SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT Childhood is something that we can only experience once and then it's gone in a flash of fairy dust. Second star to the right, then straight on til morning. And the time to dream is over. But that doesn't mean that it has to be forgotten. In fact, some childhood memories will last a lifetime and yet they seem so distant, such a long time ago. They become golden memories of a lost childhood. So far away and yet so precious. The days of our youth are such a priceless commodity that it seems to be over before it's begun. But that's the beauty of childhood. Most of it I can remember as if it was yesterday, other images have become blurred over time but my overall impression of my childhood was of happy carefree innocent days with a lifetime waiting to be discovered. Cannock may not have seemed like the most exciting of places to have been growing up in the early 1960s, but it is where I grew up, and that's all that mattered. The town became a giant playground from the top of the Pye Green road by the Shoal Hill Tavern and Cannock Chase beyond, to the bottom by Churchbridge and Bridgetown on Watling Street. But you have to make the best of what you have when you are growing up, and that's exactly what we did. We always managed to find something interesting to do in Cannock or the surrounding area. That's what children do because it's in their nature with their inquisitive minds and their inventive games. It could be playing football in the street with an empty tin can, playing hopscotch with a couple of flat pebbles and a piece of chalk on the pavement, or even playing hide and seek around the back of garden sheds. It was all make-believe and fun. We all have to start somewhere in life and my early years began on the 1st of August 1958 in 'Ivy House' an old workhouse that was converted into a hospital in the 1950s in Cannock Staffordshire, in which my mother Lilian Cox Keene just happened to be working there as a nurse, and so it was a very useful arrangement as far as I was concerned. And, from that point onwards with a twinkle in my eye, I set out, enthusiastically determined to find out what my youthful days had in store for me. I lived with the other four members of my family in lodgings on Saint John's Road, a stone's throw away from Cannock town center, an ex-coal board house built originally for miners and their families. One of my most vivid recollections at the time was of the extraordinary number of shops there were on Saint John's road itself because we had Morris's Grocery store directly opposite the house which was also known by its original name of Westwood's. There was a shop at the very top end of the road that sold fruit and vegetables if I remember correctly, and then there was Loyd's newsagents and post office which was on the corner of Avon Road, there was a men's barbers, which was directly opposite the Crystal Fountain Pub. We also had a betting office. And a little bit further down there was another shop which I can't remember the name of which was by the little road that led to the old Saint Mary's Catholic School and the Holy Rosary nunnery. And, at the very bottom near Laburnham Avenue by Harrison Road, there was a general store called Seaton's. And it crossed my mind how many roads could boast having that many shops? Not very many I would imagine? But my early childhood up to the age of five at least seemed to be a happy time for me. In the early years of life, the family struggled because my dad, who had originally been employed as a miner during the war years had an accident and couldn't work so the family moved around and lodged at 106 Saint John's Road. My mom was working as a nurse at Ivy House at the time so it was a very convenient arrangement as far as I was concerned. But there was absolutely no doubt that the family struggled in those early years of my life because of my dad's accident but eventually, he was able to find employment and we moved on. But that's how my early childhood was and you have to accept the situation you find yourself in and make the best of it. The clothes that I wore were hand-me-downs from my older brother and that's how we managed because we had to share what we had. Regardless of that, I have happy memories of the time we spent living there. I can remember my older sister having a pet tortoise and rabbits which she kept in the old air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden. The spectacular bonfire nights with the box of Benwell fireworks which contained rockets that fizzed and flew up into the air and exploded with a loud bang and a flash of bright colors, The scary jumping jacks, the noisy bangers, and the spinning Catherine wheels. The smell of the sausages the beefburgers, and the potatoes that my Uncle Sam used to cook on the open bonfire. And the sounds of the crackles and sparks from the ever-decreasing size of the bonfire as dying embers and ashes floated up into the cool starry night. I can remember being carried inside as I was half falling asleep. But those are the images and the golden memories that I have. I can remember all the metal Dinky and Corgi cars that I used to play with in the back garden. The roads and motorways that I would build in the sandpit with the help of my older brother. The little paddling pool that my mom would fill up with cold water from the garden tap on hot summer afternoons which she would put me in to stop me getting too hot. The trips up to Cannock Park playing on the swings and the climbing frame. The witch's hat, the roundabouts that made you feel giddy. the chasing games, playing cowboys and Indians, blind man's buff, hide and seek, kiss chase postman's knock, dare, they were all part of my early childhood days that I will never ever forget. The first time I went to the seaside and saw the sea and heard the seagulls. The sandcastles, the bucket, and the spade that my dad bought for me from one of the cheap gift shops along the promenade. my first ride on a donkey. The sticks of rock and the kiss me quick hats. The pleasure beach and the fairground rides. The prized bingo along the never-ending seafront shops and slot machines. Punch and Judy show on the beach. The ice cream sellers and the cafes and chip shops. And Blackpool tower and Pleasure beach. They were all great trips to the seaside but when you couldn't afford to go abroad to Spain it was enough for someone like me. The birthday parties, the cards, and the presents, my very first bike, going to the pictures for the first time. My first day at school. I went to see Doctor Muldoon our family doctor in Chadsmoor when I was feeling ill. He'd sit me on his knee and he would say. Now then Robert what seems to be wrong with you today? And immediately I started to feel much better because of the reassuring voice of our family doctor to a young four-year-old boy that everything was going to be alright. All I can remember of my very early childhood days was playing with the children who lived in and around Saint John's Road Cannock, some of whom I still keep in touch with to this day. And the very fact that I can remember a great deal of my early life would suggest that they were happy times for me. Of course, I have very few specific memories before I reached the age of five because I was far too young to remember the details, but I have blurred memories of my older sister Pamela riding this gigantic horse that she was looking after from the horse riding stables on the Watling Street, which I think was called Follows horse stables, which scared me a little because it seemed so big. And I can remember the heavy snowfalls of the early 1960s and the frozen water pipes. We also had some wonderful times building snowmen and all the snowballs and sleds that were used to slide down St. Johns Road. I can remember getting over-excited at Christmas time, waiting with eager anticipation to see what Santa had brought for me, and getting really upset if I didn't get what I specifically asked for in my letter to him, not realizing at the time that the family were struggling for money so we had to make do with what we were given. I have vague memories of going to see my grandparents Bertram and Nelly Cox who lived on the other side of Cannock in Princess Street Chadsmoor and the hundreds of thousands of cousins that I seemed to have because there were so many of them. But when you take into consideration that my nan and gran had nine children then it all begins to make sense. My grandad Bertram was a miner from one of the local pits and his favorite hobby had always been fishing, Whenever we used to visit them he always took great pride in showing me the fishing rods that he had made himself, and the fishing tackle that he kept under strict lock and key in the shed at the bottom of the garden. I can remember a few years later when I was a little bit older and he was too old to go fishing himself giving me my first fishing rod and providing me with my first fishing license from the Broomhill Albion club in Chadsmoor where I think he was a committee member to fish on the canal in Penkridge. Times were hard for the family in my early life because I had to share a bed with my older brother but that's how it was and you had to make the best of what you had and help each other out as best you could. I can remember when bonfire night came around my mother had to pay for a box full of Benwell fireworks in installments because we couldn't afford to pay. But we managed to get through those times in my early childhood. We all have childhood memories somewhere within us because that's how we start our journey in life. Some of us are destined to have difficult journeys others go through life with hardly a care in the world. But the fact of the matter is that you never know how it will turn out until you are there. I have fond memories of my childhood because it was a time when I was discovering myself and what I was capable of doing. And it's only as I get older that I realize how important it was to me. I came from a working-class background in which money was hard to come by and the biggest priority was to put food on the table, that restricted the things that we could do, but that didn't matter because we were creative and resourceful. If we were able to buy anything new that was expensive we couldn't pay for it outright so we used to pay in monthly installments because there were no credit cards or online bank accounts in those days. But that was the only way we could afford to buy anything. And if you came from a big family it was even harder. But we didn't moan about it because we accepted it for what it was and got on with our lives because we realized very early on that not everybody was born with a silver spoon in their mouth and could afford everything. Everybody's childhood is different and we like to remember the good bits and we forget about the bad bits but the trouble is that if we forget about what actually happened it drops into the waste paper bin and is lost forever. All those golden memories of our youth are gone. Some people remember their childhood with great affection and others want to forget but whichever one it is they will always be part of your life story, and you must never forget that. But the sad thing is we do. We forget our own childhood. Happy memories of running around on playing fields and having our first kiss behind a bush. They disappear and are lost forever. And that feels like a wasted memory. But for me, childhood memories are happy memories and always will be. They were very important and formative years for me. There were years when I was healthy and everything was shiny and awe-inspiring. Life was an adventure, a place to experience, and I did that to my heart's content. I rummaged and explored every aspect of my youth. I was learning about life and it was important because as I was growing up, I was finding out about myself and the world around me, and developing an attitude and character toward what I was seeing and experiencing. I was living my young life and living it at such a young speed that it was turning into a blur all around and was gone within a flash. That's how quick a childhood is, it's gone within an instant and forgotten about. A golden memory of a distant dream. But what tends to happen is that every now and again memory from that distant past will come to the surface again and you will think about what happened at that particular point in your life and you will remember it or try to at least. And it stays in your mind's eye or is thrown back into the waste paper bin of your mind but that is entirely up to you to see. We disseminate things in that we decide what is important and what isn't and that's everybody's personal choice. It's up to them to decide what to do with it. In my case I choose to remember them because they were happy years, they were formative years. They were years that I respect because I was learning about myself and what made me tick as a person. That's why they are so important because they are development years. But we never think about it in terms like that, we only see them as trivial but they are very important years you don't realize it at the time but when you are young at heart the days when you grow up and learn about life are so precious. And memories of those days so quickly fade away in your mind. and you try to think back years later about them and if you don't have some kind of documented history of them then those memories are lost forever in the winds of time and that seems so sad to me because every day that we are on this earth should mean something to somebody.