Was Woodbine Willy a serial killer?
Reflections on the imminent smoking ban in English pubs by a lifelong smoker, aged 84....
Yes, I remember Abdulla and Passing Cloud, boxes of 100 State Express. I remember Bulldog Drummond's injunction with his cigarette case. "Turkish on the left. Virginia on the right." I remember Noel Coward's long holder, which seemed the height of depravity. I remember Paul Heinred's double ignition manoeuvre in Now Voyager which reduced Bette Davis into a palpitating pulp.
I remember De Reske and Kensitas, with the obsequious butler. Black Cat, and some black coated with gold tip, carrying a hammer and sickle, called Tovarich, which managed to be smart and politically confusing.
And what about Woodbine Willy?. Did he know he was helping to finish off wounded soldiers by giving them the poisonous weed?
I remember smoking carriages on trains. I remember that you were never alone with a Strand. I remember the snobbery of Senior Service, the death wish of Capstan Full Strength. I remember smoking in the cinema. My Aunt Maude telling me that her idea of heaven was "a front seat at the Odeon and twenty Players in my bag." I remember the cheapest fag of all, called Crayon, two for a penny, that left you wretched and retching. I remember Ardath for their coupons, and gifts (smoking yourself to death for a silver fish slice), Craven A that were "kind to your throat." and Three Castles, very posh...
[img_assist|nid=166|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=124|height=189]
What is going to happen to all this folk lore now?
I remember the currency of Camels and Lucky Strike, the allure of Du Maurier, the Canadian Sweet Caporal, the French Gitanes and Disque Bleu, the oval shaped Turkish.
Me? I've always smoked a pipe. I've been warned by my local to leave it at home. On the last day before the ban I'm going to have a smokethon.
Allen Saddler
Comments
Don't forget Ginger Rogers'
Don't forget Ginger Rogers' "Cigarette me, big boy" and Jodi Foster's "When that cigarette burns out, your time's up".
sympathies...
Here in Arizona, we just started a statewide ban on 1 May that essentially bans smoking in any public place. It just seems wrong to have to finish your pint, and then go outside, 25 feet away from any entrance, to have a smoke.
-Nickolas
In search of Woodbine Willie
Well, I hadn't heard of Woodbine Willie so I went in search of him.
Here's his Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Anketell_Studdert_Kennedy
Turns out he was he was a padre in the trenches in the first world war
who went native and was famous for handing out Woodbine cigarettes
to wounded and dying soldiers. He became a socialist and a poet of the
trenches and this is one of his (pretty terrible) poems.
The Spirit
When there ain't no gal to kiss you,
And the postman seems to miss you,
And the fags have skipped an issue,
Carry on.
When ye've got an empty belly,
And the bulley's rotten smelly,
And you're shivering like a jelly,
Carry on.
When the Boche has done your chum in,
And the sergeant's done the rum in,
And there ain't no rations comin',
Carry on.
When the world is red and reeking,
And the shrapnel shells are shrieking,
And your blood is slowly leaking,
Carry on.
When the broken battered trenches,
Are like the bloody butchers' benches,
And the air is thick with stenches,
Carry on.
Carry on,
Though your pals are pale and wan,
And the hope of life is gone,
Carry on.
For to do more than you can,
Is to be a British man,
Not a rotten 'also ran,'
Carry on..
'Woodbine Willy'
Hope you don't mind me adding this here.
Woodbine Willie
Perhaps you should read the book ''BRITAIN'S LAST TOMMIES'' by Richard Van Emden, which may give you some idea of what it really was like to have been a young man in the Great War? You seem not to have much idea at all regarding the Rev. Kennedys meaning in his poetry.
Woodbine Willie
Well said! Woodbine Willie was a man of his time and his rhymes were designed to speak to the ordinary soldier, which they did. Thousands lined the streets for his funeral because he made a difference to poor people.
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote of him “If to be a priest is to carry others on the heart and offer them with self in the sacrifice of human nature – The Body and the Blood – to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – then Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy was the finest priest I have ever known.”
Fr J
While some of his poetry was
While some of his poetry was very basic he also wrote some quite beautiful and erudite poems but there is no point in pitching yourself too high. He was there for the men (as his MC proves) and that is what matters
Cigarettes
Ever heard of Column cigarettes ? White packet with blue picture of Nelson's Column. Encountered in Saigon, 1942 in packets of ten, brown and stuck to the packet through exposure to water I guess. Given us by Japs , a one off.