I remember when I was a child, a day seemed so long and glorious. I have a few memories of warm days in July and August, the hose pipe sprinkling me in my knickers and toys all over the lawn. The lawn was a 1/4 acre which was big by English standards. The days went on forever. I don't have a lot of memories of childhood, except the ones I think I have because of photos, but every so often my mind flickers to something or other from that time.
There is a photo of me in a pair of nondescript coloured greenish nylon undies with my friend Paul, in a pair of saggy, towelling red undies. We are soaked and are perhaps five.
Both of us are laughing.
I always loved this photo, but these days I remember it with melancholy. Paul was always a boy who found school hard. He was coming along well, with support and just as he was learning to read, he was knocked over, on a crossing, by a car.
I remember he was in hospital for at least six weeks. We went on to high school, I moved overseas and the last I heard of him, Paul actually suicided in the nineties. I found it all rather tragic....
I will scan the photo and share it when I find it !
