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25% => Other Football Stuff => Topic started by: Wormholes of Time on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, 11:58:01



Title: Close Seasons and Nostalgia
Post by: Wormholes of Time on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, 11:58:01
Some of the recent posts got me thinking yesterday as I biked along the canal to do my session at the Stroud foodbank  ...
1960-61 Close Season

It was all so just so Just William perfect:
Egg sandwiches, crisps and lemonade
Tucked into your duffel bag,
Together with autograph book, green, red and black biros,
And Ian Allan trainspotter books
(Western Region and Locoshed),
And off I went in the early morning,
Walking to the ‘Iron Bridge’
To collect train numbers from the old pillbox
Between main line and the Highworth branch line,
Or to gaze down into the smoke of a King or Castle class,
As you crossed the bridge to the Swindon Town
Shrivenham Road training ground,
Where you would walk amongst the players,
Gathering autographs and occasionally kicking the ball,
Until a shout told you that the semaphore signal was down
In the squinting distance at Greenbridge,
And off you would run to watch the Cheltenham Flyer,
Or some trundling, rattling goods train,
Or even a new diesel or the gas turbine loco.

And so, the summer holidays progressed:
Each day the same as the one before,
And therein lay the perfection:
A precociously Zen state of tranquillity:
Football and train-spotting conjoined:
A child at one with it all -
Feeling, that these perfect days would go on forever,
‘Until they think warm days will never cease.’
,


Title: Re: Close Seasons and Nostalgia
Post by: Lardy Cake on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, 15:41:01
Wow that brought back some memories. Remember that pill box and getting covered in smoke and soot ! I did exactly the same a few years later and was actually allowed to kick a ball around with the likes of Rod Thomas, Stan Harland and of course every Swindon schoolboys favourite Don Rogers. One such occasion I was used as passing practice for Stan and I had the job of running along the touch line and Stan would try and pass the ball to me from the middle of the pitch. Passing the ball long was not one of Stan's strong points !
You can imagine the delight of us kids when Don got us to line up on the goal line and practiced his penalty taking against us. There must have been about six of us trying to keep the ball from hitting the back of the net but he scored every time.
In deed a child at one with it all........... STFC always in the blood !!!   


Title: Re: Close Seasons and Nostalgia
Post by: Wormholes of Time on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, 07:07:43
STFC memories poem of the week on the Football Poets website: http://footballpoets.org/poems/1960-61-close-season/