When The False Dots were writing our "Finger in the Sun" album, I wrote a song called Wacky Races about building go karts and having races up and down Millway with the other kids in the road. Playing in the street was the best thing about being a kid. I'll give a shout out to Richard Wenham(RIP) and Luke Albanese who lived next door, Johnny and Frank Lewis who lived over the road and The Cooneys and Malones who lived up the road. We'd all be in the street making mayhem, annoying the neighbours. It doesn't happen anymore. I thought this warranted a list of things I did as a kid that my kids never experienced.
1. Being off school sick and waiting for 'Telly to start'. BBC and ITV did not broadcast in the morning. There was nothing on, apart from Playschool. If you left the telly on, you'd occasionally get "Trade test transmissions" that were boring documentaries, but better than nothing.
2. Going to The Model shop and getting an Airfix kit. Dad would give me pocket money and I'd nip around to H. A. Blunt and Sons and buy an Airfix kit, usually a Spitfire or Hurricane. I'd take it home and spend an hour making it. Some of my mates would build whole bases and paint the models. I was a bit too lazy, I just liked building the models. I hung them from the ceiling with pins and cotton. I'd make cotton wool flames and make sure the Spitfires shot down the German planes.
3. Growing radishes in the garden. My sister Catherine was really into gardening and tried to encourage me. She made me a little plot and got me some Radish seeds. They all grew and we ate them. If I hadn't grown them, I wouldn't have liked them, but I developed a soft spot for radishes.
4. Pike fishing at Stanmore Common with my Dad. Dad was into fishing. We'd go to Hunton Bridge, catch gudgeon and then use them as live bait to try and catch the big pike that lived on Stanmore Common pond. TBH I didn't really like fishing as I wasn't into decapitating worms and gudgeon. I loved being with Dad though, and so I never let on.
5. Going out on bike. Yeah I know some people dress their kids up in safety gear and take them cycling. That is not what I mean. We'd all meet up on our choppers and racers and go exploring around Mill Hill without an adult in sight. We'd usually get up to some naughtiness on the way. My mate Pete Conway's Dad bought him a super duper new bike and he cycled down Engel Park and went down a manhole. He had six months in hospital. It was just seen as part of growing up. I mention this in the second versoe of Wacky Races.
6. Investigating bomb sites. In the 1960's there were still lots of bomb sites and detritus of WW2. These were popular destinations on our bikes. By the time my kids were born, the bombsites all became luxury flats.
7. Having a day out with a Red Bus Rover. You could have the free run of London's buses with a Red Bus Rover. We'd usually head down to Oxford Street and then go on from there. My best memory was exploring the railway sidings at Battersea Power Station and getting chased out by an angry man in a uniform. To me Battersea Power station just seemed to be a wasteland of smelly rusting metal. It was fascinating though, I wish I had a pictures of it.
8. Meeting your mates at the park for an off the cuff kickabout. In the schoool holidays, we'd all congregate at one of the local parks, usually Woodcroft or Mill Hill and have a kickabout. We'd nick traffic cones for goals and the sides would change as the game developed. We'd play for 3-4 hours. We'd stop when we got hungry or the Sun set. Sometimes one of our mums would despatch a sister to bring us home.
9. Making bombs in the garden. Dad had a petrol lawn mower and this gave us raw material to make bombs. As we had a large garden, we practised making molotov cocktails. One day Dad realised why there was no petrol for the lawnmower and I was warned, in no uncertain terms, what would happen if we did it again. A couple of days later, he showed me how to make a molotov cocktail properly. That was my Dad. He trained me to be a very effective terrorist. My mates Dad was a senior policeman and I'll never forget his horror when my Dad explained how he could take out the whole of Hendon Police college with a simple device he could make in his shed. My mates Dad said he was pleased Dad was not a terrorist!
10. Mending bikes in the shed. We all had 'puncture repair kits'. If our inner tubes got a punture, we'd mend them. These days kids just buy a new inner tube or around here a new bike. I completely rebuilt my bike on several occasions, putting better gears etc. These days, you get a bloke in a shop to do it.
Anyway, there's only one song I can play to sum this up. You've probably guessed, and you can hear The False Dots play it live at The Dublin Castle from 2pm on Sunday 25th May!
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