Seeing has I was up this morning way before the dawn chorus I was thinking today was going to be another long day for me as I yawned. A morning trip to the butchers and a day of TV was about all I had to look forward to and oh yes finishing off the book ‘Cardiff City Rebranded’ I have been reading.
Football had always been a massive part of my growing up not playing as such, more watching. I never liked the idea of joining a team but don’t get me wrong I played tons with my mates over the park in the street or down the lane. If it wasn’t football, I enjoyed swimming be it in the River Taff (summer time) or one of the pools in Cardiff.
Thinking back to when I was a teenager if I wasn’t watching my mates playing football and I had the money or could climb over the wall I would be down Ninian Park in the afternoon watching Cardiff City. I went with dad a lot it was a father and son thing we both loved football we had our place on the terrace where we always stood. Most fans had their spot and you would see the same faces even if you were free to wander the terrace. I looked forward to a sausage roll and a good game of football.
If it was a Saturday and Cardiff where playing away it maybe the Empire Pool or the smaller and less grand Guildford Crescent swimming pool even with its three pools, still it was my favourite and where in infant school I learnt to swim. Running down the street to get the bus into town with your swimming trunks wrapped in a towel after being forced by your mother to have a wash down so you are not ordered to have a wash before getting into the pool. Probably with a clean pair of underpants on. Moms are like that even though they are not there just the thought of their little darling being anything but 100% would give them hives.
With the Empire Pool, being all most next to the bus station it was regularly packed but the advantage over Guilford there was a cafeteria and you could sit and have something to eat while watching the fun in the pool. After you can sit outside in the seats and partake of some girl watching. While at Guilford, it was a bag of chips on the way home.
When I left school Cardiff City, become a major Saturday thing as I now had a bit more money even if it was dole money - I started to travel to away games. That would be a day out traveling to some town in England for 90 minutes of ecstasy or pain depending on the final score. You sometimes felt like an invading army but that was the beginning of the real naughty times off the pitch. It got to the point I would rather go to away games than go to Ninian Park.
Than one day, you meet that girl and wedding bells in the distant become louder and louder until you are standing in front of a vicar holding a bible. Times are a changing and Saturday becomes shopping until an agreement can be made about your Saturday afternoons at least. Then one day some keys are handed to you meaning you have a council house and god is a bluebird its minutes away from Ninian Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment