Brian’s dad, born in 1896, lived in the Mansfield area in England’s ‘Robin Hood’ county. In 1943, during World War Two, British citizens were experiencing short supply of foodstuff and of many other goods. The dad was a bird lover and kept a large cage containing a couple of dozen contented well-cared for budgies, but at this time the bird food supply in the town became non existent. The dad could devise no alternative means of providing his budgies with a suitable diet. With great reluctance he released all of his feathered friends to cope (or not) in the wild. Six year old Brian carries an image of dad, a few days later, smashing the budgie cage to smithereens with an axe; an action mixing both sorrow and rage.
The dad’s interest in birds continued and, at the age of 70, having retired from British Rail some years earlier, he took up a little job feeding chickens at a local farm. Dad looked forward to wandering about the farm scattering feed to the eager, contented chickens. Well, you know what’s coming. He had to run feed into a gulley where cramped, caged birds could just about get their beaks to the feeding trough. About half an hour into the second day, dad could stand the sorry plight of his charges no longer. His urge to release his feathered friends into the wild revisited him, and soon about 200 chickens were causing chaos on nearby roads and the chicken farmer was having an apoplectic fit. Needless to say, dad was sacked but fortunately escaped prosecution.
The dad’s interest in birds continued and, at the age of 70, having retired from British Rail some years earlier, he took up a little job feeding chickens at a local farm. Dad looked forward to wandering about the farm scattering feed to the eager, contented chickens. Well, you know what’s coming. He had to run feed into a gulley where cramped, caged birds could just about get their beaks to the feeding trough. About half an hour into the second day, dad could stand the sorry plight of his charges no longer. His urge to release his feathered friends into the wild revisited him, and soon about 200 chickens were causing chaos on nearby roads and the chicken farmer was having an apoplectic fit. Needless to say, dad was sacked but fortunately escaped prosecution.
Brian tod this tale with emotion and pride.
A chum of mine has a poster of this picture in his living room. It always prompts me to reflect on the cause of the unhappy / anguished / secretive / tormented etc. expression on the face of daddy. It's intriguing as to why the girl asks this 'manly' type question while the boy seems absorbed in playing with his toy soldiers. I guess that the nub of it is that the question has confronted daddy with a problem.