Pissed as a Newt today down in Golden Cross and talking to Mates about how shite our lives were before we took control of them...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/GoldenCrossOxford.jpg

First we imagined how we wanted to be. Our starting point was a rejection of where we were and a refusal to accept that we were limited by our birth in any way. We all came to this from different directions, ages & classes.

Then we each researched the whole thing. Sourcing out all the things we wanted to connect with - Clothes, Music, Sex, Fags & Booze initially. Later came jobs & flats and other stuff. We built it all up bit by bit.

Others worked by trial & error, we had a plan.

Are you / Were you like us?

Today we had six round the table. Grey hair here & there all round. Me with my bad back & Paddy and I still with the marks of the car crash which gave me my bad back. Big Jim remains our Dorian Grey. Graham the Greyhound is the true survivor out of all of us. Astute (Stuart) remains 16 inside despite being 3 times that this year on the outside. And Small Paul is me as I was and will be me as I am now when it's his time.

Mates.

And all self-made men in a way too.

The men we are may not be your idea of the life well lived, but my escape from the City of London is as heroic as Big Jim's escape from being a Cantor. Our lives are our own.

And Mr. John Simons' shop connects us all.

Have you done it yet or are you on your way to doing it - Are you that person you wanted to be as a kid?

My initial ambitions were very small: Wardrobe, Record collection, Bird, Flat, Job.

How did you start out?

More importantly have you made it yet or do you feel now that you're getting there?

I wanted to be one of the blokes in Ray's & Ronnie's. Now I'm all grown up those places are unrecognisable these days.

- Funny...



J.

Last edited by Russell_Street (2008-08-30 12:53:16)