Indiana Joe
December 25th 07, 07:39 PM
litre's too much. It starts my bladder running. Let alone the price.'
'You must have seen great changes since you were a young man,' said
Winston tentatively.
The old man's pale blue eyes moved from the darts board to the bar,
and from the bar to the door of the Gents, as though it were in the bar-
room that he expected the changes to have occurred.
'The beer was better,' he said finally. 'And cheaper! When I was a
young man, mild beer -- wallop we used to call it -- was fourpence a pint.
That was before the war, of course.'
'Which war was that?' said Winston.
'It's all wars,' said the old man vaguely. He took up his glass, and
his shoulders straightened again. ''Ere's wishing you the very best of
'ealth!'
In his lean throat the sharp-pointed Adam's apple made a surprisingly
rapid up-and-down movement, and the beer vanished. Winston went to the bar
and came back with two more half-litres. The old man appeared to have
forgotten his prejudice against drinking a full litre.
'You are very much older than I am,' said Winston. 'You must have been
a grown man before I was born. You can remember what it was like in the old
days, before the Revolution. People of my age don't really know anything
about those times. We can only read about them in books, and what it says
in the books may not be true. I should like your opinion on that. The
history books say that life before the Revolution was completely different
from what it is now. There was the most terrible oppression, injustice,
poverty worse than anything we can imagine. Here in London, the great mass
of the people never had enough to eat from birth to death. Half of them
hadn't even boots on their feet. They worked twelve hours a day, they left
school at nine, they slept te
'You must have seen great changes since you were a young man,' said
Winston tentatively.
The old man's pale blue eyes moved from the darts board to the bar,
and from the bar to the door of the Gents, as though it were in the bar-
room that he expected the changes to have occurred.
'The beer was better,' he said finally. 'And cheaper! When I was a
young man, mild beer -- wallop we used to call it -- was fourpence a pint.
That was before the war, of course.'
'Which war was that?' said Winston.
'It's all wars,' said the old man vaguely. He took up his glass, and
his shoulders straightened again. ''Ere's wishing you the very best of
'ealth!'
In his lean throat the sharp-pointed Adam's apple made a surprisingly
rapid up-and-down movement, and the beer vanished. Winston went to the bar
and came back with two more half-litres. The old man appeared to have
forgotten his prejudice against drinking a full litre.
'You are very much older than I am,' said Winston. 'You must have been
a grown man before I was born. You can remember what it was like in the old
days, before the Revolution. People of my age don't really know anything
about those times. We can only read about them in books, and what it says
in the books may not be true. I should like your opinion on that. The
history books say that life before the Revolution was completely different
from what it is now. There was the most terrible oppression, injustice,
poverty worse than anything we can imagine. Here in London, the great mass
of the people never had enough to eat from birth to death. Half of them
hadn't even boots on their feet. They worked twelve hours a day, they left
school at nine, they slept te