The Old Rugged Cross

 

The heart of the Aviation bar was its jukebox

A Rock-Ola

Brand new when it was first installed

In 1953

 

It dominated the tiny grotty little bar

With its great flashing neons

 

Over the years it had had two updates

The first in 1968

A conversion

So it could play the new-fangled 7inch discs

All a bit modern for Flo

But she got used to it

 

The second

An update too far

A wall-mounted box

So you could make your selections

And control the jukebox

From anywhere in the hotel

 

“Where do you want it putting?”

Asked the installer

“You can stick it up yur a…”

Flo stopped herself

“On t’ wall, next t’ other un”

“But that doesn’t make sense”

Said the installer

“To have the main unit, and the controller side by side”

But Flo was adamant

And after all

This was Flo’s domain

 

The choice of discs didn’t leave much to the imagination

The “modern” records

The ones on the pink cards

Were the only ones that ever got changed

And that was only every two months or so

 

Evergreen records

Andy Williams and the like

Had a green card

No irony wasted there

 

But rock and roll dominated

From Bill Haley right through to Elvis

The ones on white cards

These were Lenny-the-Face’s favourites

 

Lenny virtually lived in the Aviation Bar

And his arrival was always announced

By a bit of “good old rock-and-roll”

Blue suede shoes being his signature tune

 

The last selection

H1

On a yellow card

Was a total stand-alone

The only yellow card in the jukebox

 

THE OLD RUGGED CROSS

Was a hymn

A dirge

A sad droning lament

That could bring tears to a glass eye

And leave you crying out for…less

 

#On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross#

 

As I say

It was a long droning, lamenting dirge

Bloody awful

But Flo loved it

 

When she found herself alone

She always selected

H1

 

Then she’d close her eyes

And drift off to another time

 

Who knows where

 

Maybe to her childhood

And the chapel

Where her father

A strict Methodist minister

Kept her on a short leash

With his bible studies

 

Or maybe

To the days when she rebelled

To be with Cyril

Who opened her eyes

When she got to know him

In the biblical sense  

Her father would have killed them both

If he knew

 

No-one could know

Where Flo was transported to

When she selected

H1

And entered a world of her own

And swayed to the melody

 

#On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross#

 

It was a dirge

Bloody awful dirge