was still a little stiff the next day, but hurried to school as there was an orchestra coming. The fourth year, ten and eleven year olds, gathered in the hall and the headmistress told the children to sit down. Already there were various members of The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), tuning their instruments, Finbar was so excited, it was as if something was going to happen - and it did.

The headmistress, Miss Hatt, addressed the children, “Good morning, children.” and the children replied “Good morning Miss Hatt,” the orchestra, especially when they heard the odd 'Good morning Miss Cat' laughed – and she went on “I want you to give a wonderful school welcome to The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra” and with that the school children erupted in loud applause.

“Good morning, boys an girls” said the conductor, “and thank you for that wonderful welcome. This is not the full orchestra, you understand: if the full orchestra was here today, you would all have to leave – or 'leave the room', as your teachers might say” the children laughed.

“Along with us today is Mister Barry Smyth of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre who is going to help us with our programme – Mister Barry Smyth . .”

Barry Smyth, who had been sitting on a chair near the percussion stood up and gave a wonderful entrance to the front. Teachers, sitting near the wall, started to clap. Finbar looked toward the teachers and the children gave a muted applause. For some reason Mister Hennessey, who was sitting with the teachers, didn't clap.

“Good morning, boys and girls: this morning the orchestra will play Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev . .” as soon as the name was announced – the Russian name – Mister Hennessey started clapping loudly.

Nobody else did, and everybody looked at him.

“As I was saying. .” he looked at Hennessey, but the little man didn't know “we will commence with Peter and the Wolf.”

Barry Smyth moved to the microphone, the conductor to his place in front of the orchestra, lifted up his baton and . . .

Barry Smyth, spoke into the microphone “I'm going to tell you the story of Peter and the Wolf: in the tale you are about to hear, each character is represented by a different instrument of the orchestra – the bird by a flute . .” at this the flute player played high notes “the duck, by the oboe . .” two or three lower and slower phrases from the oboe. “The cat, by the clarinet . ” which he pronounced as a clarianet, and it was at the same tempo as the oboe but longer notes – minims (half a semibreve on each) - “the grandfather, by the bassoon . ” of course the bassoon was a lower melody getting near to the bass – crotchets (quarter of a semibreve) “the wolf, by the horns . ” this time more than one horn, which sounded like a fanfare and were minims and finished with semibreves (four crotchets) - Finbar knew the names of the beats from his piano lessons with Mister Ferris. Barry Smyth went on “The gunshots by the timpani and the bass drum . ” this time the bass drum and the timpani went mad at the back and the children cheered! As soon as they stopped, Barry Smyth gave a strange look and they all laughed.

He cleared his throat – “Peter, by the strings in the orchestra.” Beautiful violins, violas and cellos enveloped the school hall in what could only be called, music.

“Early one morning, Peter opened the gate” Barry Smyth, continued “and went in to the big green meadow.” The strings played for a while and when they finished Barry Smyth carried on. Every time the orchestra stopped he would tell more of the story.

There was one little part which made Finbar laugh it was when the little bird said to the duck “What kind of bird are you, that doesn't fly?” and the duck replied “what kind of bird are you, that doesn't swim?”

Poor Mister Ferris, Finbar thought as the school hall emptied.

Chapter 17

The Ballad of Carmel and Pat.