Christmas Day Edition

Sleighbells are ringing, the lights are on the artificial tree so I'm up and out of jim jams and into my uniform for a touch of breakfast ready to open these presents that are just in the corner of the room in a pile. 

I think most boys have what you might call a  "big present", the main and usually more expensive one and for me it is one that builds on last years, namely the Lego 11004 "Classic" Windows and doors set that adds those items and more lego bricks to last years classic set.
Playing with my Lego was what little boy me needed and still needs, enjoying making and using my imagination in play.

I do like to read but good new stuff for boys is hard to find however this Adventure story for 9-13 year olds is just the thing for little me being written more for boys.

No Christmas could be complete for me without a link to Christmas pasts so I had the Dandy 2020 Annual with all my favourite Dandy characters in it not least Winker Watson, Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan.

The Beano today is different than what it was even in 2005 never mind how it was in the 70's and 80's as I recall well so rather than buying the new annual in the modern rather PC world, I had this 1976 edition, a year from the one I had last year which more as I remember it.
It takes me back to that time and they boyhood I had.

Like most boys soccer aka Association Football is a passion of mine and one leading publication about it has been Shoot! which I recall from Junior School so it's fitting to have an annual that also marks fifty years of the publication

Most of things about Scouting and its relationship to me exist on another blog but like last year I had an annual from the past, the era I remember well for Cub Scouts because being a scout of that age in spirit is really what I am and am about.

When it comes to more of the "Stocking Fillers" one advantage of this current year being very much "The Year of The Boy" is a lot of the ambiguity of recent years just went and so people went more with what they saw and what in the past it always was.  

Thus Mum taking a hint of boyhood regression, bought me "proper"  boy-like Y Fronts like she used to when I was younger apart from never failing to call me anything other than by male pronouns all year.

I had another Green jersey top.

Socks also featured in it as they did when I was younger very much for a boy in actual boy sizes too having small feet rather than just rebranded girls ones as the Adult 'retro' market starts at Size 6 up which doesn't help.

Traditionally made and fitting into the tradition of what Aunts brought me, it was fitting to be given something stereotypical boyish to wear, a sign of the distance travelled in the last couple of years.
My neighbour knitted me a grey hat with black trim apart from giving me some chocolates also seeing very much "That Boy" on the streets talking to him. 

Outside of the literal stocking fillers a specifically boys own colouring book that ties into that passionate interest of mine to help with my hand-eye co-ordination

Rupert The Bear was a love of early boyhood so in with the stocking fillers is his 2020 annual which really is a reprint of stories from the past complete with original illustrations which is as well as many years ago things like Rupert annuals were just removed.

I don't need Rupert annuals from the past as a grown up collecting thing in the way some do so much as I need that connection from him to the Eternal Boy.

If the year began as "The Year of The Boy" it ends with a suitable adult free Christmas that from love contains within it a very boyish feel that I'm most comfortable nay happy for.

Pause for Christmas Edition

This week apart from trying to tie up bits of Christmas with family and gradually recovering from my ankle having been able to walk on it this week,  we mark Christmas that will be with us in five days time  with a pause on this blog ready for the day itself after watching Yesterday's Blue Peter which had clips from past Christmas's on the show that I remember seeing at the time with introductions from past presenters such as Valerie Singleton, Matt Baker and Konnie Haq.

Christmas is a time for Boys and Girls and this picture, taken some years back at Hamley's the famous toy shop for me symbolizes magic of the Christmas's we remember and perhaps try to remake even now for the "Boy" that's still in us.

And that's the magical thing I love the most about this time of year.

* HAPPY CRIMBO FOLKS AND ALL THE BEST FOR THE NEW YEAR FROM ME*

Uniform polling an stuff

Having been out for the third time this year in my usual attire of grey shorts and socks to the Polling Station to vote yesterday even if I had to use the bus because of my ankle injury making walking very painful I won't be going into into discussing the political direction we may be going in or if politically speaking we're lacking drivers.
I mean as close as politics and this blog gets is that yes I stood talking to a Conservative party worker, husband of the candidate here, for several minutes in my uniform - which didn't faze him - and I'd like to see parties insisting on a "Shorts for boys" policy in uniform as some schools ban them but say boys can wear skirts instead.
How muddled up is that?

On the other hand two pairs of these rather good MagicFit red banded long socks did arrive from Albert Prendergast, photo by AP cos I believe credits for stuff like that as a few of my generic socks are showing signs of wear as I'm seldom in anything other than school shorts with matching long socks.
I'm sure the idea of me looking smart in uniform might appeal. 😉
Like the irony is the day I hurt my ankle, was the only weekday this year I was wearing my Puma tracksuit bottoms as it was minus 1 degrees C out being smart and pretty warm. Maybe it's telling me to avoid longs?
I also had given to me by a family friend a truck with wheels that contains Fudge so I push that across the carpet and have a bit of a chew at the same time cos must people know I'm little.
I'm writing Crimbo cards here during my enforced staying in recovering  to ensure that at least that side of things gets done as because family members have changed jobs, the usual system of present and card swaps will be different this year and they aren't sure as yet when they'll be coming.
Think they'll be a pre crimbo special next week having been thinking about about my blogging schedule over this season and something for Christmas or Boxing day.

Thoughts on leaving Junior School

This is being written while I recover from a damaged ankle which is very painful but this time of year often sees me thinking back in time to past events not least my own boyhood.

I recently saw this picture one presumes taken late summer last year of a "Year Six) or to me J4 leavers service of the sort we had as part of the process of transition that had included visiting for a day a secondary school the majority of the year group would transfer to, writing up about the subjects we'd taken in Junior school and a service.

Actually, to tell you the truth when I saw this picture I did feel a bit sad actually because for me, Jacqueline and a few others it was the point we realized  we would be at the margins of the group because we wouldn't transfer with them and as you countless know, daytime school groups transfer over to things like sports groups, the "Youth Club" and so on resulting us being marginalized.

For me it was near total because I was going to boarding school so daily after school contact in a pre-internet age was non existent so the few I did manage to keep in contact with through things like the Methodist Chapel do matter and some those contacts have been maintained through 'adult' positions in the community like being a Council Chairman or involved in other groups that paradoxically put me in positions of some real stature in this community that the others didn't get around to.

On Monday, I was about when I called over Karl who was living at his fathers old house here and to which I'd know backward from the days we'd call on each other to play and we got talking about how each other was and that.

He was one of six I had regular contact with over the years and that was when I realized that as unfortunate as that break was as a J4 leaver, actually I hadn't really lost anything of value because those friendships still remain right now. It is a part of how we relate to each other.