Never Too Old To Dream

Wow...seems I was only here yesterday, maybe the isolation is getting to me after all.  I had been daydreaming of my Birthplace Murwillumbah NSW,  when I found myself aboard an old Rattler heading south to Sydney, a trip and a half let me tell you, lots of tooting, lots of whistles, and smoke, and lots of stops for railway coffee along the way, still remember those white Railway coffee mugs, and they made sure you left them at the kiosk before re-boarding for the next leg........hope you enjoy an old blokes dream.

  

Never too old to Dream

Well I’m coming down from Murwillumbah to make my presence felt

I’m off to Sydney Stadium... to fight for the heavyweight belt

I’ve been in training for eons and now and I’m as fit as a mallee bull

So when I get to meet the heavyweight champ... I will give him a bloody fistful.

I’m heading down on the old steam train from The Bah to platform number ten

Central Station it is long away... and an arrival I don’t know when

The old rattler she chugs along the rail and around the bends she sways

Platform number ten for sure... is many days and nights away.

Crossing the Hawksbury River Bridge ...means the City is almost in sight

Yeah, we will have left behind tons of coal before we arrive and alight

Just a few more tunnels to rumble through and keep the ash from the eyes

When the lights of the city come into view... I won’t be far from the heavyweight prize

Well I was picked up by Lefty Jones, an old time fighter from Surrey Hills

He drove me up to The Cross, thinking after the train I’d need some thrills

He dropped me off in Macleay Street…. not far from the Fountain lights

And not all that far from Rushcutters Bay... the venue for my fight.

The only thrill I encountered at The Cross was a one rounder in the Rex

I was enjoying a schooner at the bar when I was accosted by a Tommy from Middlesex

He’d just landed down at Wooloomooloo ...off a destroyer ship they say

But he was not going anywhere soon, as after my right hand... on the bar floor he lay

So shortly after that encounter, to the taxi rank I found my way

“G’day there mate” I said to the driver…”no worries, I’m straight, not gay”

”I need to get to Sydney Stadium...I’m due to fight the heavyweight champ”

“Can you get me there quick smart….before the crowd begins to decamp?”

Well the Taxi driver, he looked at me odd and said ”Hey the Champ won’t be there...

He’d been in a fight with a bloke at the Rex, and he’s now in Hospital care”

“But if you still wanna fight I can drop you off at Wooloomooloo

There’s hundreds of Tommy sailors down there... that need a good aussie blue”

‘Hmm, that's okay mate, you better head to Central Station and platform number ten

I’m the bloke from the Rex, it looks like I had better head back home again”

So, down Oxford Street and left at George, the Station loomed large under lights

And now, I’m getting outa town... running scared, after I’d won my only heavyweight fight.

Darrell B Parker

Weaver of words and emotions.

22/05/20