Random Thoughts 1

There is a old doggerel (a poem/song - in this case written by the operattists Gilbert and Sullivan) taught to me by my father lo these many years ago that began.

'TWAS on the shores that round our coast

From Deal to Ramsgate span,

That I found alone on a piece of stone

An elderly naval man.

His hair was weedy, his beard was long,

And weedy and long was he,

And I heard this wight on the shore recite,

In a singular minor key:

Oh, I am the cook and the captain bold

And the mate of the Nancy Brig

And a bosun tight and a midshipmite,

and the crew of the captain's gig ...

In a sense this is a my song in my own singular minor key.

And I will be your cook and captain bold, the mate, the bosun tight, the midshipmite and the crew of the captain's gig (its rifleman, if you care to know what position, the same spot I held on the boat crew of the USS Meredith some 35 years ago)