Don't Quit - Persevere

[Anonymous]

I must have had a particularly sadistic high school English teacher. We had to memorize and recite Chaucer's General Prologue  to the Canterbury Tales - in Middle English.

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,

And smale foweles maken melodye,

That slepen al the nyght with open eye-

(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes

To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende

Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,

The hooly blisful martir for to seke

That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

Bifil that in that seson, on a day,

In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay

Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage

To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,

At nyght was come into that hostelrye

Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye

Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle

In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,

That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.

[MidnightVoice]

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desifink wrote:

I must have had a particularly sadistic high school English teacher.

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You ahd a teacher?

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.  

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!  

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.  

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.  

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

ALL: They won't!

[Anonymous]

Heh. Too true.

This is how much of a nerd/dork I am: my HS English teacher is in my bookgroup. It took me a while to get comfortable with calling her by her first name, instead of Mrs. ____.

She's pretty cool, Chaucer obsession aside...

[Anonymous]

I think I would be shy also if my English teacher were in my club also!

[atlastontheroad]

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MidnightVoice wrote:

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desifink wrote:

I must have had a particularly sadistic high school English teacher.

---

You ahd a teacher?

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.  

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!  

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.  

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.  

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

ALL: They won't!

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If this isn't the precursor to Monty Python's skit, I'll be pickled and dipped in chocolate.

atlast....

[MidnightVoice]

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atlastontheroad wrote:

If this isn't the precursor to Monty Python's skit, I'll be pickled and dipped in chocolate.

atlast....

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I thought it was the skit!!

[MattH]

Since somebody quoted Robert Service I thought this item might be of interest.

http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/159/12/1485.pdf

[haulingthescoreup]

Huh, I wish the psych consults that I have to deal with were as well-written!

Sad to say, I was working out the codes in my mind as I read.

[MattH]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Huh, I wish the psych consults that I have to deal with were as well-written!

Sad to say, I was working out the codes in my mind as I read.

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My wife is a medical writer and also loved it -- guess all us medical and pharma types think alike.

[Anonymous]

"It's easy to grin
when your ship has come in
and you've got the stock market beat.

But the man who's worthwhile
is the man who can smile
when his shorts are too tight in the seat."

Judge Smails, from Caddyshack.

And of course, who could forget the motivation speech in Animal House:

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?..."