ONE FOR ALL - WHO KNOWS? Part 1
That enigmatic title is my best attempt at explaining what follows which might go anywhere. Another of my excuses for being stymied in writing is that I have too many memories crowding my head, all of them interconnected because they are mainly concerned with friends, past and present.
I should but cannot seperate them partly because my typing opportunities are so few and far between, except for sporadic outbursts and too many links to YouTube, which I confess is my sole source of entetainment these days. I'll try to make it easiers with subtitles.
THE BOYS FROM BROXBOURNE
MIKE C. who was my unofficial mentor/big brother though he probably won't thank me for that! He's four years my senior and was forever doing interesting and adventurous things. Especially with motor vehicles from the 350 Royal Enfield he toured Spain on, via some weird cars like a BSA 3 wheeler and the plastic Villiers engined Unicar and finally a narrow boat he fitted with a petrol paraffin engine conversion of his own design.
STEPHEN - my young brother - who really opened up my friendships via his school friends - (my school 'friends' were a meagre bunch at best).
ALEX G. who still is my best friend despite the distance of seperation in time and space. I met him via Stephen and we shared our model railway. Though a few years younger he introduced me to a lot of stuff of which I was previously ignorant especially the (then) current music scene of the 60's. He deserves a page to himself but so do the rest.
JIM B. deserves a mention though we didn't really have much in common except a shared appetite for Michael Moorcock's books about Elric etc. Jim was a good person to discuss with.
IAN H. Who I had a good time with until he stopped being a friend and grew up in a manner I disapprove
of, basically a money hungry status quo sort.
Those were 'the boys' whose friendship opened up a lot to me of which I might otherwise have never enjoyed, exploits, adventures, booze ups you name it. I had previously been a rather boring individual lacking friends of my own age. Happy to associate with the older boys whenever they let me but they were all mostly at work and preoccupied with more mature interests.
Other names also deserve inclusion, but the core group were the above. Their memories constantly intrude upon my own and the point is/was that their friendship whether fleeting or long lasting helped make me the way I am - Jack of all trades, master of none!
These were my formative years in England and so the boys are the most important component though there were others such as Colin B. and Tim B. (aka Ivor thats for Alex's benefit!) also DAVE M. who enters the story somewhat later although he also was a Broxbourne boy albeit younger than the above.
I just wanted to ensure that you aren't forgotten.
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