Memory Lane - Part 1 Of God Knows How Many

 I wrote around 370 pages some years ago, ostensibly about being a tabletop gamer and roleplayer in the early 80s and beyond, but I think it's time to add to that and indeed add texture and context to what it was like to be part of something as awesomely different as this hobby was then. 

So, let me try and fill in some gaps and widen the scope of my original writing. I make no apologies for being an unreconstructed man of my time. I don't have time for political correctness, nor for the identity politics of the world today. I believe that everyone has a right to do as they wish within the basic tenets of morality - it is private to them and should be kept that way. If you are 'offended' by terminology, recollections and the like, then please feel free to simply exit this blog and, off you can jolly well fuck, and live your own life. I won't be offended.

 In  1981, I was just a normal kid - normal for the time, at least - and in that Autumn, I'd gone from Junior to Comprehensive school, with all the jarring terror of leaving a peer group of around 90 kids and entering a world where many of the faces were strangers, despite living within say a mile of my old school.

That previous last term at my Junior school, had seen me spend one of many glorious weeks on what could be called 'Outward Bounds' activities at the Thornbridge Hall residential site at Ashford-In-The-Water, Derbyshire. I loved those weeks, and  the controlled freedom they offered. At 10 years old I could do a ten mile hike every day and would have walked further if allowed. I learned about the countryside, folk tradition and teamwork

As for Comprehensive school, I hated it. I was, back then, something of an introvert and terribly shy. I still am, although those of you in the hobby who know me will see a brash, loudmouth, brimming with overconfidence. I think that this experience was where my lifelong sense of irrepressible doom and depression first took root. I was miserable for four years until in the Spring of 1984, tired of being bullied and persecuted, I fought back, with consequences for having done so.

For me, having to mix with kids who in many cases were complete animals (I had come from Limpsfield School, which was one of the first 'community' schools in the country and I am certain, the first in Sheffield, with unorthodox ways of teaching and some of the finest teachers, I think, of their generation, hand picked by by a fearsome but fair Headmaster, himself handpicked for the job.

The other surrounding schools were the standard for the times, breeding a certain type of nasty little bastard of which we only had two in an entire school at Limpsfield, and even they were moulded and changed by their time at Limpsfield, one becoming a self-confessed pacifist a few years later, who wrote a brilliant anarchic take on Paddington, when we met in our late teens (there's a funny little story about this meeting, but it's some years off at this point)

Limpsfield engendered a sense of community, responsibility and creativity in it's kids, and it was here that my own creativity began to develop.

It was in returning to an after school wargames club about a year after I'd moved on from Junior school, that I first met the late Steve Roberts (longest serving Chairman of Sheffield Wargames Society) who ran the club, without the need for complex police checks, with a firm, no-nonsense style and the patience of a saint. We adored that man... He could get even the worst little tearaway to concentrate on a wargame and come away from a two or three hour meeting with a great experience.

Steve was the type of person we all wanted to be. He was big, genuinely tough, passionate about his hobby and wryly funny. I personally owe a lot to him. 

I had always been a fan of war films, sci-fi, comics of all types and T.V series like 'The Triffids', Blake's 7, Buck Rogers and the like. In the 70s in the U.K you'd often find a classic war film on T.V on Sunday night. My own personal favourite was Mosquito Squadron (1969) with David McCallum, probably followed by 'Cockleshell Heroes' (1955). 

So, it was sort of inevitable that the obligatory Airfix 1/32 and 1/72 plastic figures and Timpo 'Swoppet' knights along with Action Man, E.A.G.L.E, Micronauts, M.A.C, Little Big Man, Cyborg, Britains 'Deetail' and lots of model kits would become gateway drugs to a life of gaming. By the age of 30, well over half my life had been spent playing games and to date, it's been twice as long again.

I'll come back to come of the great toys that the 70s and 80s offered, in later posts, because I really don't want to go too far off piste this time.

My Mum, deciding that going to 'Big School' decided that it would be fun to dress her treasured firstborn in the most conformist take on the prescribed school uniform, replete with 'basin' haircut and, just to make sure I got killed as soon as possible a briefcase, when every other kid had a sports bag or carrier bag for their books and stuff.

Somewhere, I have a copy of the photo that my mother proudly took on my first day at Comprehensive, presumably to aid the coroner and police in identifying my body.

Sure enough, I was instantly the target of some serious harassment and bullying, and so began the pattern of abuse which, - although I could never have guessed - would take me into a life of living in other worlds and to this very moment in time, where I'm recounting this to you, dear reader.

So, it's 1981, and I am going through those rituals of teenage life, developing a taste in music (still quite eclectic at that point), finding and experimenting with fashion whilst in combat with a controlling mother who believed the basin haircut was the starting point for any negotiations and used the starched creasing of jeans as a punishment - very effective at first, let me tell you - and surviving school.

I was listening to lots of music and could be found, with some of the other 'outcasts', discussing Altered Images, Pigpag, Status Quo ( I know, I know) and this new band called Adam & The Ants, who I think, were my first real musical discovery. The flamboyant image, Burundi Beat drumming and far-out lyrics spoke to me like no music ever had. I was a firm fan up to the Prince Charming album, but then my sister started listening to AATA, and I was obliged to look elsewhere for my musical fixes.

Go and look for some of the early stuff and give it a listen. It stands up well to time.

As you may have noticed I did have a sister five years my junior and in 1979, my brother had come along, so I was holding down a job as eldest son and target of parental stress, which added to my need to escape somewhere. I had quite enjoyed being an only child and was happy enough with my own company through the early 70s.

In late 1979, I'd started getting interested in model railways, but not in a serious way, and had made the comnnection between the OO scale and the 1/72 Airfix and Matchbox figures. Indeed, manufacturers even released a couple of military themed train sets with what I will call 'play features' such as exploding wagons and 'real' missiles. They were rubbish!

But, it meant that I was already seeing a 'hobby bleed' between model railways and military figures. Regional television had featured a game put on by I think Grimsby Wargames Society which was an urban riot scene which used Airfix and other model railway figures. 

At this time I also played Subbuteo table footbal, again, noticing that thee figures were in 1;72 scale, making the police, TV crews and St. John's Ambulance figures perfect for repurposing.

I was also making lots of model kits, and as Matchbox kits often had spare parts on the sprues, I was building imaginary spacecraft, but still not gaming with them, because, I'd not yet discovered the key to that world, so couldn't pack a handkerchief on a stick with my belongings and escape there. To be fair, it would have had to be a pretty bloody large handkerchief as I had a LOT of toys and books.

I'd recently discovered the Tamiya 1/35 (that was a new scale on me. Why coulkdn't they use 1:32 like any decent, upstanding English company? Ah yes, Tamiya was a Japanese company, and as every kid who read Warlord or Battle  comic, knew, the Japanese were smaller, so their model kits would likewise reflect this, right?

I began to construct rudimentary dioramas, block painting the figures and utilising big lumps of wood for bases, this being that golden age of DIY, meaning an aspiring model maker could find all sorts of strange, dangerous and interesting materials in their Dad's shed or garage. It was at this time that I learned about the various properties of oil and water based paints - the hard way.

In Sheffield, we had a lot of toy and model shops (we also had several wargame shops, but I'd not found them - see above) and I browsed them all, being a connoisseur of the millieu, knowing which store had the best of each product line. King of them all was Redgates - 3 or four entire floors, dedicated to toys, none of them tatty crap, but the best of the best. Entire departments of Hornby, Action Man, Airfix.... You name it, they had it.

Read more about this legendary store here: https://www.sheffieldguide.blog/2020/05/25/redgates-toy-shop-sheffield-legend-definitive-history/?srsltid=AfmBOooGAthabkPor8iS-IO_DVjR9Y1VvhNNSUAylIaTiekwZMRvObFo

 I spent a lot of time in toy and model shops and, it was on these weekly 'recce missions' that I began to notice some strange new products in Beatties and Redgates the 'Big Two' but also in Hopkinson's (a personal favourite because you were recognised by old Mr Hopkinson when you went in with you Mum or Nan (even sometimes, a male relative - but they were not as easy to manipulate into spending money on you) I had absolutely no knowledge of, but which looked exceedingly interesting. There were boxes with wizards, dragons, tanks and historical battles on the fronts, strange comic-sized books with fantastic scenes and titles like 'Village Of Hommlet' and small, stylish black books with the title 'Traveller' and a subtitle such as 'Azhanti High Lightning'.

I had no idea what these were, but I was soon to find out, and my life and world change forever...