That’s the Thing

That’s the thing, I was born in Balsall Heath in a back-to-back halfway down an alley where Peaky Blinder sometimes walked past. There was a cobbled yard guarded by a marmalade one-eyed cat with a knot in its tail. People said, when it was put there, you could hear it squale (Birmingham for squeal)for miles around, even on the other side of town. Its owner said it was the right thing to do, but some said it was because he caught it eating his favourite stew. Billy said it used to chase its tail, so it stopped him spinning round and disappearing into a hole in the ground.

The shop on the corner sold everything from a ball of string to a Micky Fin, another name for a bottle of gin. Nobody paid for things right away; they left that for another day. Instead, everything was on the tick; only the rich paid quick. There was a long list on the window that Billy said was written in blood, containing the names of people who couldn’t pay, that would change when the Peaky Blinders knocked on their door, and they ended up on the floor.

The pub on the corner had been hit by a German Bomb, Dad said it was to weaken our resistance, and now it was just a pile of bricks. Lots of men would cry as they walked past, but it didn’t last. There was another pub a hundred yards further on, and their loyalty was soon gone.

The bomb building was my playground when I was small; all I needed was a tin can and a bent spoon. It was a time when hours lasted forever, and your imagination took you to places you could never return to when you left your childhood behind, no matter how much you whined.

The cellar flooded every time it rained, and at certain times in the year, it became full of frogs that croaked when you opened the door. How they got their, I never knew, but there was far more than just a few. When the frogs left, the rats would take over. We could never afford a dog, so I called the largest one Rover. Billy said that’s how the cat lost his eye fighting with a rat over a steak and kidney pie.

Dad was really ill most of the time, so we never had any money but I had the most important thing a human can have ‘imagination’ and the love of my parents, how I wished when I was older that I could have given them more, my biggest regret in life is that you can’t pass things back because my mom and dad died with nothing.

That’s the Thing.