Ticking Stripes

Tomorrow will be the 30th anniversary of my 21st birthday.

This is quite a SCARY thought as I feel very much younger. I try to tell myself that age is a state of mind but my mirror tells me otherwise.

Today I've been shopping with gorgeous girl and have bought myself a purple vest with lovely lace (only for wearing as a layer you understand) and it put me in mind of this poem...

Warning
By Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.


You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.


But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
.........................................



Puts me in mind of this lovely film




I'm thinking of getting in a little practice now too! Come to think of it I've been hoarding things in boxes for years, getting fatter and wearing scary clothes (according to my daughter). And I have tins full of pens and pencils and I can't wait to run a stick along some railings!

Love Wend