ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION
suggests
'FOG'
SMOG 1950
In my recollection
It was much worse than this!
*
I don't recall its coming.
One moment the air was clear;
The next we were enveloped
In a sticky yellow blanket!
Black. Yellow. And sticky.
*
Why yellow?
They said it was sulphur,
It certainly smelt like it!
It certainly tasted like it!
Clean Air was a long way off.
*
I have several clear memories
Of that unusual event;
The Great Smog of 1950.
*
I remember going to a dance
At the Kensington Town Hall.
Males and females sat
At opposite sides of the ballroom.
The 'ladies' waited to be 'asked.'
Only, on this occasion,
(And we were inside a building, remember!)
There was fog drifting between us.
*
I can smell it now,
I can taste it now.
And I can see it clouding the electric lights!
*
I can also remember trying to find my way home.
I couldn't even find the kerb!
I had to feel with my toes
For the edge of the pavement!
And great black bodies kept looming up
Right in front of me!
*
'I couldn't see my hand before my face'!
Not just a glib saying,
But a reality!
*
I recall hearing about the sheep.
There was an Agricultural Show
In progress.
Thousands of sheep died!
*
Finally, I remember the aftermath.
How the smell and taste lingered for weeks.
How all ones clothes were
Tinged with a yellowish grey.
How the 'fog' hung around in ones nose and ears
'For ever'.
*
It was a curse.
Yet it was a blessing.
Finally, London became
Clean!
*
A more lovely version of the same thing here:
