Black Country humour

My mate has just come out of the hospital; he had both legs amputated. I popped round to help him out; just until he gets back on his feet.  I said, “Bill, I’m goin’ to the supermarket, do you need anything?”

He said, ” Ar,  bring me a couple of chicken legs.”

I said, “C’mon Bill, you’re clutchin’ at straws now…”

That is an example of Black Country humour. You might think it’s silly or you might think it’s clever; we don’t really care. It’s a laff!

The photograph was taken last summer from Church Hill, in Wednesbury. You can see a lot of Wednesbury from there and Dudley in the distance. To the North you have Darlaston; otherwise known as Darlo. To the North East, Walsall which is now a Metropolitan area and includes Darlaston, parts of Willenhall and other small towns. Wednesbury has been swallowed up into a metropolitan borough too, called Sandwell and so have 5 other towns including West Bromwich. The administrative offices for Wednesbury used to be Stafford for county affairs and that was hard to get to, so the West Midlands County council was formed. That was an expensive disaster so Metropolitan areas were formed.  The administrative centre for Sandwell is now in Oldbury; hard to get to for most people and so we go full circle. They have moved the magistrates court out there from West Brom too; stupid people. We are not all that happy with Sandwell.

Why have I got all local today? My blog was featured on a local news site yesterday and I must give them a mention. The Yamyam.com covers local news from around the Black Country and links to local stories at our regional newspaper the Express and Star.

I just read on the Express and Star website that luxury car maker Rolls Royce had a record year. They sold 31% more cars in 2011 than the previous year. By a strange coincidence the European food bank has record demand for food from charities that help the 80 million people around Europe that live in poverty. They distributed around a billion Euros worth of food. It’s nice to know it’s not all doom and gloom, some things are doing well…

We do have a sarcastic tendency in the Black Country too. A well used phrase is, “What did your last slave die of?”

The Black Country is so called because of the ‘thick coal’ that was used for industry. This was the industrial hub of Britain in the 18th and 19th century. People came from all over the country to work here and it is now multi cultural because people come from around the world to enjoy the scenic beauty that is the Black Country. Ignore people who say it’s a sh** hole, they only see the graffiti and other crap. It’s not so bad when the sun shines.

There are people in the Black Country who think they’re middle class; they try to talk posh. They own their own house and they makes them landed gentry, innit? People outside of the Black Country think we’re all working class and thick as two short planks. This confuses migrants who come here, they think they are being discriminated against because of their race; it’s not, it’s because they are starting to talk like us; like workers.

It isn’t too bad around here when the sun shines in summer…

Sandwell Council just put a new fence down the side of that pool; I know…

I’ll be doing a Neodigital Art blog tomorrow, that should be fun…

You can find more amazing blogs on my Home Page. Please do comment, share, like or follow my blog. I need all the help I can get, I live in the Black Country…

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