The Influential Factor

"What we were doing was exactly the same as Picasso and the cubists. It was the same as the architects when they moved away from Art Nouveau to what Le Corbusier did when he moved to purity of line. The difference was we could hardly read or write and we were in the East End (of London), but we were doing exactly the same thing and I believe it is of great importance. The actions, everything we were doing was modernist influenced. We were transposing what the original modernists had done."

John Simons

Spike Milligan, like others of his generation who ended up in the army during the Second World War, finds the upside was being introduced to new ways of thinking and dressing. The book is 'Goodbye Soldier' and the setting is Rome just after the end of the war. Spike has a dancer girlfriend, Toni, who is showing him round the city:

'So we walk, walk, walk, talk, talk, talk. The walking involves my sensible brown English brogues. Let me describe them. At first glance they look like semi-deflated rugby balls. I have a small foot, size seven, but the shoe is size ten. The leather is convulsed, the soles are an inch thick with a rubber heel. I had bought them off a stall in Deptford. Basically, they made me look like a cripple. I wondered why people stood up for me in buses. Now Toni, elegant Toni, has noticed them. I suppose to her Italian mind they would appear to look like two giant stale salamis with shoelaces inserted. She tries to be tactful.

'Terr-ee, why you wear you Army boots with nice clothes?'

Army boots??? What was wrong with the girl? I told her these were my best shoes and the height of fashion in the 7s 6d. range. I was the talk of Deptford! She stifled a laugh with her handkerchief. She is wearing delightful featherlight Ferragamo shoes.

'You only 'ave one pair of shoes?'

Of course, that's all one needs - one sensible pair weighing ten pounds each.

'You must buy one more best pair,' she said and we left it at that.

---------------------------

We walk and talk. We could have run and talked, I suppose; or, rather, Toni could have run and talked while I stood and listened. God she had lovely legs. Those lovely legs stop outside a shoe shop. In she hikes me. A totally bald fat Italian salesman with a fixed grin attends us. Toni rattles off something in Italian, during which the salesman glances in horror at my sensible English shoes. He is gone and returns with a pair of black moccasins.

'Terr-ee,' she smiles. 'You try theseeeee.'

I sit while the salesman unlaces my shoes. He braces himself like a man about to neutralize an unexploded bomb. With a low moan, he eases them off and drops them to the floor with a loud Thud!

My shoes lie on their sides looking like an accident. He slips on one moccasin, then the other. I feel light-headed. I feel naked. I look in the mirror - gone are the two Frankenstein lumps at the bottom of my legs. Now, all is trim and elegant. Toni has made her first move in civilizing me.

The salesman wants to know if I want the old shoes. Yes, I say, I want to take them to Lourdes to see if there's a cure. The change in my shoes is unbelievable. I'm a stone lighter. I can cross my legs without having to lift my leg manually, dogs have stopped barking at or trying to mate with them. A small step for Spike Milligan, a giant leap for mankind.'

Last edited by SubtleCool (2007-05-01 07:11:13)

This is what George Threadneedleman left as a comment on my 'My Space' page....


"I recently read a piece by Grayson Perry, and he wrote to be a craftsman was to be working-class nobility. I'll have a bit of that... The bespoke suit is made to the specific requirements for the client, using traditional hand cutting techniques,along with the traditional hand crafted tailoring methods. It is then fitted and honed to the mind and body of the client. Fashion labels dictate their own styles, and do not reflect the client's personality. I do!"

Bless
George



Beautiful!!