MIke

Whenever I read a good book, I find myself wishing that I could express myself more lucidly. I know that books are crafted and that it can take a long time to get things right, but even so, I envy people who can captue the imagination and transport me to different worlds. I am reading a book by Amos Oz at the moment and find his prose so inspiring. However, I will try to make the most of what I have and continue to burble on in my own way. At least I don't have to do it for a living.

My teenage life was in some ways a double existence. There was school on the one hand, and the village on the other. The village was home. I slept in a house there but the vilage and its surroundings were where I lived. The people I associated with at home were a completely different group to those in school, and so were the values and expectations. The village was a place that was going nowhere, and all these years on, it still hasn't changed. Oh the graveyard is almost full now, my father and brother having been added to the population, and the residents that i knew have mostly passed on. There are a few of the people that I grew up with who still live there, but I wouldn't recognise them or they me. It was for me a place that inspired me to leave it. I knew that whatever I did, I would leave, and the sooner the better. It was stultifying, and my father overbearing and controlling to ridiculous lengths that forced me into rebellion. There was a time when there was a danger of becoming a hooligan like so many people that I knew.

Friday night was youth club. Around the village, youth club had quite a reputation, and if ever there was any trouble, vandalism or petty theft, youth club was usually the scapegoat and qhite rightly too. This was where the kids from the village would congregate once a week in order to smoke, listen to records on the Dansette, gamble, play snooker and throw darts at each other. There were no drugs around in those days, and not much money either, otherwise it would have been a crackhouse I am sure. We met at the village hall, a tin shack that served a multitude of organisations, including the WI and the village council. I don't think that our use of the premises was much appreciated, though it was pretty shambolic anyway, the old and bearded ladies of the WI did not appreciate dart holes in the walls and cigarette burns in their curtains.

It was somewhere to go and on friday night it was warm, if on occasions dangerous. I don't suppose anyone came to a great deal of harm there, and the fights that broke out usually petered out into nothing.

Then along came Mike. He was a Chemist who worked for ICI. He had an attractie wife, a young child and a VW dormobile. He also had enthusiasm and he took over the running of the club. Mike was one of the people that I thank for the influence that he had upon my life. He arrived too late to make any difference to my school performance but he changed my outlook forever.

Mike would talk to us and find out what we wanted, he'd talk to us about opportunity and experience and he got us to do things that we never thought possible. Of course not everyone welcomed the change and some of the hooligan element, who were getting older anyway, transferred their gathering to the village pub. They were not allowed in of course but hung around outside - it probably seemed cool at the time.
Mike even got some of us to give the Village Hall a makeover. The village provided the paint and we did the labour. The whole thing was painted both inside and out and such was our committment, even the joists under the stage were painted with creosote. Not the most pleasant of tasks and probably none too health either. In those days, health and safety boiled down to a simple interior risk assessment and a bit of bottle.

Mike started a drama group and we'd put on plays for our own entertainment and for the old folks of the village; what they had done to deserve it I don't know. I do remember a variety show that we did, that was mainly made up of comedy sketches that we had put together. They didn't understand any of it and all I could see out in front were a row of deadpan faces, staring with incomprehension. They'd only come for the free tea and sandwiches that we provided anyway. We were even persuaded to enter drama competitions and public speaking contests, though we never won or even came close. This was a start, self confidence was starting to grow. More on this another time.

People who work with teenagers are very lucky. They have the ability to change lives for the better, and while doing so, share in the excitement and thrills as they discover themselves. People like Mike, who gave up so much of his time to help others are the real heroes of this world and they rarely get thanked. I am saying thankyou now Mike - I hope that you are still alive and I hope that you are aware of the difference that you made.