An evening out when I was 13

More distant memories drift to the surface of the stagnant pool of my brain...

When I was 13 I had a couple of friends that I regularly hung out with - one was someone I had known since the age of around 5, a major Status Quo fan, the other had moved into the area fairly recently and was a mega fan of David Bowie. We had also recently discovered Frank Zappa - at this time his songs were just strange and funny, unlike his later stuff which I disliked.

Anyway, the early part of an evening out would take place in the local park. We would sit on the swings and just talk a load of rubbish, singing songs badly, reciting Monty Python sketches, etc. Sometimes others would join us, including a few girls on occasion (never the one I had the crush on, though) but the 3 of us were always the main ones.

Then hunger would strike, so we would head off to the only shop that was open after 5.30. This shop was very small, very over-priced and owned by the most miserable person in the whole town, which is saying something in a town that seemed to import miserable people! We would invade the shop and clear his stock of cakes while one of my friends tried desperately to get the owner to crack his face in a smile. Mission Impossible, I tell you! Loaded with cakes, we would head back to the park, stuff the cakes and swing until we felt sick. At some point we would retire to one of our houses and listen to music. If we were lucky, one of my friend's brothers would join us - he was older than us and had the most amazing sense of humour. When he got going he would have us crying with laughter, clutching our stomachs, begging him to stop. I can only remember one of his monologues now - it was just after someone had been sentenced to 400 years in prison and he was imagining that the guy was actually left in his cell that long and finally discharged, no-one seeming to realise that he was just a skeleton now and had been dead for 350 years. Well it was funny at the time, I guess you had to be there...

Finally, it would be time to go home. If we left it too late, this could be a lot of fun as the street lights were all switched off at midnight - oh the number of times I sprinted home to get there without being plunged into darkness! I think it is a sign of how times have changed - I thought nothing of being out this late but would never allow my 13 year old out like that now...