04-17-2015, 12:38 PM
I never knew the life I had before living in Battersea. But now, with that little street behind me, and the friends I used to know scattered to the four winds, never to be seen again, I was returning to my home town. In two weeks time I would be six years old, a birthday destined to be overshadowed by the grand exodus my family and I were about to partake. My new home was different in comparison to that which I left behind in so many ways. Not the the least of which, was the fact that it was an actual house. As we departed the number nineteen bus on arrival in Tooting, I remember a faint wisp of familiarity wash over me. I had visited the local market here many times with Auntie Violet, my old next door neighbour, who had moved to the area a few years previous. She wasn't my real aunt, merely an old and dear friend of my mum's, but, as a young boy living in a close knit community of fabricated homes in Battersea, I had leaned long ago that the term 'family' was meant for your primary social circle, just as much as it was for carriers of the same blood. Tooting Broadway was a bustle of busy shoppers rushing in and out of the grand glass doors of the high street shops carrying bulging bags filled with their recently purchased wares, and I recognised the huge bronze statue of Edward the seventh, standing most regally above the maddening crowd in full royal regalia outside the tube station, from the popular TV show, 'Citizen Smith.' I noticed that there was a Mr Wimpy on the corner adjacent to the station, the life-sized 'Hamburgular' lookalike standing outside the restaurant caught my eye as its motionless form greeted hungry costomers into the open doors. in the coming months, their lifeless greasy burgers and hi-glass knickerbokaglory icecream floats would become a regular special treat on family shopping days out. I used to love the fact that they served fast-food on real plates, with real cutlery to boot. but that particular restaurant is no longer there now, the franchise went bankrupt a few years later after London's grand MacDonald's invasion, and the Mr Wimpy man which stood outside was probably auctioned off as fast-food memorabilia.
Last edited by Menelaus; 04-25-2015 at 01:04 PM..
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