Nostalgia

We Were The Boys

With All The Promise Of A Brand Fire New Summer’s Day

Photograph by Conor Samuel on Unsplash

Liverpool in the swinging sixties. I have to say, my childhood was not an easy one. I was an undernourished and introverted child born and brought up on the wrong side of the tracks. I was bullied and beaten on a frequent basis at home, at school and out on the streets. I was once attacked by a group of fifteen sixteen year old thugs who left me for dead. I did not expect to live a very long life and at times neither did I desire one. There was very little joy in my young life apart from music and football, I was fanatic about both. And it was those two things that sustained me during some of my most difficult days.

In particular, being from Liverpool, I was mad about Liverpool FC and the Beatles. They were both my saving grace. Liverpool’s Roger Hunt, Ian St John and Tommy Smith, plus John, Paul, George and Ringo, were all my childhood heroes.

Roger Hunt, Ian St John and Tommy Smith of LFC in the 60's courtesy of LFC

I can vividly remember going to the Anfield stadium with my Dad at the age of ten passing out due to the late Spring heat. I was surfed down the crowd of supporters over all of their heads, all the way down from the back of the…