Morning Music

By Rhiannonw

Wed, 05 Mar 2025
  • 182 reads
11 comments
 

One of my grandmothers lived in a narrow terrace house
with no real front garden,
and the small back garden sloped steeply down
with steps from the house.
The backdoor faced sideways from her kitchen area,
towards her neighbour’s similarly sideways-facing backdoor
and so did the first few steps,
then I think the steps turned down towards the little garden.
So the two back doors looked across at each other.
There was a fence between, but lower.
So the two ladies really could chat across ‘over the fence’
while standing high up on their own doorsteps,
and were actually quite close to each other as they did so..

The story I seem to remember is that
they frequently met thus
greeting each other over their ‘morning music’
of both scraping their (slightly) burnt toast slices.
Post-war you had to be economic!

(Photo: I’m afraid I wasted this slice to get the photo. When I do have toast,  I like
it lightly done and buttered while hot!)

[IP: toast]

Certificate U
Poem
Families
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Another great IP response - thank you Rhiannon, and I hope you gave the toast to the birds? In which case, not a waste at all!

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks. Sorry, we haven't been able to feed the birds recently and in confusion it wasn't I disposed of it anyway!. I grew up with the term 'morning music' for toast scraping, but I can't find reference to it nowadays on the web. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I'd never heard the phrase before you mentioned it. Maybe regional?

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Might have been just a famiily joke post-war! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I will remember this, as always burning toast :0) I like the term morning music very much, had always thought of teaspoons stirring mugs as like human dawn chorus (only not at dawn)

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

That's a new idea! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I love burnt toast - so long as not actually incinerated!

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Ah! The perfect guest!

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I remember a time I had a very nervous lady round for coffee. She wanted to chat, but also had asked for 'just toast and coffee' - I think milky, i'm better at chatting and putting people at their ease than watching boiling milk or toasting toast. By the time I think I had boiled the miilk over and burnt the toast, the 'ice' was broken and she was laughing and giving me permission to do one or the other, maybe we tried simple instant coffee, while we also had easing conversation! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Nolan on

The title made me think of "morning has broken" with the bird symphonies just before dawn. In the old days we also used to talk with the neigbours like that, over the fence. Now you're to busy anyway still sleeping.

Keep well Rhiannon! Nolan &

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks, Yes, I've been asking around, and I think the term 'morning music' for scraping the burnt toast outside the backdoor must have been a family joke at the time.

My grandfather was mayor once or twice of the town, and became a Member of Parliament, but they lived very unpretentiously and got on well with their neighbours. Rhiannon