Two old geezers

I took this picture of a picture in the "collector's shop" that has provided a couple of previous blips. It's not really an antique shop since some of the items are of quite recent date. A lot are purchased from auction sales round about, house clearances and the like. Don't know the provenance of this painting: it's fairly amateurish and seems to be by W.S.Kite, the date on the calendar pictured being 1975.

The subject is an old man sitting at his kitchen table having just finished a small meal perhaps, his newspaper in his hand, his bottle of beer still half full and his cigarettes or tobacco tin close at hand. The kitchen sink is cluttered with kettle, jug and a small pan. It's not hard to imagine that his meal was frugal and his way of life very modest. He's giving us a faintly defiant glare. There's little doubt he lives alone.

A recent newspaper article referred to an 'epidemic of loneliness' affecting the over-65s in the UK. A large proportion of them experience chronic loneliness as a result of bereavement, ill-health and social isolation. The fragmentation of families and communities has made this worse.There are more people living alone that ever before while resources to support them are being whittled away by public spending cuts.

Is this old geezer lonely? I'd say he was - there's no sign even of a cat or dog to keep him company. On the other hand maybe he has a loving family around the corner and they cook him meals and do his shopping. Who knows?

But - two old geezers? Some people may have spotted the other one there on the wall. These old gas water heaters have been around since 1894 and once were a common sight in kitchens and bathrooms. You turned the tap and a rush of gas was ignited by a pilot light, producing scalding hot water. Now they are mainly used in India, it seems, where they cause a significant number of fatalities from carbon monoxide poisoning. I know them well of old: because they only heated water when you wanted it they were cheap to run and often installed in bedsits. The massive roar as they ignited, the tiny flickering pilot light that went out and could not be relit, the smell of leaking gas - all that is familiar to anyone who has lived with a 'geezer' (of either kind perhaps!) Why geezer? The actual trade name was Geyser like the Icelandic hot water spout: I have an indelible memory of my geography teacher's refrain regarding the pronounciation: 'gayser' or 'guyser' but never 'geezer'. She was a bit of a pedant.

Oh, and that old sink: it's known as a 'bosh' in the southeast of Wales where I come from. "The origin of this particular use of the word is obscure." It's one of the many terms that are a little bit Welsh, a little bit English, and belong to the dialect known as Wenglish.