I’ve always felt out of place – or in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like I never fitted in. 


The feeling of a lack of solid ground on which to stand. Like I don’t know who I am and therefore how to behave in any situation.

BUT I'm getting used to it.

Memories of a village childhood

I was thinking about all the games we used to play as kids. We had to amuse ourselves back then; there were no computers, or even television. We played outside in the street, and we were healthier for it.

Tick; hide and seek; spin the bottle; they were just a few of the games I remember. 

Although I do have a hazy recollection of a game; I think it was called ‘Vlad the Impaler’. I don’t remember much about it, ‘cos I was only little, but the name sticks in my mind. I know it involved them spiky iron railings at the end of Froggit Street. And for some reason I seem to associate it with my first ride in an ambulance. But my memory isn’t what it used to be so I may be mixing things up.

We didn’t play the game for long though. Now I think back, we stopped playing it about the time that policeman came to the school to talk to us.  And Daft Derek – the lad who invented the game – went away.

And He never came back.

And the council pulled down the railings.

Anyway we moved from the village just after that.

Happy days.