Mar

28

Ode to the Rag ‘n bone Man

Posted by maureen

March 28, 2007 |

Growing up in England a familiar sight each year was the Rag and Bone man. He rode his horse drawn cart around the streets buying old rags, bones and anything else people would sell him. His cry of “Rag n Bone” was often shortened to “raa-boh”, and as soon as we heard it we would follow the cart through the streets. To be honest it was years before I knew what he was shouting! Chances are that you would also have a Gypsy come to your door once or twice a year. She would go door to door selling the wooden pegs they made. Our mothers would use the pegs to hang their washing on the line outside She would also tell fortunes if you crossed her palm with silver. Funny enough the bigger the coin, the better your fortune got. The stories we made up about these characters…..

Ode to the Rag ‘n Bone Man

He sat atop his horse and cart
Watching as the children ran
Looking every bit the part
Of the rag ‘n bone man

His grimy face and dirty hands
Foretold his unusual employment
His trade was old rags, pots and pans
And similar items for procurement

Life had been cruel and unrelenting
And for the rag ‘n bone mans part
He knew there are no songs or singing
Of love to stir his sad old heart

Then just by chance one rainy day
Up the street came the notorious Gypsy Rose
Who was born, that was the hearsay
With an enormous wart on her nose

Our hero soaked and dressed to kill
With blackened coat and toothless grin
Heard gypsy’s Rose shattering trill
Pegs, my dear, my baskets full t’ rim

Chance intervened that fateful day
As they glimpsed each others charms
On our doorstep, much to our dismay
And left, wrapped in each others arm

Years went by with out sound or sight
Of the two lovers or the horse and cart
Some said that they died on their wedding night
Others said it was of a broken heart

I thought I d never know the truth behind
Our lovers and their untimely demise
Until I saw a young man of similar kind
To our old Rag ‘n Bone man size

He cried “rag ‘n bone” just like years gone by
When old Rag ‘n Bone left with Gypsy Rose
And as I caught sight of the young man I let out a cry
For there was an enormous wart on his nose!


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. Christopher Waldrop on March 31, 2007 5:15 pm

    Wow. Are these sorts of people still around in England? I’ve always been fascinated by Yeats’s poem “The Circus Animal’s Desertion”, which ends with those lines, “Now that my ladder’s gone I must lie down where all ladders start,/In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.” Dylan Thomas, in his only screenplay, “The Doctor And The Devils”, also described the squalor of 19th Century Edinburgh by saying something like, “Shops that sell rags and bones are manned by rags and bones.” Sad, but also everyone, no matter the depths of their poverty, had a place in society.

  2. maureen on March 31, 2007 8:26 pm

    The Rag N Bone man has gone “high tech” and traded his horse for pickup truck. He don’t go door to door much now because most members of the household work and traffic is so heavy now. He takes advantage of the cell phone and makes contact that way for pick ups.

  3. Anni on March 27, 2008 10:07 am

    I live in N Yorkshire (Saltburn) and still occasionally hear a Rag n bone man meandering the bag streets shouting ‘nee rag bo!’
    As a child in the sixties the rag and bone men would come around and leave a big bag of colouring books and crayons hanging on our door handles and we could keep them if we gave them ‘nee rag bo.’It was such a treat for a ‘poor kid!’

  4. cameron on April 6, 2008 5:05 am

    Anni, it was the fifties and sixties for me and I remember the excitement among us kids when that old horse and cart came by. They were always a little scary though.

  5. vincent on May 17, 2008 4:53 pm

    The horse of a Rag ‘n’ Bone Man who travelled Pinner,(Middlesex))in the 50’s had a yoke and harness studded with brass decoration and a woven nose-bag full of oats.The Milkman’s horse was much plainer in comparison.
    They’d stop by and i’d feed ‘em carrots.

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