Page 17 - Demo

Ditching the Guff3Happy FamiliesBaby Boomer days meant fewer cars whenrowdy groups of kids shared the freedomof street games with busted bikes and billycarts,skippy, hopscotch and knucklebones.When we played dress-ups, we pretendedto be royals in ragged robes: no drunken fights,empty bellies, or over-burdened mums.In our half of a Housing Trust double unitwith a dividing wall that leaked secrets,we took no notice of an odd neighbourwith pink elephant hallucinations,or another who chopped up furniture.We avoided one with DTsand scaly lizard skin while all around,children shook empty money boxes when otherdesperate fingers had plundered them.One wife came with her bottle-ravaged manto beg my dipso dad help him find work%u2014hoping this time, overworked promisesmight be more than blown glass.And when all the fathers died earlyfrom battles where, like Groundhog Day,each dawn was as hopeless as the last,mothers glued their families back together.