AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN...

 

Taken in my pal's back garden a couple of nights ago

It was sometime in 1969 (if I recall correctly), that a classmate offered to sell me some back issues of Fantastic and Terrific, which I eagerly accepted.  I accom-panied him back to his house after school, whereupon his mother instructed him to give them to me for nothing, presumably because they were only going to be thrown out to clear some space in a cupboard.  Understandably, he wasn't too happy, but grudgingly complied with his mother's pronouncement.  ( I've never forgotten sitting at the top of the stairs, looking through the comics that I was about to acquire.)  I eventually made it up to him around three years later by giving him (unprompted) just slightly more than the amount originally agreed upon, as I was still feeling a tiny bit guilty of depriving him of the whopping sum of one shilling and thruppence.  (I gave him ten new pence, being two shillings in 'old' money, the extra remuneration being 'interest'.) 

 

A replacement for one of the comics I got in 1969, acquired in 1980

It was to be 18 years before I returned to his house on three more occasions in the late '80s and early '90s, when he was there visiting or staying with his parents after living and working abroad.  Fast forward almost 30 years, and I've now been in his family home at least another dozen times since April this year, as he's been travelling up from England (where he now lives, and has done for a long time) to prepare the house for putting on the market, 55 years after his family first moved in back in 1965.  (Sadly, his elderly mother has dementia and had to move into a care home last December as she can no longer look after herself.)  In fact, he's been staying in the house for almost the last three weeks (with it going up for sale only a few days ago), and he started back down to England this morning, currently being sat on a train in transit as I type.

 

The actual size replica photo

Anyway, back in 1986, my pal gave me his original copy of a primary school class photograph taken outside the annexed huts, as the one I'd owned had been lost or thrown out back in the late '70s or early '80s.  The plan was that I'd have it copied and returned to him, but he generously let me keep the original and supply him with an enlargement in its place.  The original had been snapped in 1967 by a departing teacher, presumably to remember her pupils, and she had extra copies made to give one to each pupil as well.  (I say 'give', but I can no longer recall whether they were gratis or we had to pay for them.)

  

A scan of the original photo...

Anyway, I've now had that photo for 34 years, but, like with the comics, I've always felt a bit guilty about my pal being deprived of the original print he'd had from his '60s primary school days, even though I'd supplied him with a bigger, newer, professionally produced copy to replace it.  On the back of the original pic was printed 'Gratispool Sept 1967', missing from the new copy as, par for the course, only the front pictorial image had been duplicated, not the back.  However, I felt that the info on the back reflected the time it was first taken as much as the front and was incomplete without it, so I recently determined to remedy the situation.

 

...and the back.  Unsure if date refers to when it was taken or developed

Being the proud possessor of an excellent scanner and printer, I decided to scan both sides of the original photo and print out an actual-size copy, then present it to my pal so that it could spend some time in the same house where the original had resided for 19 years before I acquired ownership of it.  Things had turned full circle, the original having come from that house, and its doppelganger having returned to it while still being in the possession of a member of its original family, the very person who gave me the photo 34 years ago.  It's now on its way to somewhere in England, tucked safely away in my pal's luggage, but the fact it (okay, an exact duplicate) made it back to where it started from - even if only for several days - gives me an immense sense of satisfaction.  It feels like I've finally completed an unfinished task.

Another shot of the replica photo

It's fairly safe to assume that my pal probably doesn't share my outlook to the same (or even any) extent as I do, but to me, it's a case of 'there and back again' (sort of) and that provides me with a huge measure of pleasure.  Bonkers I know, but it's always good to complete the circle, don't you think?  In my mind, it's the end of an era, and it's by no means certain that either my friend or myself will ever set foot inside the house again.  It just seems fitting to me that, henceforth, whenever he looks at that photo, not only will he associate its image with his old house when he first lived there as a child, but also from when just before, as an adult, he moved out for the final time prior to another family assuming ownership of it.

 

Oh, go on then - one more of the replica

Well, don't know about you, but I find that touching.  The comment section patiently awaits your thoughts (if any).

Posted in: Cartoons