The Future's Not Ours To See

The Future’s Not Ours to See

Yesterday, I saw and heard a man speaking from the far side of the moon. This is old news now but, one hundred years ago, such a statement could guarantee a long or short holiday on the Athlone side of Ballinasloe. We get our knowledge in so many different ways. In Abbey I was told that, by putting one’s ear to the ground you could hear a horse walking on the trunk road as far as Portumna, that is if a horse was walking there. With regard to the future, we were very much in the dark.

However, all was not lost. News got out that a family, encamped in Tomany could foretell the future. Time would tell.

On a cold November evening in the late 1940’s, Frank and myself set off on our bicycles and headed for the campsite in Tomany to have our fortunes told. We must have been given tea because I had my fortune told from the tealeaves in the bottom of a cup. Frank selected the fortune told with a prism; this was far too expensive for a schoolboy, dependent on the sale of an odd rabbit from snaring. Frank was reluctant to tell everything that he was told about his bride to be. I know that I have a path worn to my letterbox in expectation of promised moneys from an overseas relation.

I now think, it is best not to be overburdened by the past, present or future. The best part of the evening was the singing of a song by Frank and he was a very good baritone, as we sat with our fellow travellers, around the open fireside in Tomany. I must check my post box again. It will probably be registered mail.