- Contributed by听
- tearosejoy
- People in story:听
- Rita, Olga, Elaine, Barbara, Gloria, Joy, Kathleen and Jeannette Butler, Nellie Butler (their mother) and Bubbles Glencross.
- Location of story:听
- Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, West Indies
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A5729628
- Contributed on:听
- 13 September 2005
Dear Gloria,
Found this poem by Bubbles. Remember him? He was the short observant one. It brought back memories.
That Christmas I remember clearly, Nellie had so many of the forces for lunch that we had to sit on the floor to eat because we did not have enough chairs!
I also remember the merchant marine guy who was torpedoed and rescued a few days earlier, who we did not know, but passing by our house and saw so many people in it that he thought it was a pub and came in. Nellie welcomed him and put him to bed to sleep off his drunkenness, when he woke she gave him a meal. We had some good times, remember.
Love all the way
Kathleen
66a Woodford Street, Port-of -Spain
It was Christmas time in Trinidad
and I was feeling blue,
'cause I was going nowhere
and had damn all to do.
Then Thursday just before the day
the Butlers asked me home,
so I stayed there for Christmas tide
instead of on the roam.
The time I had there, mon amie
was just the best on earth,
I used to think the Butlers grand
but now I know their worth.
They're just the nicest bunch of girls
I ever hope to meet,
that Christmas lunch, I'm telling you
was such a brilliant treat.
The trouble that we caused them
must have been a lot,
they didn't seem to mind it
and what a time we got.
The time we had was marvellous
terrific and superb,
stupendous, great and wizard
and every single verb.
In fact I can't describe it
but I hope that I will see,
my Christmas's in future
will be good as '43.
Signed (Bubbles) Glencross
The Butler girls were eight sisters living in Trinidad with their mother Nellie. Rita joined the Wrens, Olga and Elaine may have been married by then. The men were most likely from the Fleet Air Arm training base set up on the Island. Joy was my mother and she always enjoyed cooking, and entertaining lots of people in her home all through her life. She met her first fiance was killed during training. Gloria met her husband while he was training there and married him after the war ended.
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