Saturday, May 07, 2005

Sensual Steve...part 2

Ladies and Gentleman, I am so proud to have this on my blogsite so i present to you, part the second of the Steve M autobiography, as sponsored by Kleenex.

The school summer holidays were always great, but the summer of 1975 was an absolute scorcher and it did not rain between May and October, we finished school in July and we normally spent the first two weeks at home with Mum + Dad and the rest of the time at my grand parents in Coniston. They lived in a row of slate built houses in the shadow of the Old Man of Coniston {mountain} with a fantastic panoramic view of the lake and Grizedale Forest beyond.

There were three families with children on the same terrace all were around the same age or a bit older than my brother and I and we all became really good friends. The Jenkins family lived next door to my grandparents they had three children, Russell, Alison and Lindsey, Russell and I would become great friends virtually inseparable in the holidays.

The Carroll family lived around the corner on, “The Level” “probably the flattest piece of road in the whole of the Lake District”. They had four children, Tessa, Stephen, Duncan and Jeffrey. Tessa was an absolute snob and would say things like “oh I’m not associating with riff raff from Ulverston”, until one day when she lost her purse in the sand pit in the park and your’s truly found it for her at which point she must have gone mad or something ‘cos she kissed me full on the lips, would have been nice to if she had not just eaten a tube of parma violets yuk!

Stephen was the typical “clark Kent character {dark haired and bespectacled}
An absolute wimp but this guy introduced me to the almighty Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath for which he has my undying gratitude.
Duncan was mad keen on sport especially football, he always wore George Best slip on shoes they were black with red soles with a figure of the Irish soccer player carved into them.
Lastly there was Jeffery, he was the same age as my brother and they would fight and fight and fight some more over the slightest thing, and then be best of “friends” the next {nudge nudge wink wink say no more}but that’s another story.

It was so hot this summer and we all got on really well and we didn’t have a care, we would go off exploring the surrounding hills and mountains pretending to be the mountain rescue team, on one such occasion we set off in search of a resovoir called Levers Water it seemed to take ages to find, on the way we discovered some old copper mines so we went in to investigate and it was a relief to get out of the heat

The river flowing through the mine was the most beautiful sight, sapphire blue with white eddy’s swirling around the rock pools but the roar of the water was deafening
And after a short rest we set off again. About an hour later we arrived at Levers Water
Where we set out our rugs and had a picnic, then without warning Alison and her sister Lindsey stripped off completely and jumped into the water before long we were all in the water skinny dipping, when I think now of what we used to do when we were kids it’s frightening ‘cos there would be no way any child of mine would go hiking up mountains and swim in reservoirs without me being present, God how things have changed

1976 was also very hot if I remember rightly and this year things started to get a little weird at home, Mum gave up her salon to become a cleaner at Ulverston Victoria High School while Dad took on a early morning newspaper distributing round delivering the news to the people of Grange over Sands and the surrounding district he would start work at 04:30 am pick up his papers at the train station in Grange O Sands and work through till about 08:30am then he would have a break and go and work in the garage until 17:30pm, mum started work at 07:00am till 10:00am and 15:45pm till19:00pm, so that meant my brother and me had to see ourselves to and from school each day!

At the end of each day we would go to my Nans flat until Dad finished work bearing in mind my Uncle Barry and Auntie Fernanda both worked full time also, My Nan had to look after my cousins as well {god it must have been hard for her} we carried on with this arrangement for about a year.

1977 what a fucking year this turned out to be with the Queens silver jubilee,
The Sex Pistols and my family went tit’s up .
My Dad would take us home from my Nans when he finished work and warm up the meal my Mum had left us in the oven and we would all sit down and watch “Crossroads” {oh my god I here you cry} and eat then when mum came home it was time for bed {no problem you may think}.

One day we got home dad warmed up the meal as usual but today was different he seemed nervous and was in a rush, he said “here’s your tea, now eat it quietly and I’ll be back in a minute……. An hour later he returned and went for a bath, he would be downstairs just before mum got home, this went on for weeks.

The jubilee came and went, God save the Queen was at number 1 even though it was banned from the airwaves and my brother and me were packed off to a summer camp at the Y.M.C.A for a weekend, it was a great camp we did canoeing, archery, orienteering, pottery and painting. At the end of the week all the parents arrived to pick up their kids {you guessed it} but our parents didn’t, my dad had phoned the camp to say that he was too busy to pick his two sons up {what a fucking hero}

Two days before the start of the summer hols of this year my dad takes us home as usual gives us our tea it was some sort of stew I did not like it but my dad was determined I should and says “you will eat it even if your sick in it” {bastard!}
So I eat it, then he brings us some ice cream while we are eating he comes and sits next to me and starts saying things about him and mum not getting on and that he would be leaving the house before mum gets home I said “what do you mean leaving”
He said “I am leaving for good and I am going to live at your nans for a while” and off he goes leaving me and my brother in tears and with the task of telling our mother the news. Mum was devastated!


Next week picking up the pieces!
Steve.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve you have the most amazing memory i cant remember things i have done maybe it will all come back now i am 40 lol i remember watching crossroads but it was fab in those days (miss diane - benny meg - sandy - oh the list is endless) its true what you say though we use to go off and have picnics and play out all day no mobile to contact anyone and tell them where we were all seemed so innocent then and my nana use to look after us too as both my parents worked! Lisa xxxxxxx I cant wait for next week

Anonymous said...

Oh my god, life was sounding fab, then one day it's over, I bet things were never the same. Roll on next Saturday. Gx

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comments guys
see you next week
steve.