Death on the Double Decker

/ johnlmalone

We were coming home from the pictures, dad and I —

we had seen one of the great ones: Gary Cooper in ‘High Noon’,

when an announcement came over the bus radio,

that the King had died. Everyone fell silent then as the announcer

proceeded with the details. I never knew the king — I was only a kid —

but later he meant much to me. I wear a silver ring now with his image

on the head for he was a stutterer too. But he overcame it.

Whenever I spoke in public and felt nerves coming on I looked at the face

Of King George VI

22 thoughts on “Death on the Double Decker”

  7. Stuttering, I think, is a kind of loop that goes on in the mind brought on by nervous nerves. It is an awful stigma to bear. You can’t be cool if you stutter — can’t even really get the girl. It has my sympathy.

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    • thanks; you’re right; I went through it : from my teens to early adulthood it bedevilled me; you can’t be cool but then over a year or so I got the better of it; always there, but always on the sidelines; I haven’t stuttered since then —

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    • I don’t think much about King George VI now except when a royal death comes up but his example showed me what could be done — and if you were to be a functioning member of society and a secondary teacher and a poet who was expected to perform then you had to speak fluently —

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  11. This is lovely, John. This is why it’s so important that these differences aren’t hidden away. For you it was amazing that a King should stutter. Anyone with a difference must feel this way when they first see themselves represented in the public eye. To pretend it’s not there makes one feel entirely alone.

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  12. thanks Worms; I had to read this one again; it’s a good thing but you don’t come across stutterers much anymore; maybe if I was still teaching I would but my heart goes out to any kid afflicted with it; it is embarrassing and isolating —

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