Just a moments thought, and the facts are true. I sat there pondering the unofficial time of 3min.59.6sec I had just run for the mile. I had cracked the 4 minute mile and was feeling really proud of myself, especially as Roger Bannister had done this in 1954 and beat me by .002 seconds. I had run in bare feet then whilst I was in the army and they hauled me of to Abingdon for an all forces sport event and was not prepared for a cinder track and a hot day, needless to say I came in last. Then there were the local dances at home and boy did I love to dance, Oh! And the darts, how I loved the darts and the thrill of the competition, I sat there pondering why I never went professional, I think it was the responsibility for family and income that stopped me. Silly choices as darts were starting to be good money for tournaments and I was good enough to win them. Oh! The joy of youth and the things we do, the many things we do, things we never imagined we could in so many fields. Now as I look around me pondering the absence of the old people I knew and those I knew by sight only vanishing from our streets, their houses occupied by young folk. No more nods of acknowledgement or a”Good Day!” as you passed one another. I pondered where have all the old folk gone, those you look up to, those you helped? As I sat there pondering my youthfulness felt, and the aches in the joints, the tiredness of the eyes some days. With the will to do more than I had and pondering what I should do next a voice crept through and broke the thought with, “Hallo you old bugga, what are you doing sitting here.” I then realised as I looked at the lad thirty five years my junior, I am now one of those old people but not quite so old yet. I said to the lad, “If only you could see through my eyes right now, you would understand what this old bugga is up to.” We laughed and went back in the pub for another pint………….and another game of darts, I can still beat the little bugga’s at that. Paul Bovis 28/01/2014
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 13:47:15 +0000