Working Class Boy by Barnes Jimmy

Author:Barnes, Jimmy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-08-19T04:00:00+00:00

The time came for us to meet the rest of Reg’s family and Mum started to get nervous. Things seemed to change overnight.

Mum always had an inferiority complex. She started saying, ‘They’ll be toffs. They’re gonnae look down on us. We’re different tae them.’

She was sure that people only had to look at us and they would know we were no good. But we had to go to Reg’s young brother Tom’s twenty-first birthday party, no matter how weird Mum felt.

‘It’s what families do, love,’ Reg said as nicely as he could. ‘Well, they do in Australia anyway. Maybe it’s different where you came from but here, we’ve got to support our families.’

I began to worry again. Worry it would all go wrong and we would end up back where we started. We didn’t deserve a good life. We were losers, just like Mum feared, and we would end up in the gutter with the rest of the trash where we belonged.

Mum got more and more edgy as the party grew closer. She picked a few fights with Reg but he ignored her. When we were alone I asked him about it and he said, ‘Don’t worry love, it’s just like water off a duck’s back to me. Your mum has had a tough life and gets a bit stressed sometimes. She doesn’t mean to start fights.’

My dad would have killed her by this point so this was a whole new world to me. How could he be so patient? Not only that, he seemed to be trying to teach me about patience and how to be a good person too. Reg took the time to explain things. It was hard to take at first, but it got easier the longer we were together – until much later, when I stopped listening.

Reg had lived with his family at 74 Wellington Street in Alberton until he met my mum. The party was at his mum’s house – the house he was born in and would later want to die in. So we got dressed up in our best new clothes that Reg and Mum had bought for us so we would look good when we met the family.

Mum told us, ‘Be on your best behaviour or I’ll belt you. They’re gonnae look doon their noses at us as soon as they meet us. So don’t give them any excuses. And you John, don’t you start any trouble, or else.’ John was a bit of a hoodlum by this point.

Reg tried his best to reassure her that everything would be all right. But she was on guard and wasn’t in a good frame of mind to go anywhere, never mind to meet the in-laws. We were worried that things would go wrong before we had even left the house. It was like she was willing something to happen. But off we went. I think things started to get strained between her and Reg on the way but we carried on regardless.

The family and the guests were an unusual group, especially to a bunch of kids from Elizabeth.

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