Blackley,* Crumpsall,** Harpurhey.***
The endless quest to tidy and dispose of the past turned up a collection of writing by Michael Bracewell. Interleaved between returned Open University assignments and tablature harvested from old guitar magazines was a photocopy of some pages from The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories published in 1999.
The start of the story at the top of the pile was missing but it is about adolescent boys and the dubious activities they engage in. It mentions Boggart Hole Clough, a large area of parkland which a friend of mine lived near to in Blackley, and some other places familiar to me from my childhood. Me and my friend once attempted to stay in the park all night, demonstrating a spirit of adventure and lack of fear of the boggart - we each claimed to be staying at the other's house to enable this daring exploit.
We made it until about four in the morning by which time it had become too cold to stay out any longer without ending up deceased or learning a strong lesson about frostbite. We retreated to a small Wendy house in the garden of my friend's mother's neighbour's house. This was the garden of the friendly neighborhood Glaswegian armed robber and drug dealer.
It was still bloody freezing.
I then completely failed to return home at a reasonable time and the subterfuge was discovered.
Useless. Adolescent boys huh?
My friend and his half brothers will all either be dead or in prison now. One at least is the latter. Those weren't the only options on offer but, given the closest adult role models available and the examples they set, at least they were achievable.
Not an advert for growing up there.
* Blackley: Blake as in William, Lee (almost) as in Laurie.
** Crumpsall: Crump as in minor car incident, Saul (almost) as in the first king of Israel and Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.
*** Harpurhey: Harper as in Lee, Hay as in David, the retiring boxer.
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