market weighton - a blast from the past

[chris raettig <chris@raettig.org>]

http://chris.raettig.org/closet/mw.jpg
-- i grew up in this house

http://www.wicstun.com
-- i happened to stumble across that image after stumbling across
this site whilst engaging in some recreational web surfing


i grew up in that house. in the town of market weighton. halfway between
york and hull. (yorkshire, england). i went to primary and secondary
school in that town. i was bright, but geeky. before being a geek was
a good thing. i was unpopular. there were some amazing people too though. some 
of my teachers were really inspirational. though some of them sucked. me mum 
has moved out of weighton now, and i havent been back there in a year or
two. but it doesnt change. i found it a very closed minded place. in
the way that small towns often can be. though it was a nice quiet
country lifestyle. 

i had a bedroom at the back of the house which looked out over the bypass
they eventually built, which will take you to hull in one direction or
york in the other. but beyond that my view was just rolling hills and fields as
far as the horizon. 

i went to college in hull, and developed a lot of friends in york. these
two things were very important to my personal development. school
kind of repressed me. to gain self confidence and happiness and all that
lovely stuff i needed to go on to college, and be with my friends in york.

i used to skate down the hill that we lived on. it was a lot steeper than
it looks and was a real thrill in younger days. off the left side of
the picture is the rest of the town.. the main street, the pubs
and the school. the stereotypical rural police station. more fields. 


i dont know why i've been thinking about market weighton and my school
days recently. i've also made a couple of visits to friendsreunited.
there are loads of people from my school registered on there now. 
most of them i'm happy never to see ever again. but a few i'd quite
like to make contact with. 

i guess my thoughts may be drifting that way as a side-effect of
a few of my schoolfriends beginning to move down to london. the ones
that went off to university are now finishing their courses. and some
of them are coming in search of the bright lights. 

in some ways i dont at all recognise the person that i was back then.
but in some ways i'm exactly the same. i was always the geek. i was
always going to be me, rather than joining the gang. i was always
slightly gangly. i was cripplingly shy at times. i guess sometimes
i still am. but i have self confidence these days. some would suggest
too much :-)

the road i lived on was called old mill close. so called because it
wasn't old, and theres no mill on it. at least it was close. i cant
remember the names of any of the other roads off the top of my head.
which is wierd considering how long i lived there. i cant even
remember the name of the road which connected to ours. 

i can remember the names of all the pubs. i can remember so many
events and adventures from my youth. i remember how in winter we'd
get snowed in and wouldn't be able to go to school or the neighbouring
villages. i remember the sound of animals being slaughtered. 

i'll stop before this turns into the silence of the lambs!

i remember the buses. how infrequent they were. i sometimes joke about
how the whole town would come out for the 'coming of the bus' ceremony.
"what news from civilisation?!"


i managed to avoid going back there at christmas by about twelve miles. 
i'd like to see it again. for the memories. but i think it would be
such a wierd freaky experience that i'm not sure i could do it. and
i dont really know anyone there any more. i'd like to thank a few
of my teachers. i really would. (i'd like to give a couple of other
teachers a good kicking). 


wow... aren't memories powerful things?


enough reminiscing. after a day of exhaustion i've just stayed up until
5am working on tsp-4, so now i'm winding down. surfing. chilling. then
into the studio in a few hours, assuming i wake up. assuming i fall asleep.

my insomnia is at least being put to good use. but i need to get it sorted.

also, my back has been killing me. i think i buggered something up 
carrying my microwave home. and i've been getting really shootingly
searing stabs of pain for the last fourteen hours. unrelated to my
back i think. i'm not sure what that is. but its not nice. added to
the insomnia i'm just having a bad body day.

but i'm happy! yay! this week is going to be a bit mad. i'll make sure
i just bum around at the weekend.

PGP signature