IrishEyes ©️2022TonyFallon0810

 IrishEyes ©️2022TonyFallon0810

I remember walking the sandy roads without a pair of shoes

And soaking my aching feet in the river to ease any bruise

So, there was little pity for sore toes or other abrasions

I had one pair of new shoes held back for all special occasions

Confession communion at mass or maybe at confirmation

Showing up in the bare ones would not add to your reputation

When I reminisce about my youth we had to improvise

Those are times I remember with much sorrow in my Irish eyes

  

We only had one bike and a trap pulled by a small pony

When we got to church, we gave him  hay  and tied him to a tree

The people lived up to three miles away and some used shanks mare

There were ponies and traps and bicycles, but cars were so rare

When mass was over the holy women might do the stations

While we waited at the shop for the Sunday publications

The memory of Sunday dinner with roast rooster and pies

Even after sixty years in New York brings tears to my eyes

Then I recall better days when we got electricity

And left behind the olden days of country simplicity

Who could not but be affected by the box in the corner

Showing us how far we were behind many a foreigner

Many a teenage boy would not be caught dead in a white shirt

The girls were throwing away their bras and wearing mini skirts

What this burst of culture did to Dev I can only surmise

When I think of my great teenage years there's no tears in my eye

There were so many new words now that we never heard in school

Like rock and roll and the huckelbuck and Fonsie just was cool

the pants being worn were either skintight or bell bottom flare

And four rebel guys from Liverpool no longer cut their hair

The older people loudly proclaimed this new music was trash

They'd rather hear Willie Brady Patsy Cline or Johnnie Cash

My mother was shaken when she heard of Jim Reeves demise

At each night's rosary she prayed for him with tears in her eyes.