Friday 1 March 2013

A Cherished Moment


Today is my 'sort of'' birthday.  When there is no 29th of February, I usually opt for 1st March as a substitute.  It is a time for getting a bit misty eyed and nostalgic for the ‘old days’.  Actually most of the old days were rubbish but with my newly acquired age-related rose tinted eyesight that matters not and amongst the wealth of good times one or two fond memories sit above the rest.  Most of my best moments have a music based foundation but not the one I am about to relate.  This has to do with football and no rose tinted sight is necessary here.

I am about 10 years old and it is roughly 2 o’clock in the afternoon.  I am sitting on the cold parquet flooring of my junior school classroom by the shoe racks putting on my football boots.  Why?  Because it is a school match day and I am captain of the rabble we call our school football team, about to take on another rabble from the local school a mile or so away.

My heartbeat is quickening and my breathing getting shorter as adrenalin floods through my body.  The anticipation is almost unbearable and I love it.  If I was to pick the best feeling in the world it would be this moment.  Not only am I about to miss French/English/Maths on offer that afternoon (strike out those that do not apply), I am about to do the one thing I love most in the world – play football for my school.

Outside, it is late autumn and a watery sun tries in vain to penetrate the mist that hangs around the football pitch, now carpeted with autumnal leaves from the towering Elms that line the school field.  The morning dew still clings to the grass and sends up a halo of wetness as the sodden leather ball zips across it.  I am proudly wearing a school football shirt (with real cuffs and collars – that dates me) of pillar-box red with white sleeves, the same as the Arsenal in those days and feel a million dollars.  We line up and the match starts…

We probably won that day – we normally did, having a half decent team which finished top of Division 3 that year and won promotion to Division 2.  It was a time of youthful exuberance and a certain naivety about life to come.  No baggage, no regrets.  Whilst I can still feel the heady exhilaration of those times, I know that I will never recapture them.  It was a time that only the young can experience.  When I look at the 10 year old me now, I see an enthusiasm that I no longer have and a head full of dreams of playing forever.

The dream ended abruptly the following September when I transferred to secondary school.  A rugby playing school.

9 comments:

Charlie Ricci said...

Happy Birthday Martin!

Kit Courteney said...

Happy Birthday, Martin, hope you have a great day :)

music obsessive said...

Charlie - Thank you! And I really must get around to updating my template a bit now that yours is looking so good!

Kit - Thank You! It's nice to see you back in blogging mode again on KC Writes - I've missed it.

Adrian said...

Happy (belated) Birthday, Martin!

(You share a birthdate with Superman - Clark Kent.)

May your enthusiasm and dreams be with you throughout the year(s).

When things flag, just throw on some Fanny or Nerina, or other faves, and sing along :)

Sláinte mhaith!!

music obsessive said...

Thanks Adrian. Clark Kent eh? Well, I never knew that and me a DC Comics fan for over 40 years, too.

As to the rest of your comment, as UK comedian Harry Enfield used to say in his guise as a washed up 70s DJ, 'Wise words, mate!'

Right, I'm off to throw on some Nerina!

Adrian said...

Have fun!

Aye, re your February 29 birthdate, I only recently learned of the Clark Kent connection.

Apparently, due to there being eighteen Kryptonian years for every twenty-five Earth years on our calendar - there is likely to be a Kryptonian date you can celebrate as well ("just as Jewish children have a birthday in the Hebrew calendar - where one's bar mitzvah is celebrated - and a birthday in the Western calendar" according to authoritative sources in the DC universe).

Have a kicking good time - on both your dates!!

music obsessive said...

Damn! Think of all those double birthdays I've missed.

Jennifer K said...

Happy belated birthday. Mine was on the 2nd. Good to see you still blogging.

music obsessive said...

Hi Jen. Yes, still plugging away. Many happy returns to you too.