I turned on the TV this morning and found they were showing an old film, The Tommy Steele Story. That brought back memories, Tommy Steele was my very first crush. I was 10 at the time! His were the first records in my collection. They were those old 10 inch ones that broke if you dropped them. I still have them, they are in Dad’s old record cabinet in the corner of the living room. I knew all of the words to the songs and, when he sang one of them in the film, I found myself singing along and discovered that I still knew them, even though I can no longer be sure of remembering words to songs I learned a few weeks ago.
I saw him in concert three times. My mum came with me to the Granada in Shrewsbury and later when he was doing a concert in Wolverhampton where my aunt lived we saw him there and Auntie came too.
I remember the film that was on TV today, but not for a good reason. It was showing at our local cinema and Mum was taking me. I remember waiting excitedly at the bus stop and the bus was late. The bus stop was just down from a bend in the road and people used to cross over to see if the bus was coming. I went over to the other side and saw that it was coming. I was a careful child and I looked both ways before I crossed, but I was crossing between 2 parked cars and failed to notice that a car further down was just pulling out. I remember a big flash and everything went black. A minute or so later I opened my eyes and looked up at my mother and several other ladies from the bus stop looking down. I heard one say, “The bastard didn’t stop!”
Someone had fetched the doctor who lived only two houses down. He looked me over and said that, apart from some bruises and a cut on my leg, I was fine. They took me back home. I was protesting that we would miss Tommy Steele but the doctor insisted I needed to rest. I never did get to see the film until years later when it was on TV. I was a teenager by that time and into Adam Faith.
I watched the film for a while this morning, reminiscing. I can’t believe that was all 68 years ago, and I still remember the words to his songs. I still have a tiny scar on my leg as well.
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