When I was a boy when on rare occasions my dad happened to see a black person on a beach he would love to say "They've 'ad a good fortnight down 'ere". It's racist, of course, but I like the phrase in some ways as it betrays a very working class mindset. The use of the word fortnight rather than week not only suggests that it would take two weeks to get such a tan but reminds us that factory shut down was two weeks long and best spent down at the beach. The object of such a holiday (long before any skin cancer scares) was to lie on the beach and get as brown as ... that reminds me of another thing my dad would say that is not pc any more.
No comments:
Post a Comment