Letter From America: Dancing Dick
...Dick was a labourer and had few marketable skills other than his strong back, his mighty muscled arms, and his solid sense of humour. He worked for minimal wages at maximum cheerfulness, and was ever ready to lend a hand whatever the task and the smile was a gift for which there was no charge...
Ronnie Bray tells of a much-liked chap who discovered the key to family harmony.
Had you met him, you would have liked Dick. Everyone appreciated his good humour, his lack of pretension, and his open honest manner. On second thoughts, perhaps not everyone approved of him, but those that didn’t were the churlish minority that seem unable to find anything they do like, but you would have liked Dick.
Dick was a labourer and had few marketable skills other than his strong back, his mighty muscled arms, and his solid sense of humour. He worked for minimal wages at maximum cheerfulness, and was ever ready to lend a hand whatever the task and the smile was a gift for which there was no charge.
He wore the clothes of a labouring man with the air of a prince, although he had no airs and graces other than those common to nature’s gentleman, of which he was a perfect example.
Dick was a numerous father that dwelt with six children in a rented house up Kilner Bank. He didn’t earn enough money to do much more than pay the rent and the regular bills and put food on the scrubbed pine table, and so entertainments outside the home were rare occasions, because taking two adults and six children to the pictures, even in the cheapest seats, cost enough to provide two days worth of food for the family.
Keeping a roof over their heads and keeping their tummies filled were Dick’s priorities, apart from giving his time, laughter, and love to his brood. Strange to say, his approach to child rearing and family life worked well enough so that his children did well at school and were never involved in the kind of things done by kids whose training in citizenship was left to chance.
The family’s one luxury was a radio set that operated on mains electricity. The contribution this made to the harmony in the home and the pleasant diversions they enjoyed was explained to me by Dick this way:
"When we have eaten our dinner we shove all the furniture back against the walls of the living room and put the radio on, and then we all dance our legs of for a couple of hours before going up to bed.''
This was so simple that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it. Simple, and yet, like most simple things, it worked so very well. Whether this would have satisfied you, dear reader, or whether you must have more complicated or sophisticated pleasures to boil your kettle, is for you to say.
Suffice it to say that every time I find myself selfishly wanting something up-to-date, a colour telly for example, my mind is immediately cast back to bucolic Dancing Dick and the simple but satisfying pleasures that kept him and his family happy, exhausted, fulfilled, and close. What more could anyone want?
Copyright © 2011 – Ronnie Bray
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