Tuesday 17 June 2008

Ode to the Summer of '96

We sang Wonderwall down the pub, arms linked,
Sticky, sickly rum and coke, glass after glass chinked.
We were truly invincible, the most beautiful, the best,
that summer was a huge wave and we were riding the crest.

‘Whose turn to drive tonight?’ ‘Mum lent me her car!’
A gaggle of girls, lip gloss reflecting the stars.
We were breathlessly racing towards the rest of our lives,
terrified, exhilarated and dressed up to the nines.

Me, Julia and Andrea screamed during Euro 96,
of course England didn’t win (it must have been fixed).
In the day I worked in the bakery on Oak Green Parade,
selling Chelsea buns and pasties and counting the days.

Exam results brought the smell of the future in the air,
We were Columbus sailing off without any cares.
What if God was one of us?’ sang Joan Osbourne on MTV
and I knew the answer: Right then, God was me.

*****************

(I'm turning thirty in a frighteningly short time and have been thinking a lot about the future. '96 seems at times like yesterday and at others like a hundred millions years ago, a different person, a different planet. Peering back into my memories is like watching the film of someone else's life. Still, bizarre as it is, it feels great to take wander down memory lane and amazingly, the feeling of excitement about going off to uni and leaving home is still as fresh as ever.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't worry Smell,
just as I was there to hold your hand through the exciting wilderness that was University, living in the basement with two smelly German girls (no offence to Germans, but these two were just really smelly), I will also be there to help you through the chilling experience of turning thirty, just as you were there for me.... We can look through old photos and take the piss out of each others' old hairstyles and clothes!!