Good graffiti..!
Robert Clements
Friday, March 09, 2012 - Years ago as a youngster with a group of friends, I remember climbing up a steep hill, getting to a cave, where we filled the rest of the day scribbling literature, slightly bawdy stuff though, on already cluttered walls.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves doing this, composing obscene poems and one liners about teachers and friends. We climbed down, tired but happily exhausted when we ran out of chalk. Later I tried doing this on the inner walls of a church steeple but was caught and severely reprimanded by the principal of the institution, who couldn’t believe anyone would want to waste literary talent on wall and not paper..!
“One more line of graffiti from you and out you’ll go,” he said, looking at my handiwork with disdain. It was only then I realised that what I was doing had an official name. ‘Graffiti’ sounded good and graffiti, I learned later came from the Italian verb graffiare, meaning ‘scratches’. I wasn’t too happy though about all my time and effort on stubborn walls, being called mere scratches..!
In my travels round the world I found that graffiti sometimes spoke loud and humorous. On a wall of a big garage for a trucking firm in America was scrawled: we never sleep, some one wrote underneath, neither do the neighbours..!
In a department store in Brooklyn- ladies ready to wear clothes, somebody no doubt a male had cleverly written with black fountain pen, its about time.
Walls in public inns, toilets, reading rooms and college buildings provide a variety of lines. On the walls of the former Soviet Union consulate were these words when Brezhnev visits, everyone can show their joy by rattling their chains..! And this, another from Russia, new trade union between the US and Soviet Union. 10,000 Cadillac’s delivered to Soviet Union in exchange for parking spaces in Siberia. in a lavatory in Moscow, by 1885, one citizen in every five will have a car, one in three a television, and one in two a pair of socks. This in a hotel in England, if you have any requirements, please contact reception, we’ll explain why you can’t have them..! I am sure you’ve heard this one, i have read so much about drinking and smoking, I’ve decided to give up reading.
In a basement in Kentucky where the washing machines were, a woman overburdened with clothes chalked this sign, never marry a man with five children, even if they are your own. On a newly weds car: From here to maternity. And again in New York on subway wall: I knew Elizabeth Taylor when she didnt know when her next husband was coming from. And finally chalked on a stick no bills wall—down with graffiti..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves doing this, composing obscene poems and one liners about teachers and friends. We climbed down, tired but happily exhausted when we ran out of chalk. Later I tried doing this on the inner walls of a church steeple but was caught and severely reprimanded by the principal of the institution, who couldn’t believe anyone would want to waste literary talent on wall and not paper..!
“One more line of graffiti from you and out you’ll go,” he said, looking at my handiwork with disdain. It was only then I realised that what I was doing had an official name. ‘Graffiti’ sounded good and graffiti, I learned later came from the Italian verb graffiare, meaning ‘scratches’. I wasn’t too happy though about all my time and effort on stubborn walls, being called mere scratches..!
In my travels round the world I found that graffiti sometimes spoke loud and humorous. On a wall of a big garage for a trucking firm in America was scrawled: we never sleep, some one wrote underneath, neither do the neighbours..!
In a department store in Brooklyn- ladies ready to wear clothes, somebody no doubt a male had cleverly written with black fountain pen, its about time.
Walls in public inns, toilets, reading rooms and college buildings provide a variety of lines. On the walls of the former Soviet Union consulate were these words when Brezhnev visits, everyone can show their joy by rattling their chains..! And this, another from Russia, new trade union between the US and Soviet Union. 10,000 Cadillac’s delivered to Soviet Union in exchange for parking spaces in Siberia. in a lavatory in Moscow, by 1885, one citizen in every five will have a car, one in three a television, and one in two a pair of socks. This in a hotel in England, if you have any requirements, please contact reception, we’ll explain why you can’t have them..! I am sure you’ve heard this one, i have read so much about drinking and smoking, I’ve decided to give up reading.
In a basement in Kentucky where the washing machines were, a woman overburdened with clothes chalked this sign, never marry a man with five children, even if they are your own. On a newly weds car: From here to maternity. And again in New York on subway wall: I knew Elizabeth Taylor when she didnt know when her next husband was coming from. And finally chalked on a stick no bills wall—down with graffiti..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
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