Description:
When you write about something from your past on your website you're never quite sure who might read it. Then again how anybody finds my website I have no idea. I have tried googling my name and have not been able to find it. I direct people but now and again people do stumble on it, I can tell by the entries in my address book. There aren't many people sign it which is a shame because I want as many people as possible to read my stories. Imagine my surprise then when somebody who I knew as a child put a message in it not so long ago. Anthony Graham was my next door but one neighbour from the age of five to 18 years old and he left this message: Jeeze a blast from the past or what you bugger. I was browsing online like you do at 2 am in the morning and I thought old mates long gone but not forgotten. Wonderful thing Google. Anyhow sad to hear you have MS but still good to see you need a haircut.lol.Fraid mine is more like lend me some lol . Well guess I`ll read some of your stories see if they are how I remember things. All the best to you Charlie I’ll maybe think of more to say when I get over the shock of seeing your pic online ....ANTHONY It was a great surprise and I felt happy that he had found me then I remembered what I had written about the last time we had been in contact. The first time I travelled abroad I went with Anthony. In the previous 12 months we hadn't seen much of each other and during that time I had changed considerably. Because while hitchhiking you are in constant proximity of each other we had to slowly got on each other's nerves until one fateful day in Germany we were hitchhiking on the autobahn, which is illegal, and the police had threatened to fine us or arrest us if we didn't get off it. We had little or no money and to get off we would have had to walk across the fields! It got to the stage where we continued hitchhiking but every time we saw a police car and we would hide behind some bushes. It seemed an impossible position because it was hard enough trying to get a lift but to be also looking out for police cars at the same time made it doubly impossible. This particular time I came out of the bushes before him and a car stopped for me right away. There was only room for one person because he had a washing machine in the back. I had a decision to make do I refuse the lift or jump in. Anthony had really been getting on my nerves so I took the easy option and jumped in! I related to this particular incident in the middle of an 80 page epic so I didn't think he would come across it right away if ever but later that day he wrote another message in the address book: Lol I guess I must have really pissed you off when we were hitching around Europe. Still no matter I`ve almost forgiven you about the dirty trick of dumping me alone in the middle of Germany.lol No seriously it made me realise that I had to go my own way in life not one that depended on others or to go along with things that just were not for me. i.e the drugs etc. After all I was never one to follow the crowd...Anthony After the initial contact me started to correspond by e-mail. We had been writing to each other for about a month when he wrote this message: Hi Charlie Funny thing this unexplained coincidences. I was at mum and dads place yesterday. Our Paul was there and he had a video of Salford through the ages he had brought for them to see. We were watching the Whit walks section and whose little smiling face popped up in front of the camera but yours. As large as life honest, I'll see if I can do a copy of the section and send it you via email. That's if I can figure out a way to do it and as soon as I can borrow it off them.....Anthony I couldn't be sure if it was me and if so how clear it was. It wasn't long before I found out because Anthony managed to get the pertinent piece of film on an attachment which he sent to me with this e-mail: hiya what a toil i have had sorting this. first from tape to dvd then dvd to puter then finding prog to convert to avi so i could send it via email then editing it to size email will accept. bloody hope it is you lol both mum and dad and our paul as well as me think it is. lol.....Anthony It is me! It's quite an emotional experience looking at yourself at the age of eight knowing what was to happen to that little boy with the smiling face in the next 50 years! I had no idea that this film existed. The camera keeps on me for about three seconds how spooky is that!