Scenes of a childhood
by cricketjeff on March 24, 2010. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
Every evening playing cricket, riding bikes and having fun,
With a little gang of friends who lived around;
And my sister being bossy, taking charge of everyone,
There was always lots of laughter to be found.
I remember being tiny, as it happens I was four
Sitting waiting for my brother to arrive
And when chicken pox attacked me lying itching on the floor
On my birthday feeling sad to be alive
When my Grandad came to visit, loads of sweets inside his case
Me and Susie would be waiting in the hall
Then the back door would be opened with his cry “is this the place”
We were always more than ready for that call
When we had the house extended we dug tunnels in the sand
Standing nude and gold as honey for the hose
And we knew what would be coming we had life and future planned
In the way that only childhood ever knows
Auntie Buddy had a Clubman, that’s a Mini with some class,
When she came we rode to school and didn’t walk
All our friends were green as cabbage as they stopped to let us pass
It was years before Dad bought the Humber Hawk.
Now I don’t remember growing when the fun began to end
Other games would come to mean much more to me
I stopped riding to the Pimple, went out looking for “a friend”
Can’t play footy when there’s girls you want to see
Now I’m older, even dafter, I still want to play those games
Wish my Grandad could still come to make me smile
And my children aren’t now children other duties stake their claims
But while writing I’ll be seven for a while.
Author notes
“the Pimple” is a small hill, a piece of open ground very near where I lived as
a child. it used to have rather wild bushes to explore like a jungle and a
football pitch. These days it is much tidier and less interesting
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English