Those Were The Days My Friend.....We Thought They’d Never End.
The General, The Skipper, God and Me
Call it rosy retrospection, pointless nostalgia but, let’s be honest, being a football supporter is all about us being a part of our tribe, our gang, and thus it becomes a part of our identity. It is just one of the components of what makes us who we are. As such it is the memories of our fandom that we draw on, the good, the bad and the ugly.
As I approach nearly sixty years as a Spur, and following the excellent article entitled The Things We Keep by Andrew Pettifer, it got me riffling through all the bits and bobs that I have gathered over the years.
My wife would probably call it old tat, but all these items mean something don’t they, even if most of it resides in dark and dusty corners of the loft these days ? They hold special memories, shared with so many people that have been a part of our lives, some sadly no longer here.
That programme from the thrashing we took at Anfield in September 1978, just the seven nil and we were lucky to get nil. Some ticker tape welcome that was.
The ticket stub from that “still Ricky Villa “ FA Cup win in 1981 against Man City or the autograph from Alfie Conn, maverick and cult hero who almost single handedly saved us from relegation in 1975.
[Editor's note: Anthony's picture of his 1981 cup final tickets differ in one surprising way from mine. Compare them below. If anyone knows why his are for Wembley Stadium and mine are for the The Empire Stadium, Wembley please let us know]
All these items, will no doubt appear to be odd things to keep as a 66 year old chap like me. But as is often stated "one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. So, amongst all these souvenirs, programmes, ticket stubs, autographs, photographs and numerous Spurs related books, what stands out the most for me?
It goes without saying that all of the memorabilia that I have accumulated, would never find itself in the recycling centre, much to my wife’s chagrin.
But what are the richest gems in my Spurs Crown Jewels ? Which items give me that same thrill when I see them now, as when I first acquired them ? What is it that always makes me smile when I reflect on those golden years ?
Well, it’s all about The General, The Skipper, God and Me
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Didn't We Have Some Lovely Times, The Days We Went to Cheshunt?
Those Summers in the mid 1970’s when my only worries were O’ Level exams and wondering how I could nab tickets for Bruce Springsteen’s debut London shows in 1975, were carefree times indeed.
In 1976, we even had the never-ending hottest Summer on record to bask in, but from 1974 to 1978 what kept me and my Spurs mad pals busy during the dog days of school summer vacations and half terms through the year, was our Red Rover (Google it) excursions to Cheshunt.
The old Spurs Training Ground in Brookfield Lane, which the club had used from 1952 until they finally moved in 1987, became a familiar destination for us and hundreds of other football mad youngsters. (Including me - Ed )
An early start to get the 259 bus from King’s Cross to Islington and then a 279 bus to the Spurs Training Ground. A bit of a trek on the rattling, rickety old Route Master, tickets please, request stop only, and all that jazz.
But the excitement and anticipation of seeing our heroes going through their paces made up for all the hassle.
A few sandwiches, a bottle of pop, a Mars Bar and a bag of Golden Wonder plain and we’d be gone for the whole day.
The only other kit we had was a biro or two, an autograph book, a handful of programmes which we hoped the players would sign, and a Kodak Instamatic 130, 110 Pocket Camera. All tightly packed in our Adidas sports bags or the like.
The biggest decision of the day was which Spurs kit to wear; home white or away yellow, perhaps Big Pat’s green for those more keeper inclined.
The thought of mobile phones, laptops, iPads, were as fanciful as ideas of a stadium in N17 with an all seated 63,000 capacity or someone breaking Jimmy Greaves Tottenham goalscoring record.
Telephone calls were 10p coins or reverse the charges, but who needed to contact anyone or be contacted?
We were living for the moment, enjoying the now and didn’t we have some lovely times! Those were the days of our lives !!
Flash, Bang, Wallop What A Picture!
Being so close to our Spurs heroes was just so exciting in itself. But as football fans and students of the game, trying to improve our own playing skills it was such an education. Just watching in awe of the skills on display and then trying to replicate them ourselves in the next match for the school or local boys club teams, was a treat and a challenge in equal measure.
But, once the training for the day was over and the players had emerged from the changing rooms to depart, the time came for us to pester them for autographs, and photographs.
The General, Keith Burkinshaw was very good about letting the players mingle with us once the serious business of the day was done.
He even signed my Tottenham Handbook, which I love so much simply because he was such a quiet, humble guy and I have included it here as one of my most treasured items.
My two other most treasured pieces of memorabilia also come from those visits to Cheshunt in the lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summers in the 70’s. Somehow, my Spurs mad school pal took a picture of The Skipper, Stevie Perryman, and another of the great Glenn Hoddle.
Talk about being in awe. Those grainy black and white photographs are still on my desk even now. Turns out you should meet your heroes.
The reason I cherish those pictures so much is because of the memory of waiting for them to be developed and the miracle that they actually came out at all. The agonising anticipation of wondering whether they would come out ok from the developers was fraught. In those days films were sent off by post or taken into a local chemist like Boots to develop.
The two main postal options were Bonusprint and Truprint, so the agony of waiting about 10 days for the pictures to come back to you was testing to say the least.
We now, of course print our own images directly from our phones or tablets but we are now 50 years past those ancient times.
Quite often pictures did not come out, sometimes you may even get somebody else’s photos, so it was all a bit of a lottery and an anxious wait.
Whenever I look at those pictures now, which is nearly every day, I smile at those naive, easy going days shared with great lifelong friends who are still crazy after all these years.
We still have plenty of laughs about those years and that is the whole point, isn’t it? Shared memories and experiences, lifelong friendships and recollections of great stadiums, some wonderful players, a few disappointments and a decent scattering of silverware.
Never Boring Stories Of Glory Days
Memories are surely what life is all about, making them in the first place is key but then reliving the best of them brings us back to our younger selves. It is a blessing that those youthful days were so good. How very, very lucky we were.
Those memories are what take us back to a different place and time, with people we have loved and perhaps lost ,as well as some of the joy and pain that we all encounter along the way.
Reliving those moments are such important reminders of the things that make us the people that we have become, our attitudes and opinions framed over the years by those experiences.
Riffling through my Spurs and music memorabilia is always a pleasure, never boring stories of glory days but beautiful reminders of all the things that have shaped my life.
Undoubtedly once a Spur, always a Spur, it’s who I am, in fact it is who we all are mate !
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Anthony Heard has his own substack column and is the author of My Purple Patch - Living with ITP
