Having nothing to do today, I decided to go to my local park.  A ten-minute walk that I have taken many times, takes me past Victorian houses, one of which I always liked the look off, and imagined buying it one day.

     I arrived in the park and made my way to a bench close to the café.  I am familiar with this café, having been a customer on many occasions and have noticed how it has changed over the years.

     I sat.  People passed by me, either along, in pair, in groups, with or without children, and being the fashion of the day, some teens ride pass on powered bikes.  I smile wondering how they would have reacted to having to ride up and down the hills I did when I was younger.

     I don’t remember the first time I came to the park, but remember coming here with my mother and younger sister.  It was summer, just like today, and I was eager to play football with my sister, who was a bit of a tomboy at the time.  I remind her about this sometimes, and tell her children how she often bullied the boys at the school we attended.  Anyway, on this day with my family we found a spot not too far from the café.  We then spent a few minutes kicking the ball to each other, often miskicking it, sending further than intended.  I, of course, would be the one to run after the ball.  Eventually both my sister and I became bored with the game and sat next to our mother on the grass.

     I remember that day well for less than a week later, my mother died.  She went to bed one night and never woke up.  She died to an embolism of the brain.  I remember crying that day but little else.  Not long after she died, she was buried in a local cemetery.  The sisters and brothers of my mother where there, along with the brother of my father.  I think there were cousins as well.

     I did not come to the park for a long time.  I think I stayed away for three years.  One day, I decided it was just a park.  I was nervous as I headed along the streets to the park.  I did not know why I was nervous.  I did not have anything to worry about.  Not much had changed in the three years that I stayed away, other than the café, which had a new owner, and a new coat of paint.

     A family passed me by talking about the park.  One of the children asked.  “Can I dip my feet in the pool?”  To which her mother said, “no.”

     This reminded me of the day I came to the park with some friends, David, Tim, John, and Mark.  We often came to the park on a Saturday to kick a ball to each other, or to sail our boats on the small stream.  This day, we brought our boats with the intension of racing them in a larger, steeper stream near the cricket pitch.  The winner would by the others an ice-cream.  So off we went.  The stream we wanted was a short walk from the café, but we were not in any hurry, so we took our time.  We passed the time talking about the match on Saturday and how well they played and how the team was due to play in the F.  A.  Cup next month.  Eventually we arrived at the stream.  It was not a wide stream but led into a small pond about fifty feet from the top of the steam.  One of us, Tim, went to the edge of the stream where he would catch hold of both ships.  He could do this by standing astride the banks of the stream.  Myself and David were the only ones with boat but we let the others play with them.  We took it in turn to race the boats, I won one round as did David, but Tim and John lost.  This meant the final was between myself and David.  Tim was a but further along the stream jumping from one bank to the other.

     “Stop that Tim,” I said, or something like that.  This was many years ago and my memory is not entirely clear.  I do remember what happened next, and I guess you can to.  The first thing we heard was the splash and Tim crying out that he was wet.  Well, we laughed, but he was furious.  He jumped out of the stream and shook his feet.  I think he mentioned that his mother would kill him as his shoes were new.  He sat on the grass and removed his socks and shoes.

     We stayed in the park until his socks were, drier, but Tim had to walk home with soggy socks.  I don’t remember if he was punished, but I saw him the next day playing outside his house, in his old shoes.

     I moved from the bench and made my way to the café.  I felt like a cup of coffee, but I also needed to use the toilet.  As you get older you find yourself needing the toilet more often and sometimes at an inconvenient moment. 

     The café has changed hands many times and undergone many changes, with the addition of a wide courtyard where people can sit and eat and drink.  This a free area and not owned by the café.  I was passing through the courtyard to use the toilets, next to the café, and a couple began shouting.  I wasn’t paying that much attention to what they were shouting about, but I was not the only person taking interest.  The woman was telling the man that a program she wanted to watch was more interesting than the one he wanted to watch.  As I entered the toilets, I was reminded about an argument I had with my wife many years ago.  This was not about a TV program, but theatre show.  We did argue about which show to see, something on a similar line as the argument I just heard.  Of course, the result was that I went to the show she wanted to see.  Actually, it was good.  However, we did go to the other show, the one I wanted to see and it was terrible.

     As I made my way inside the café, I wondered why I was reminded about that particular argument, after all I’ve had worse arguments with the wife, especially in the early days of our marriage.  Still, can’t do anything about how or what I remember.

     I sat at a table and waited for someone to come and serve.  Normally I would be with the wife, the children and grand children at home, around a table, eating a Sunday lunch, but the wife is with her sister who is ill.  Neither of us think it’s this COVID-19 thing, but my sister-in-law is somewhat of a hypochondriac, so off my wife went to provide emotional support.

     As I can just about boil water, there was no point in inviting my son and daughter, their partners, and their children over.

     It was not long before I was served and having looked at the menu, I ordered the Sunday Lunch Special and a pot of tea.

     As I waited, I looked around the café I was reminded of the first day I came here, which would have been when I was twelve.  This was in 1963 and as you might guess, the café looked different.  I can’t remember what the colour of the café was, inside or out.  However, I remember it had a jukebox in the corner.  I won’t explain what a jukebox was, but it allowed you to play music of the day, whoever was famous at the time.

     On this day, I had been allowed to leave the house to come to the park, by myself.  Normally, I would be accompanied by my mother, but I was deemed old enough to venture out.  So, I did and the first thing I did was to come to the café.  It was not a big as it is now, but could hold around thirty people.  The toilets were a separate building a few feet away and it did not have a courtyard.

     I was excited as I entered the café but had no idea what to order.  I had some money with me, around two shillings.  This I thought would be enough for most things, but then I was not intending to spend it all that day.  I seem to remember I ordered a lemonade and paid a few pence for it.  I sat at a table and stayed in the café until I had drunk all of my lemonade.

     I was in a happy mood as I made my way to the bowling green.  However, my path was interrupted by two older lads.  I knew them from the school they attended.  It was close to the school I attended and so some of the pupils from each school were rivals of each other.  I was involved in any of the fights I heard about, but I had seen some of the fights they had and I guess one of them recognised me.  I don’t remember precisely what happened but one of the pushed me and I pushed back.  Then we fought, the lad and I.  Now I’m not saying that this was always the case where two people fought one person, one-to-one, but on that day, that’s what happened.  Somehow, I managed to win the fight but breaking the lad’s nose.  The other lad kicked me in the shin and ran off with his friend.  I hobbled around for a bit but was otherwise unharmed.  Oddly enough, I don’t remember seeing them in the park again, but I still saw them fighting with other school kids.

     That was fight, was the first fight I had, but it was not the last.  In general, I won most of my fights and for a brief time, I was a junior boxing champion.  However, I gave up boxing in favour of playing football.  I never reached the heights of a league team, but had three years as an amateur for the local team.  I gave up sport when I started work on the railways as a train driver.  I remained a driver until I retired.

     The meal was nice, so was the tea.  I paid for them and left the café.  It was cooler now as I headed home.  As I walked back along the familiar streets, I thought about my wife and that she would be back tomorrow.  In the meantime, I will be at home, watching the latest series of a game show we like and waiting for further news of the vaccine against Covid-19.

     Well, here I am, at home, sitting in front of the TV.  Soon the news will be on and I’ll find out what we can and can’t do.

     So, that’s my brief record of my day.

     I wish you well, be safe and be patient.