The Anonymous Widower

Liverpool and Meccano

There are various events, cities, techniques, toys, people and just plain things that has shaped my life.

If I take events, there would be the first Sputnik, Sharpeville, the assassination of President Kennedy, England winning the World Cup in 1966, man landing on the moon for the first time, the Six Day War, the suicide of Jan Palach, the Falklands War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and many others.  Perhaps one that will mean more to me in a few years time, was being in Trafalgar Square, when London won the Olympics for 2012.

I will be proud of the London Olympics because London is my city.  I was born there and when I’m sad, lonely or just plain bored, I make to the most fabulous city in the world.  The London Olympics may be a failure because of circumstances, good or bad, but London will do its best.  And that will be better than most, as when you throw London into turmoil, Londoners respond in a unique way.  Why unique?  Because Londoners are the biggest mongrel race in the world and they can draw from experiences like no other.

I met my wife in Liverpool at the University.

For that and other reasons, to me Liverpool will always be my second city, just as it is the second city of the UK.  Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham may make this claim, but they are lightweights compared to the city of the Beatles.  I sometimes ponder how life would be different without the Beatles and it may be a bold claim to say that without them the UK might have been some insignificant island off mainland Europe. But those four did give England and Great Britain a new pride, that had been lacking since the end of the Second World War.  I still play their songs virtually every day.

At one time my late wife shared a flat near the Meccano factory in Liverpool.

I had a very large Meccano set, which was very much part of my life until about sixteen when I sold it, because I needed the money.  I’d while away the time in my bedroom, building all sorts of machines.  Later when I worked for ICI, we’d use bits of Meccano to make instruments work.  Do engineers still do that?

So it was with pride and a lot of sadness that I watched James May’s Toy Stories about Meccano.  He built a Meccano bridge over the extension to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. I cried as it was set in my university, the university where I met my wife and was about my favourite toy.

Life is a powerful mixture of emotions.

November 10, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | World | Liverpool, Meccano