I owned Half-a-Horse called Dolly
We sold firewood in the streets, from dolly’s cart.
This is one of my “Me and …” stories … true stories from my life. №.4: ‘Me and a Horse called Dolly’
Yes … I found Dolly when I visited the Military & Colonial Museum in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia. And here she is in the picture above.
There she was, standing their with her friend in the museum, both attached to a military cart. When I saw the name plate on her neck I fell in love with her:
“Dolly” it proudly displays … “My name is Dolly”
And although it wasn’t my Dolly it didn’t seem to matter. I just had to take her photo.
When I say: “My Dolly”, I refer to a horse that had the same name, was the same color (though somewhat darker), and belonged to me in the 1950s. Well, to tell the truth, it didn’t really belong to me, I was only a boy, but its owners (two firewood men in the Lancashire town of Oldham in the UK) did say that me and my friend (Arnold Bottomley) could have half-a horse each.
And we believed them (as young boys would!). Which half I owned I forget, but I’d like to think it was the front half. And yes, now that I see the military Dolly’s front half (with name tag) I’m convinced: I owned the front half!
So, what exactly was I doing ‘owning’ half-a-horse? Well, in those days, when every house in the terraced streets of Oldham burned coal on their home fires, households needed firewood to help start the fire every day, and the firewood ‘industry’ was one of the booming industries of that era.
Dolly was the horse that pulled the firewood cart. Arnold and I would help our ‘bosses’ to chop the wood, load the cart, and then take Dolly and her cart around our neighborhood streets, selling the firewood by the bucket-load.
I can’t remember the price of a bucket-load, but we sold a lot!
Those were the days.
It was a romantic time. Being a boy and owning a horse, even half-a-horse, was just great. So you can see why I fell in love (once again I suppose) with Dolly, when I saw her standing there in the museum … Not my Dolly, but ‘Dolly’ never-the-less.
True stories are always the best, don’t you think?
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“Me” Story №4: “Me and a Horse called Dolly” written by Fred: writer on Medium * * * * * © Fred Ogden 2021 * * * * *
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