“HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN” by Des Kelly “the Star of eLanka”
Another great old song, sung with gusto in the halcyon days of the 1950’s as I remember them, “the skies above are clear again”, yes, clear, they were, especially in the Ceylon I knew, even though we were certainly not affluent and could only afford about two and a half rupees for a good ” thosai” feed washed down with a” kiri-kopi”as only the odd Thumby could produce, at a “famous” thosai-joint” in Bambalapitiya, then have a “smoke” of a rather expensive cigarette with the name “Capstan Navy-Cut”, or, perhaps, even a ” Black & White” or “Abdullah”(a flat cigarette, perhaps because the “Tins” were flattened at the Colombo Harbour), “pinched” by my good friend & Peterite David Swan(God rest his soul, IF, he has passed-away, as I am given to understand), from his Pater, who was a Judge in Ceylon and could afford cigarettes of this calibre. David was his one & only Son, but the good Judge (or Mrs.Swan, to be exact), had about six or seven daughters as well, all very beautiful and talented. One was an excellent “typewriter” who could “do” around 80 words a minute. I frequented David’s place(which ended up as a “photograph-studio” right opposite Lorensz Road), mainly, to listen to his “records”on his beautiful radiogram, while, at the same time, “cap” some of the beautiful girls around me, as well! Oh, I remember the name of the photographic Studio now. It was “Studio Lekha” and Rosemary would have made an excellent “first Model” for the place. “Let us sing a song of cheer again”, tell me, what else could it be? , a good friend, who was a “Peterite”, who had both beautiful music records as well as beautiful sisters, great thosais, samball, milk-coffee, plus free cigarettes, this is why I sing “Happy days are here again”.
“All together, shout it now”, Yes, Desmond Kelly, David Swan, Dennis Roberts, another fine “Singer” who was recognized as the “carbon-copy” of Frank Sinatra ( if you closed your eyes, you heard Sinatra), who also happened to be my “prayer-monitor” in “Junior “D”, which had the rather dubious reputation of being the worst “form” at St.Peter’s College, where “your’s truly” had the distinct reputation of being the “Monitor”, Carl Jansz, (R.I.P.), who used to “climb” the coconut trees in the “Kochie-garden”, next to Lorensz Road, in order to pluck some coconuts so we could sell them to the various “tenants” of the “tenement- row” in Lorensz Road, and go “to the pictures”, Ian Kelly, my worthy younger brother who thought he could sing, but, as a “singer”, he made a very good swimmer & one or two others that a certain blog-writer Omitted completely from his “blog”(for reasons only known to himself), but, which I can confirm, the fact that he knew absolutely nothing about the real Bambalawatta Boys” This “blog-writer” also claims that he knew Maureen Hingert, the beauty-queen who “put Ceylon on the map”, so to speak. No-one knew “Neliya Hingert”, as I did, Mr.Blog-Writer, so, put that in your pipe and smoke it.! ” There’s no-one who can doubt it now”, Self-explanatory, without a doubt.
” Let us sing a song about it now”, of course, World-War 2 was over, Mr.Hitler had tried to “bite off much more than he could chew”& ended up, “biting the bullet”, himself, Ceylon, beautiful, herself, strategic, and being “eyed” by all and sundry, for the Island she was, still “ruled” by Britain, but enjoying the true peace that “My Lovely Island Home” deserved, yes, at nearly fifteen years of age, without a penny in my hand but also without a care in the World, I could truly sing,
“Happy days are here again”. To continue the song :-
“My cares & troubles are gone
there’ll be no more from now on”
How wrong can anyone be? We can only hope that
“Happy days WILL be here again” DISCIPLINE will rule,
“The skies above WILL be clear again” “CLIMATE CHANGE” will be taken seriously.
” We WILL sing a song of cheer again” No SAD-SONGS.
“Happy days WILL be here again” So be it !!.
Desmond Kelly.
“Star of eLanka”.
