I was chatting to the fellow who operates the till

In the local corner shop just down the street,

And asking for a chocolate bar I recalled a child's thrill

When leaving school and buying one as a treat.

 

Paying a total of sixpence from the cash of yesterday -

You got two hundred and forty <twenty shillings!> to a pound -

And how that bought a chocolate bar to send me on my way,

With a shllling left for my bus fare - safe and sound.

 

Today's price on that chocolate bar is very quickly found,

"Fifty pence" it demands for all the world to see,

From the hundred pence in total that makes up a modern pound

It says "I cost ten shillings" to the long-lived likes of me.

 

Remembering pre-decimal days, today, there's pain in billing

Via these massive mark-ups so often made in price,

From six pence (for younger folk - that's the same as half a shilling),

A choc bar for half of a modern pound makes a soul think twice!!

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