around two years ago, I wrote a short piece entitled, "Captain Fantastic and the Dirt-Kneed Schoolboy", all about my late father. So with a New Year just begun, I thought it might be an appropriate time to capture some precious memories of childhood. There are ten in all ... count 'em as you go!
1. Diving deep into the bathwater with the Captain as a very young child, then swimming up into a plastic wash-basket floating on the surface of the water.
2. The thick nicotine-stained finger-tips of my father, tobacco-brown and smoke-curled.
3. Running free through a field of sun-baked grass in search of leaping grasshoppers, with the Captain close behind.
4. The rich smell of frying bacon as he cooks family breakfast on a Saturday.
5. Sunday's out, and a metal-tray of pub-drinks we consume in the car en route to a picnic. A pint of best for the Captain, a "Cherry B" for the Black Dowager, shandy for eldest brother, two glasses of warm lemonade, one each for electrofried and baby brother ... and soggy crisps for all, with magic blue-bagged salt!
6. The Captain sitting at our breakfast-room table with richly coloured feathers, a line and hook, delicately tying the fly for fishing the next day.
7. A drive down to Bishop Stortford to see the house we never moved into. He died in a lay-by a few months later.
8. Visiting the Captain's offices at the weekend. Inter-coms and slide-rules, a week of smoke sinking deep into the fabric of the place.
9. Big-band jazz played loud on the radio in the car, whilst a strange coloured speedometer thread moves to red as we speed the length of a motorway.
10. Buying fish and chips for a group of visiting Americans, our food smothered in vinegar and wrapped tight in newspaper.
And here's a photo of the man ...
Hope you have a great New Year!
best regards,
electrofried(mr)
2 comments:
Dearest Electrofried,
Once again I am moved by your ability with the written word. Not for the first time, you have a plucked a string in my heart.
As you may be aware our mutual friend, The Sheik, has suffered a similar loss in the last few weeks albeit it his father died, after a long and happy life, in the bosom of the family. His ( The Sheik's) generosity in sharing his grief, in that other place, and your open and heartfelt account of the memory of your father make me both grateful that the pater familias of the panama clan is still, at the age of 82, with us and ashamed that I do not appreciate him more, knowing, as I do, that our time together is, undoubtedly drawing to a close. I fear that that appreciation may not come upon me until it is too late.
Yours,
as ever,
Panama, Esq.
Dear Panama,
thank you for your message, and I was so sorry to learn of Sheik's recent loss. No matter how we may think we are prepared, the passing never comes easy. I can but suggest you raise a glass of the finest malt to your father, and savour the taste of life.
best regards,
electrofried(mr)
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