Army, Trains and 1983

I grew up on a housing estate called Blackbird Leys in Oxford.  It was a massive council housing estate with a few private homes (posh folk).  I had a very strict Dad but a very non strict mum.  Anyway I had reached my school summer holidays yet again and had decided that it was time me and my band of merry men had fun! (we were all oddballs in our own special ways, were just perfect for each other and grew a bond of togetherness which nobody would understand). 

Certain parents did not like certain ones of us but we did not care (he's bad news that boy). 

Anyway, it was the summer of 1983.  A summer we wouldn't forget, and one where we would embark on the most wonderful 6 weeks (cue Stand by Me theme tune).  This would last for years and we would become very well known by lots of dodgy people (street cred). 

We lived near a local train line which transported Rover cards to and from the factory.  The good thing for us was that there were loads of trees, bushes and stuff.  I woke up early and within ten minutes had rounded up the "star wars" gang.  We pondered for a split second and then decided to play "army".  This would involve us trawling through the undergrowth for any sticks that in our minds resembled guns.  Once done we split into groups and went off in opposite directions to make camp.  We used to cut through bushes with cheap penknifes and lay various bits of cardboard down.

Once in the camps we were totally in the zone, we would work plans out how to ambush the other team, never sure of the rules, but we used to make a ner ner ner ner ner sound (not ambulance but machine gun sound) then you would have to shout danny (or whoever it was) your dead.  The corpse would then drop to the floor after taking a barrage of fake gunshots and wait for a team member to tag him alive.  Quite how this worked I will never know, anyway my squadron were rampnt we only had Stan (Jason) left to kill when platoon style he came hurtling out of a bush yelling train.  We knew what this meant and took our positions.  A car transporter run train was coming.  We hid and waited, the train came within touching distance and once past we started sprinting after it, our goal was the oil filled lamp on the back, we had never missed one yet. It had become a status symbol between us as to who was gonna get it.  As we approached the train everything seemed to go into slow motion and from the back of the train a brute of a man appeared and was waving a stick about.  Not put off by this we jinked and dodged to the train and my friend was just pulling the lamp from the holder when he shouted gun.

Gun!  We thought he must be joking, but no he was deadly serious.  We had the lamp and was running away like maniacs with this mad man taking pot shots at us, one by one we dived for cover.  The area was ours, we knew the undergrowth, one by one we started spotting each other.  Quick Gary headcount 5-6-wait one missing, it was then I heard a scream, everything went silent and our friend Steven half dropped through the bushes where we were.  I've been shot he said and sure enough there was blood everywhere we were in turmoil.  Where have you been shot I said, my arse he replied.  I took it upon myself to look at said backside and sure enough his jeans were blood splattered, on further inspection luckily for us I realised he had been shot with a salt pellett gun.  We knew he would be ok but had to get him home, so his mum  could carefully pull the salt pelletts from his bum one by on.

We took a pact that we would not say how when or where it happened but from that day on me and my friends became a family unit. We set off on some incredible adventures that year and never looked back.  Summer of 1983 was when I made true friends.