A Promise To Dad
A Memory of Old Swinford.
Many years ago, I promised to buy Dad a drink in the "Labour In Vain" public house in Oldswinford, a hostelry that the family has talked about for generations. I had driven past it once before in the 1980s but at that time it was being refurbished and was not open.
Our ancestors had left Oldswinford in the 1890s to settle in the South Wales valleys.
In 1994 I had the opportunity to fulfil my promise. Dad and I arrived in Oldswinford at about 2.30 and parked in the Labour In Vain car park. We shook hands.
We began looking for the renowned glass etching on one of the pub windows. Sure enough there it was: a small black piccaninny in a wash tub being scrubbed by two white nurses in a hopeless attempt to make the child white - the Labour In Vain!
We walked in and I had the pleasure of standing the old man a glass of beer.
That was 20 years ago and it seems like yesterday!
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