I used to make up football teams of the comic books I read at the time. The teams I can recall, from memory, are Hoot town, Whizzer and Chips town, Jackpot town, Warlord, Nutty town, Buster town, Andy Capp, Beano City, Dandy Wanderers and Cor Wanderers. The characters from the comics would score goals and I would devise league consisting of these teams. Another league I devised in the mid 1980's consisted of teams such as Jacks Bus, a local bus that delivered groceries and sweets on my estate, Dennys, Dransfields, (A shop near where I lived), Chemist, John's shop (Another small shop based near where I lived), Spar, GT News, Dowell's (Another small shop based near where I lived), Comestique, Pop van (A van that used to deliver pop down my street every Saturday about 4.45pm, when the soccer results were on Grandstand), Jacksons, Sainsburys, Presto, Leos, Martin Raymonds, WH Smiths, Hillards, Sue's fruit and veg, Co-op and ASDA.
In the Spring of 1986, about April time, my obsession with birthdates and days of the week started. I don't know why or how. I never showed any such interest before. However, I remember asking someone in the other class to me when his birthday was, and it stuck in my memory. Then, I started remembering everybody's birthday. Along with that, I started to remember the specific dates when events happened.
I remember being at Junior School and our class was merged with the other one.. and we were asked what happened on Saturday, 26th April 1986. All the other kids were silent or blank and someone tried to be funny and said "I got up, put the TV on and had my breakfast".. I put my hand up and said "The Chernobyll nuclear disaster happened?". Mrs Ellis I think it was said "Well done Kevin.. yes it was"..
In May 1986 I went to a friends birthday party and I wanted to know how my home town football team had gone on even though they were mid table and had no chance of going up or going down. It was the final result of the season but I still asked his parents if they could put the result on TV. I guess it was due to the structure of knowing.
I used to associate dates with events. For example. I went swimming on the evening of Friday, 10th October 1986, so I said "Friday, 10th October was dominated by the Baths". On Monday, 17th November 1986 there was a programme featuring a Didigeridoo. Perhaps the later to be disgraced Rolf Harris was playing one, so I said "Monday November 17th, was dominated by a Didgeridoo". Then on Friday, 16th January 1987, we were off school due to heavy snow. A rare occurrence as we had to go when it snowed as a rule but from memory I think the school boiler broke. Lassie was on BBC TV that day and I remember saying "Friday January 16th was dominated by Lassie".
My late grandfather was a character. I know that term character is overused nowadays, as is eccentric and individual, but he defined the word, character. I could design a website about and his life, but I will restrict his mention with the following anecdote, as it ties in with my AS.
In early December 1986, he dyed his hair, which was white and receding, jet black! My parents heard about it, and when we visited him on Sunday, 7th December 1986, told me not to laugh and to say that it was alright. I fulfilled my deal, but at the wrong time. Before I walked into his house, I shouted out, without even seeing his hair, "I don't care what the say about your hair Grandad, I think it looks alright".
My Grandad said, when we walked in, in response, "Go on, laugh, you might as well do, everybody else has. Frank Clarke (his friend who died in April 1995), has dyed his hair and he has got away with it, because he wears an hat, but can I? Can I hell".
Ironically, I walked into the corner of his living room, picked up a soccer book, and sat reading it oblivious. I genuinely didn't care about his dyed hair, It didn't make me laugh. In contrast, my parents went into the kitchen, shut the door and burst out laughing. I could hear them. My Grandad, who was deaf, fortunately for them, couldn't. It was some time before they came back out to speak to him. As for my Grandad, he never tried to dye his hair again!
In May and June 1987, I used to watch something on TV called "Jobfinder". I was a bit young to be looking for a job at the age of almost 11! Maybe 180 years before, I would have been searching, but I wasn't alive then. I remember reading the Television page in the newspaper and watching it out of curiosity to see what it was about. I wondered if it was somebody reading out the vacancies on TV. In fact, it showed you them on a screen, with the hours, job description, salary and who to contact. I also had an ambition around this time, which was to sit and watch the TV from when it started to when it ended.
In June 1987, I asked someone in class about a fight that they had with another pupil in the "Red Ash" which was near the Junior School I attended. The fight took place in January 1987. He asked, "Are you still going on about that now. It was five months ago?".
