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safety net

My first real friend was Godfrey

And for the first few weeks of our friendship

I always thought

Who calls their kid Godfrey?

Then I met his Mum

And I thought

He got away lightly

Together we shared our first experience of alcohol

I was thirteen at the time

So a late starter where I grew up

We stole a bottle of sherry from his Dads booze cupboard

Snuck round the back of the park

And drank the whole thing

We spent the rest of the night punching each other

And making promises fuelled by Bristol cream and childhood blindness

How we would never find girls

Debt

Religion

All the crippling cataracts of the later years

I remember the feeling

That night

Like the safety net of adolescence had been whipped from underneath us

Revealing something beautiful and terrifying

A few years later the special sickness got hold of Godfrey

They found him hanging in his garage

A bottle of sherry half empty by his feet

alcoholteenagechildhoodsafety net

◄ photo

twelve eyes of evil ►

Comments

<Deleted User> (13947)

Wed 24th Jun 2015 16:50

So beautifully sad, Mr. Buck. I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you for sharing.

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Stu Buck

Wed 24th Jun 2015 15:14

David, Huw, thank you so much.
It is amazing how much time I spent as a child wishing I could hurry up and be an adult. And now, all I want to do is regress! My daughter is only two, but already showing signs of striving to be all grown up.
'Youth is wasted on the young'
Truer words were never spoken.

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Stu Buck

Wed 24th Jun 2015 13:44

thank you both for your kind words!

Lynn Hamilton

Wed 24th Jun 2015 13:41

Enjoyed reading this Mr Buck. The lines 'I always thought who calls their kid Godfrey and then I met is mum and I thought he got away lightly' are ace, in my humble opinion. x

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Graham Sherwood

Wed 24th Jun 2015 13:27

Compelling ending to this Stu, cleverly bringing the sherry back into the story. I also like the terrifying/beautiful description of adulthood, glimpsed from underneath the safety net of adolescence. Well done!

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