Left, right, Left right, Daddies on the Gas Pipe.
Now why has this stupid nothing saying pop up into my head after all these years? I heard this at the age of four or five and have never given it a thought after all of these years. Yes, Years I am eighty-five going on for eighty-six. What is going to pop back into my head again before I have to go? As far as I know this small rhyme makes no sense whatsoever, so why should it come again into my brain. I am now wracking my brains why did we often chant this small rhyme I know in those far off days a man came around in the evening lighting the gas lamps of those far off days. The same ritual again in the mornings. Left right left right daddies on the gas pipe. No mater how often I say this it brings no recollections of any kind as to why I learned this from the other boys at the Medway Cottage Homes. Was there a hidden meaning that I was too young to comprehend? I know this is ridiculous but it is once again stuck in my memory banks, what does it mean? Has it got any kind of meaning at all why did we chant this refrain? To what good or bad could it or did it lead to this left right, left right, daddies on the gas pipe. It must have had some meaning or the boys would never have chanted it, was it perhaps some kind of popular song of those days that we boys had in some weird form changed to suit some whim of our imaginations. Might I ask the elder ones among you readers that could perhaps delve into your own memory banks and tell me of some song that was in the nineteen thirties popular with gas lights or left right, left right, even daddies on the gas pipe, might give me a clue of some kind.
It is very much a tantalisation even to think of this stupid saying and why break ones head after all of these years of forgetfulness. Perhaps it was placed purposely in my brain to be forgotten and brought back to mind after all of these long years. If this is the case what should it remind me of? And why this stupid rhyming structure left right, left right, Daddies on the gas pipe. What gas pipe and why left right, left right. Can any one tell me what nonsense has now crept into my brain? Is this what happens to all old people mind you I do not feel old why eighty six is just getting on a little not really old. I ask myself why is it just this one piece of nonsense that has crept back into my conscious memory after all those years of forgetfulness. Is this some whim of the Gods is it only me, or do all over the age of sixty-five have something creep back to disturb one’s mind? Whatever it is I would I know be much better off without this annoying rhyme that has come back to haunt me. Yes haunt me like a ghost of yesteryear one of those irresistible some things that make no sense to ones much over worked head of grey matter known as the Brain. Another scribble from your scribbler Bern why should I keep all of this rubbish to myself?