WHEN I GROW UP.....

When I was very young - just a few years ago - I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I used to enjoy drawing a lot and looking at maps and I did flirt with the idea of becoming a cartographer but no-one ever asked me what I might like to do and even in those days I didn`t take myself at all seriously, so in the end I guess I just drifted.

But one ambition came to pass in April 1946.  My father, not long home from his five years as a Prisoner of War, decided it was time to introduce me to football.  And so we made the journey across Southampton Water on the Hythe Ferry and made our way to The Dell, home of Southampton FC.  For a boy of not quite seven it was a real adventure.  The game was against Derby County who, less than 48 hours earlier, had won the FA Cup at Wembley, beating Charlton Athletic.  So they were a formidable side and maybe their exertions or their celebrations crept up on them but the Saints came out 4-2 winners. 

From there on, I was hooked;  and I knew that one thing I wanted to be when I grew up was a Saints fan.   And so it has endured for all these years - almost 75 years ago since my first initiation.  And over all that time there have been ups and downs, good times and bad but throughout it all there has been the companionship of fellow Saints fans and because supporting the Saints is not all about winning trophies - more often than not, it`s about struggles and disappointment -the feeling of belonging to a community of fans becomes more important. 

Which might explain the photo above - it is a calling card of the Codgers Crew, of which I was proud to be a member.  It was in its heyday a good few years ago now when we all had season tickets and met up for pre-match coffee and cake at Monsieur Hulot`s Patisserie on Southampton Town Quay and enjoyed each other`s company during and after the game, even if the result did not always go the way we would have preferred.

And it is experiences like that which - at least I hope - encourages me to avoid growing up too much.  Life is short, it seems especially precarious these days, so there seems every sense in avoiding the customary inevitability of anno domini having its way, but instead maintaining the links with people, places and times that have made it all worthwhile and look forward to what might still be

Don`t worry about me - I`ll be fine when I grow up.