‘THE DAYS I WENT TO SCHOOL’

1/ In summer and in winter,
In sunshine, rain or snow,
I walked the road from Leverogue
To school in fair Drumbo.
Just a Master and a Teacher
With several classes each.
To read, to write and work out sums,
Endeavoured us to teach.

2/ I remember Mr. Morrison.
Headmaster of repute,
Miss Maxwell was the Mistress,
Precise and quite astute.
She took the girls for needlework,
To teach us how to knit,
It took so long to knit my socks,
I'm afraid they didn’t fit!

3/ Although everything was basic,
Not up-to-date like now,
The things we learned, we learned them well,
And life was good somehow.
There was no central heating,
No low-flush inside ‘loo’,
Pot-bellied stove supplied the heat
The long, cold winters through.

4/ When the air raids came to Belfast
The classes rose in numbers
As children came to Drumbo
To escape from German bombers.
Many, many things we learned,
In those happy bygone days.
Things we never would forget
As we went our separate ways.

5/ Poetry learned long ago
I can remember still.
Songs and music from the past
I can recall at will.
From time to time I go back home
To Drumbo on the hill,
My schooldays now so far away,
But very near me still.

6/ In memory I’m setting out
Down Ballycairn Hill,
Past Sam Hanna's farmyard,
Walking with a will.
To Drumbo Schoolhouse, past the Church
I enter in once more,
With friends and pals from long ago,
And gently close the door.