This is a book of stories about small boys. It is about how they thought and what they did in a small West Indian town in the period round about the early 1950s. The boys are affected by the creatures among which they live: their parents, other adults, the neighbourhood dogs, and a girl or two. Mainly, it is an insight into how small boys interpreted and understood what the little world around them meant and how to adjust to the new words that they seemed to hear or read each day. The reader will understand and be sympathetic to some of the boys' definitions of things-definitions with which a good dictionary might not concur. Various interesting adults revolve around the group of boys and educate them from time to time, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by accident. Sometimes the education is of the mainstream type, and at other times it is particularly 'home grown'. But in every case it is properly cultural and pragmatic. Some of the characters of note are Pop, an uncle of the narrator and an adult who totally understood the minds of small boys, never having entirely grown up himself; Ridsdale, the organizer; Larry, the wise; James, the unfortunate; Guava, the grouch; and Calvin the little know-it-all whose mother had sent him to a private school. And we are not likely ever to forget Alice-Maud. There is no grief or tragedy or vile corruption within these pages. The reader should relax and bear in mind that the boys will not die from the mistakes and misunderstandings that they collide with. They are going to grow up and be wiser, and some will possibly become quite important men. But for the moment they are just boys.

Auszug. � Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

When the Pavilion had a Moustache

By Ian Hodge

AuthorHouse

Chapter 1 After Charlie McMahon's, 1, 
Chapter 2 Frank and Bing, 10, 
Chapter 3 The Death of the King, 21, 
Chapter 4 Ridsdale's Regiment, 29, 
Chapter 5 The Saint, 51, 
Chapter 6 Mrs Henry and Alice-Maud, 71, 
Chapter 7 Enter Calvin, 86, 
Chapter 8 Calvin's Moral Re-Armament Campaign, 99,

CHAPTER 1

After Charlie McMahon's

The men were on their way back along Lozac Road. It was a Friday evening, and there had been a fight on the radio. Joe Louis had fought Billy Conn that evening. Joe Louis was everybody's favourite boxer. I don't think they even bothered to learn the other boxer's name properly. They had carried James and me with them even though we were too small to understand fights.

We had a radio at our house, but my mother was not interested in boxing, and she was certainly not going to have a crowd of men in her front room, bawling out and leaping about. But she gave them her blessing to take me with them for the outing, and Henry had brought James with him.

Radios then were different and not universally available. They had things in them called tubes which had to be warmed up before they made a sound. You turned on the radio and waited. Eventually a hoarse humming sound would indicate that the radio was beginning to think about speaking or singing, and everybody would lean forward expectantly. About half a minute later, faintly at first and then more clearly by the second, the radio would begin to play. The radio stations were mainly on the short-wave band, and the programmes were usually accompanied by an outlandish whistling sound like `weeeooooeeee!'

I don't know if we played our radio often. I remember one particular day when all the adults in the house got up and danced while a man sang: `Pig knuckle and rice tonight'. I had danced too, after the approved manner of a four-year-old dancing.

Anyway, I had gone with the men and James for the outing to Charlie McMahon's shop at Bakers Corner. I liked going to Bakers Corner, especially at evenings. I always hoped that I would catch a glimpse of a little baker man in a large, white apron and a tall, white baker's hat when I went there. Charlie McMahon's shop had an atmosphere about it that was always like Christmas. First there were the smells. Pickled pig snout, pickled mackerel, smoked herrings, salt fish, and brown sugar vied with each other for ascendancy.

Then there were the sights. The roof was festooned with hanging bicycle frames and wheels, legs of ham wrapped in tarred covering, sausages, umbrellas, and other exotic things. There was the counter with the weight and scale, large bottles of multicoloured sweets, toffees, jawbone breakers and mints, balls of twine, and rolls of smooth brown paper for wrapping whatever you bought.

And then there were the sounds. Charlie McMahon's radio played loudly in the evenings, and it played Spanish radio stations. `Hey! Amigos, amigos, amigos.' And every now and again, there'd be something about `San Juan, Puerto Rico'. (Every little boy could say that with the proper accent.) The music was merengue music with trembling saxophones, clean-lipped trumpets, immaculately plucked guitars, and beautiful tenor voices of men singing in two- or three-part harmonies.

I did not know Charlie McMahon then. I was always too shy to ask which of the heaving bodies behind the counter of the crowded shop was his. When I was introduced to him much later, in my teens, I thought that he looked the way that a Charlie McMahon should look. But I could not recall having seen him in the shop when I was four years old.

The fight had not been competitive. Billy Conn had run, but as Joe Louis had said before, he could not hide. Joe Louis had won in the eighth round, and there was nothing for us to do but to head for the flamboyant tree in the park across the road from our house so that the men could discuss what had occurred.

I would not have gone into the park on my own then. The pavilion frightened me at night-time. It was a regularly shaped building where the people sat upstairs to watch cricket and entered the downstairs for meetings in the afternoons or for dances at night. It was a pleasant-looking building in the day, but when it became dark and the two or three lonely bulbs were switched on, they threw disturbing shadows. Where the little protruding balcony at the centre was lit, the shadow below was like a black square reminiscent of Hitler's moustache. I didn't know anything about Hitler at the time, but I hated and feared men who wore their moustaches like that.

`Lord!' said Henry as we trudged along Lozac Road. `He bang 'im like he was he chile. Ah sure wheh he be now he sorry he ever mention the word "fight" to Joe Louis.'

`I so sorry for Billycong that I backin' him now,' said Ambrose, pretending to be very upset. `Joe Louis is a bad man to bang-off de poor li'l boy like that. I against Joe Louis from now on.'

`James! What you t'ink 'bout the fight?' asked Pop. Pop was my mother's younger brother. He loved small children and would always try to include us in the conversations.

`Wha' fight?' asked James.

`The fight, nuh! What we went to listen to?'

`When?' asked James.

Pop gave up on that topic. `What about you dog, Rex? What he doin' now?'

`He is a bad dog. Yesterday he jump up and tek 'way me hotdog what Miss Beryl gi' me.'

`Ooh-ooh! That's bad, man! You cry?'

`Yeeeeees,' James admitted reluctantly, drawing the word out.

`But a big boy like you shouldn' cry 'bout a li'l hotdog.'

`I never cry for long,' said James. `An' look I nearly get it back.'

`How? You chase him?'

`No, man. Later he come in the yard and went sleep under the breadfruit tree. So I get a flat piece a' board an' put it 'pon he belly and jump on it to see if I could-a squeeze it back outa him. But I never jump hard enough, so he only get up an' mek one set a' noise an' run outa de yard.'

He paused reflectively for a second or two. `An' me mudder bang me,' he concluded.

Most of James's stories seemed to end the same way: `An' me mudder bang me.' He was very prone to getting `bang'.

`She bang you again? It ain' just Tuesday I hear you getting licks for something or other?'

`Yes. She bang me for de li'l dill dem.'

`What you do to the dills?'

`Well, they was runnin' all about an' wouldn' keep still. So I bang dem until they keep still, an' I put dem to lay down in a straight line. But when I call her to show her how nice dey was behavin', she start to screech out and say, "Ogord! Boy! You kill all-ah me damn duck."'

He paused again before adding: `An' she bang me.'

`Well, boy!' said Pop, with the air of one who prophesies. `If you live to age twenty, you goin' be a strong man.'

Then Pop returned to the subject of Rex and the hotdog. He wanted to find out whether or not James would have eaten it, if the hotdog had re-emerged from Rex's stomach. But before James could answer the other men shouted, `Hey, Pop, stop you nastiness! Let de li'l boy 'lone, man. You too advantage!'

By this time we had reached the flamboyant tree, and had settled comfortably on the grass around the trunk. Harold remarked that Desmond had missed the fight.

`He must be busy,' he said. `Them mechanic fellers always got something to do.'

`Who you callin' mechanic?' Ambrose interjected. `Desmond ain't no mechanic.'

`How you could say that?' was the...

��ber diesen Titel� kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Anbieterinformationen

Hello! Ria Christie Collections is an online venture that was initially set up in 2012 to sell books. We do not have a physical high street store. We are professional online booksellers. We only sell brand new books in perfect condition that we source from various suppliers and the publishers. Primarily, our aim is to provide an excellent service to all our customers. We always work as a team to achieve this. Our other objectives are to: 1. Ensure that all our products reach their destination quickly in a safe and secure manner 2. Answer to all our customer queries within 24 hours 3. Ensure that our customers are happy with their purchases 4. Provide all the items at a competitive price 5. Always listen to our customers Ria Christie Collections is not a registered company. It is a Sole Trader venture. Other key information is shown below: Contact Person Name: Rakesh Luchmun (Mr) Storefront Name: Ria Christie Collections Place of Establishment Address: Suite B; ARUN House; ARUN Building Arundel Road Uxbridge UB8 2RR United Kingdom E-Mail Address: riachristie@hotmail.co.uk VAT Number: GB 160 5650 25 We always work hard and aim to comply with all of Abebooks Policies. If you have any issues, please do not hesitate to write to us whether before or after a purchase. We promise to reply to you promptly and, in any case, within 24 hours. Thank you kindly! Yours sincerely Mr Rakesh Luchmun (Founder) and the Ria Christie Collections Team

Zur Homepage des Verk�ufers

Unternehmensdaten des Verk�ufers

Ryefield Investments Limited
175 Pield Heath Road, Uxbridge, UB8 3NL, United Kingdom

Gesch�ftsbedingungen und Versandinformationen

Verkaufsbedingungen

All Returns and Refund are as per Abebooks policies.

Widerrufsrecht

Wenn Sie Verbraucher sind, k�nnen Sie gem�� den folgenden Bestimmungen vom Vertrag zur�cktreten. Verbraucher ist jede nat�rliche Person, die zu Zwecken handelt, die nicht ihrer kaufm�nnischen, gewerblichen, k�nstlerischen oder beruflichen T�tigkeit zugerechnet werden k�nnen.

Informationen zum Widerrufsrecht

Gesetzliches Widerrufsrecht

Sie haben das Recht, den Vertrag innerhalb von 14 Tagen ohne Angabe von Gr�nden zu widerrufen.

Die Widerrufsfrist betr�gt 14 Tage ab dem Tag, an dem Sie oder ein von Ihnen benannter Dritter, der nicht der Transporteur ist, die letzte Ware oder den letzten Posten oder das letzte Exemplar in Besitz genommen hat.

Um das Widerrufsrecht auszu�ben, f�llen Sie auf unserer Website unter „Meine Eink�ufe" in „Mein Nutzerkonto" eine eindeutige Erkl�rung elektronisch aus und senden Sie sie ab. Wir werden Ihnen unverz�glich eine Best�tigung �ber den Eingang eines solchen Widerrufs auf einem dauerhaften Datentr�ger (z. B. per E-Mail) �bermitteln.

Um die Widerrufsfrist einzuhalten, reicht es aus, dass Sie Ihre Mitteilung �ber die Aus�bung des Widerrufsrechts vor Ablauf der Widerrufsfrist absenden.

Auswirkungen des Widerrufs

Wenn Sie diesen Vertrag widerrufen, erstatten wir Ihnen alle Zahlungen, die wir von Ihnen erhalten haben, einschlie�lich der Lieferkosten (mit Ausnahme der zus�tzlichen Kosten, die entstehen, wenn Sie eine andere Art der Lieferung als die von uns angebotene g�nstigste Standardlieferung gew�hlt haben).

Wir k�nnen einen Abzug von der R�ckerstattung f�r den Wertverlust der gelieferten Waren vornehmen, wenn der Verlust auf eine unn�tige Behandlung durch Sie zur�ckzuf�hren ist.

Wir werden die R�ckerstattung unverz�glich und nicht sp�ter als 14 Tage nach dem Tag vornehmen, an dem wir �ber Ihre Entscheidung, diesen Vertrag zu widerrufen, informiert wurden.

F�r die R�ckerstattung verwenden wir dasselbe Zahlungsmittel, das Sie f�r die urspr�ngliche Transaktion verwendet haben, es sei denn, Sie haben ausdr�cklich etwas anderes vereinbart; in keinem Fall werden Ihnen aufgrund einer solchen R�ckerstattung Geb�hren berechnet.

Wir k�nnen die R�ckzahlung verweigern, bis wir die Waren wieder zur�ckerhalten haben oder Sie den Nachweis erbracht haben, dass Sie die Waren zur�ckgesandt haben, je nachdem, was eher eintritt.

Sie m�ssen die Waren unverz�glich und in jedem Fall sp�testens 14 Tage ab dem Tag, an dem Sie uns �ber den Widerruf dieses Vertrags unterrichten, an Ria Christie Collections, Uxbridge, United Kingdom, zur�cksenden oder �bergeben. Die Frist ist eingehalten, wenn Sie die Ware vor Ablauf der Frist von 14 Tagen zur�cksenden. Sie m�ssen die direkten Kosten der R�cksendung der Waren tragen. Sie haften nur f�r einen etwaigen Wertverlust der Waren, der auf eine Behandlung zur�ckzuf�hren ist, die nicht zur Pr�fung der Art, Eigenschaften und Funktionsweise der Waren erforderlich ist.

Ausnahmen vom Widerrufsrecht

Das Widerrufsrecht gilt nicht f�r:

Die Lieferung von Zeitungen, Zeitschriften oder Magazinen mit Ausnahme von Abonnementvertr�gen; und
Die Lieferung digitaler Inhalte, die nicht auf einem physischen Medium (z. B. auf einer CD oder DVD) geliefert werden, wenn Sie bei Ihrer Bestellung akzeptiert haben, dass wir mit der Lieferung beginnen k�nnen und dass Sie nach Beginn der Lieferung den Vertrag nicht mehr widerrufen k�nnen.

Versandbedingungen

Orders usually ship within 2 business days. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required. Thank you!

Versandkosten von Vereinigtes K�nigreich nach USA

Versandkosten von Vereinigtes K�nigreich nach USA
Bestellmenge	6 bis 12�Werktage	6 bis 12�Werktage
Erster Artikel	EUR 10.89	EUR 10.89

Die Versandzeiten werden von den Verk�uferinnen und Verk�ufern festgelegt. Sie variieren je nach Versanddienstleister und Standort. Sendungen, die den Zoll passieren, k�nnen Verz�gerungen unterliegen. Eventuell anfallende Abgaben oder Geb�hren sind von der K�uferin bzw. dem K�ufer zu tragen. Die Verk�uferin bzw. der Verk�ufer kann Sie bez�glich zus�tzlicher Versandkosten kontaktieren, um einen m�glichen Anstieg der Versandkosten f�r Ihre Artikel auszugleichen.