Alison Task had been my childhood friend<\/p>\n
I could not really remember life without her<\/p>\n
Our houses were near to each other<\/p>\n
And we enjoyed each others company for many years<\/p>\n
In retrospect we shared a typical Kent childhood<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
About a month ago I received a letter from Alison<\/p>\n
It was the first letter that I had received from her in ten years<\/p>\n
But it was a letter full of sadness as her husband had died<\/p>\n
And she planning to come to the UK from her home in Australia<\/p>\n
She asked me if I would like to meet her in Canterbury<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We spent a great deal of the summer of 1968 cycling around Kent<\/p>\n
As we both had a insatiable appetite to discover all things new<\/p>\n
It was during one of our adventures that we met Richard David and Doreen<\/p>\n
They introduced themselves and said that they were making a series of films<\/p>\n
Around the county to an effort to record the what was vanishing before our eyes<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They asked if we would like to appear in one of their films which we agreed to do as long as our parents approved<\/p>\n
They followed us around on our cycle rides around Teston and other parts of the Medway Valley<\/p>\n
We were filmed watching cricket in West Farleigh and using the milk machine on the Maidstone Road<\/p>\n
Trains featured a great deal and we recorded waiting at railway stations and chatting to crossing keepers<\/p>\n
Sandwich Bay was our final destination and the movie ended with us swimming in the sea<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After what seemed an age our short movie movie was shown as one of three supporting features at a cinema in Maidstone<\/p>\n
It was a grand family occasion with a number of members of our extended families present<\/p>\n
What we had not grasped was that our movie had been shot in black and white and even though it had only been filmed the previous summer<\/p>\n
It felt like it been made many years ago such was the mood of the piece<\/p>\n
And that was that we had had our fifteen minutes of fame and life soon returned to normal<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In her letter Alison explained that as both of her sons were independent that she would spend her time both in England and Australia<\/p>\n
She had retired early to look after her husband during his final illness<\/p>\n
But she now felt the urge to travel back to the country of her birth which she had only visited three times since her initial move<\/p>\n
We had last seen each other in 1997 although we often swopped photographs and letters<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Almost a year to the day after we had made our film Alison’s parents announced that they were emigrating to Australia<\/p>\n
This hit me like a train as I had always thought that she would stay in the village forever<\/p>\n
But the die was set and about six months after the announcement the family left the village<\/p>\n
Alison promised to write to me and send me cine films which she did or many years<\/p>\n
But slowly they faded and we went for long periods without any association<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have never married and incredibly live in the same village where I was raised<\/p>\n
When my father died I took over his carpentry business which has thrived throughout the years<\/p>\n
The opposite was true of Alison as she married Martin only three years after she arrived<\/p>\n
I still have the letter that she sent to me asking for my blessing which I happily gave<\/p>\n
Although very deep in my soul I wished that she had stayed in our village and had shared my childhood home<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My childhood friend is due on the 7th of March and I have booked a table at the Sea Inn<\/p>\n
Recent photographs have betrayed Alison’s awful journey and I hope that our visit will help to repair her hurt<\/p>\n
As a surprise and with the help on the British Film Institute I have been able locate our long lost film<\/p>\n
And I now have a copy which I will give to Alison as a gift so that she might remember our golden summers<\/p>\n
I was less successful in tracing Richard David and Doreen as although close at the time we were just passing ships in the night<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I am excited by Alison’s visit as I am expecting nothing but hoping for everything and much much more<\/p>\n
But the movie apart I know that we cannot recreate our early years as too much as changed in our lives<\/p>\n
Even my beloved village has grown bigger and houses now stand in our former meadows and ponds<\/p>\n
This is the land of lost content I see it shining plain, <\/em>The happy highways where once we went and cannot come again<\/em><\/p>\n I might have written these lines but I am no poet and will leave this labour to those who can write with an affection for the fading years<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mark Green (2020)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alison Task had been my childhood friend I could not really remember life without her Our houses were near to each other And we enjoyed each others company for many years In retrospect we shared a typical Kent childhood About a month ago I received a letter from Alison It was the first letter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}