Privatization

Introduction

We now move on to the 1980s and a much more sombre mood. On the face of it, this piece is about a bus route, but actually, it is about something quite different.

People tend to join historical societies like ours in their thirties or forties, when they start to notice that things they have always taken for granted are either disappearing or changing beyond recognition. So this is a protest against unnecessary change. There is no point in altering something unless the change constitutes progress.

The real point comes in the seventh and final stanza. Now, I come from the Chiltern Hundreds, the southernmost part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. I was born and raised at Langley Marish, which is in Stoke Hundred, named after Stoke Poges of Thomas Gray fame. My part of Langley came within the Borough of Slough, and so in 1974, without a 'by your leave', my birthplace was moved bodily into Berkshire, despite being north of the Thames.

This piece of free verse is called Privatization, but it is not a political statement. It is just me railing against change for its own sake.

Privatization

The 81s are yellow now.

When I was a lad, the 81
Was the only real red London bus
That came out as far as Slough.
Its route was an invisible cord
Tying us to the great city.

The 81s are yellow now.

 

There were plenty of other red buses
That ran into the station,
But they all said THAMES VALLEY on them
And they were the wrong red. The 81
Was the only real red London bus.

The 81s are yellow now.

 

There were plenty of other buses
With LONDON TRANSPORT on them in big gold letters,
And a long gold line running from the end of the L to the bottom of the second T;
But they were green and two a penny. The 81
Was the only real red London bus.

The 81s are yellow now.

 

Sometimes it was an outside-stair bus,
Old even then, a pre-war relic.
It had a proper roof, but the stairs were out in the weather.
"Mum, can we go upstairs?"
But it wasn't safe, she said.

The 81s are yellow now.

 

Once it ran on to Windsor every weekend,
A red bus link for the royalty-seekers.
The last bus home would be the 81;
But those days are gone long since and anyway,

The 81s are yellow now.

 

It changed as time went by;
For years it was an RT (lovely bus, that was),
And then it was a little one for a while;
But they soon brought back the tall red double-deckers.

The 81s are yellow now.

 

They've ripped the heart out of the old town
And replaced it with a placeless precinct.
They've put my corner of the Chiltern Hundreds
Into Berkshire, would you believe?

And the 81s are yellow now.

 

Note: The benighted administrative county of Berkshire has long since been abolished and an expanded Slough is now a unitary authority. The last time I went that way, I noticed that route 81 was being operated by red single-deckers.
(Posted 12/10)

Since I first posted this I notice that red double-deckers have reappeared on route 81.
(Posted 9/17)