Pitman's Redundancy Pay by bill\sables

bill's Comments:  Some of the words are in the Geordie Accent, the language of the North East Mining area of England.

Now Jonty Broon the pitman was off to work one morning
He'd got his bait and pit boots on, the day was still just dawning
He put on his cap and left the house, met his mates out in the street
They didn't know the shock they'd get before coming home that neet
'Cos as they walked into the yard they heard the buzzers call
And saw a great big notice, it was plastered on the wall
It was put there by the coal board, "They were very sorry but
Due to economic pressures, the pit had got to shut"
Some said they'd go to Nottingham, some leave the pit for good
But Jonty sat there thoughtful like and said to Tommy Judd
"I've been involved in pitwork all my married life
And the hardest part of all this is how to tell the wife"
So he went and told his missus, it was very hard to say
But she said "Now divent worry man, I've saved for a rainy day
Ye knaa up in the wardrobe, I've got two biscuit tins,
Wey I've saved a bit of money there in case the times got thin."

"Now we've been married fowerty years and I asked you when I was a bride
Not to ever ask me what I kept inside
In all that time you've worked so hard through strikes and war torn years
And never once have you asked me what was in them tins upstairs
Well now that things have altered I think it's time I said
What I've got in them biscuit tins we've kept beside the bed".
They opened up the first tin and lifting up the lid
Found shillings, two bobs, and half croons, there was nearly fifty quid
He asked her where it had come from, "Did you keep it from my pay"
She said every time they had made love she put half a croon away
A tear filled that old pitman's eye he broke down and he said
"If I'd known that forty years ago I'd have brought you all my trade"
But then he got the other tin and laid it on the floor
Inside he found two chicken eggs and ten thousand pounds or more
He said "Now this is funny, This thing has got me foxed
I just can't fathom out why these eggs are in this box"

She said " Sometimes I got lonely when you were doon the pit
Wey I mebbies was unfaithful, but just a little bit
Now every time it happened I put an egg away
Ye knaa just a little token to remind me of that day"
Now Jonty thought, that's only twice that she had gone astray
And thought of all the many times that he had played away
So he said he would forgive her 'cos she was a canny wife 
"But how come all that money, I've never earned that in my life"
She said " Ye think I divent knaa that you've been with other wimmen
I've listened to the gossop man, I knaa that you've been sinnin
Now for all that money in the tin I think you should be grateful
'Cos I used te gan and sell the eggs every time I had a crate full


Bill Sables