Sheila Charles BUTTONS AND BEADS
When you were very young,
What did you do for a treat?
I looked in mum’s bead and button tin.
To me, that was really neat.
Mum used to use beads for making
Bookmarks. She used ribbon as well.
She just gave them to friends as presents.
She didn’t make them to sell.
Well, I just read that buttons
Were not used to fasten things.
they were merely decorative
Just like brooches, bracelets and rings.
They were first used as fasteners
In the reign of Liz the first-good Queen Bess.
It seems they were quite expensive.
Well, they would be, wouldn’t they? Yes.
Another treat, as children,
Was to look at cards that folk had sent
To our parents when we were one years old.
So that was money well spent.
Because it gave me pleasure for years on end.
Wasn’t it easy to make ME content?
Another memory has floated back –
My dad had a coin collection.
I really loved studying them
Whenever he brought them out for inspection.
(My girls ask me occasionally
If they can look in my jewellery box
I have a rather special one.
It is a musical box, which locks.)
However, no-one is interested in MY coins.
I DO have some buttons, but not many.
And I didn’t save their one year old cards.
I’m wondering if they even GOT any!
A treat for children these days
Would be smart phones, lap tops, an iPad.
So I don’t keep saying I liked buttons and beads
Because I know it drives them mad!
illustration by ume-nori
