Bear with me caller, this is going to take an open mind...
This has been an awful year, physically apart from the people and places we love, and it’s got me thinking thoughts I often have but rarely share. Especially on a forum such as this. However, we could do with (in my opinion) unbridled positivity and I’ve decided to go for it.
What do I love about Southend, and Southend United in particular? Well, I’ve travelled the world and lived in London longer than I ever did Southend - leaving as I did halfway through my upper sixth form year at Westcliff for a new life in London and now being a gnarled mid-forties guy with all manner of life behind me. I‘ve gone to places that I’d love to live, such as Cape Town (I even checked out properties while I was there once) but the older I get the more I realise Southend is my home - and it’s the place I intend to return to, to live out my years. Why? Well my values were shaped there, and for all the good there is in the world there is nowhere and there are no people I understand more than Southenders. Its the little things - interactions in shops, in the street, memories and shared experiences. Southend United and my family are the embodiment of this. Cape Town has Table Mountain and gorgeous weather, Tamboerskloef, Camps Bay, Stellenbosch - you name it, but it doesn’t have my family and it doesn’t have Southend United. I don’t want to grow old apart from those two.
Why is Southend United so important? Lots of memories really. I’m so proud that I was there the day that the idea for a Southend United fans website was first mooted in the Spread Eagle pub by a guy called Dave. He was a student then, and our mutual friends from the old Southend away coach travel - Mike, Fay, Al (the only one still on the Zone) and Bob - were all there. Bob, aka Railway Shrimper, is sadly no longer with us but despite me being probably the polar opposite of him he was a great guy full of fun, mischief, humility and I am still sorry he’s gone. Me and my graphic designer and Sheffield Weds fan mate came up with the SZ logo with the football I his bedroom one evening (he was from Hull but didnt like the Tigers). Similarly, the student days I had at my mate Dan’s house round the corner (Dan was the son of erstwhile Councillor John Lamb - who was an utter berk, for the record) where we put together, produced and printed our own fanzine and sold it outside Roots Hall for a few months until we got bored with the effort long before the famous meeting in the Spread. I worked hard with Dave and others to get the first iterations of what has become this site with Dave and Mike in particular up and running. Me and the Zone have had our ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change a thing and I’m so proud of what all of us Zoners have created together and @Cricko has cared for so well over the years. It’s the glue, along with my family, that keeps me connected with my home town. Then there’s the times at school playing football with @Yorkshire Blue and other friends using a tennis ball in the North West playground at Westcliff High School (I regret not making more effort to make proper friends with YB, as he always seemed to me to be a great guy even then but then I digress).
Watching Southend United there are all sorts of memories - the ebb and flow of the mass crowd in the North stand when a goal went in, famously (for me!) sitting next to Alison Moyet and some bloke she was with at Charlton away one year (we drew 3-3 that day, coming from behind with Andy Ansah among the scorers), the misery of the pre-mobile phone/internet coach journey back from Port Vale after losing 5-0, you name it there are loads and loads of those memories.
Those memories are the fabric of me and are utterly cherished. There is nothing Ron, Covid, health or anything else could ever do to take those away from me.
Over to you: what’s your story, and if possible is there a song that speaks for you? Why is Southend/Southend United important to you? This is your opportunity to share with your fellow lovely Zoners.
This has been an awful year, physically apart from the people and places we love, and it’s got me thinking thoughts I often have but rarely share. Especially on a forum such as this. However, we could do with (in my opinion) unbridled positivity and I’ve decided to go for it.
What do I love about Southend, and Southend United in particular? Well, I’ve travelled the world and lived in London longer than I ever did Southend - leaving as I did halfway through my upper sixth form year at Westcliff for a new life in London and now being a gnarled mid-forties guy with all manner of life behind me. I‘ve gone to places that I’d love to live, such as Cape Town (I even checked out properties while I was there once) but the older I get the more I realise Southend is my home - and it’s the place I intend to return to, to live out my years. Why? Well my values were shaped there, and for all the good there is in the world there is nowhere and there are no people I understand more than Southenders. Its the little things - interactions in shops, in the street, memories and shared experiences. Southend United and my family are the embodiment of this. Cape Town has Table Mountain and gorgeous weather, Tamboerskloef, Camps Bay, Stellenbosch - you name it, but it doesn’t have my family and it doesn’t have Southend United. I don’t want to grow old apart from those two.
Why is Southend United so important? Lots of memories really. I’m so proud that I was there the day that the idea for a Southend United fans website was first mooted in the Spread Eagle pub by a guy called Dave. He was a student then, and our mutual friends from the old Southend away coach travel - Mike, Fay, Al (the only one still on the Zone) and Bob - were all there. Bob, aka Railway Shrimper, is sadly no longer with us but despite me being probably the polar opposite of him he was a great guy full of fun, mischief, humility and I am still sorry he’s gone. Me and my graphic designer and Sheffield Weds fan mate came up with the SZ logo with the football I his bedroom one evening (he was from Hull but didnt like the Tigers). Similarly, the student days I had at my mate Dan’s house round the corner (Dan was the son of erstwhile Councillor John Lamb - who was an utter berk, for the record) where we put together, produced and printed our own fanzine and sold it outside Roots Hall for a few months until we got bored with the effort long before the famous meeting in the Spread. I worked hard with Dave and others to get the first iterations of what has become this site with Dave and Mike in particular up and running. Me and the Zone have had our ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change a thing and I’m so proud of what all of us Zoners have created together and @Cricko has cared for so well over the years. It’s the glue, along with my family, that keeps me connected with my home town. Then there’s the times at school playing football with @Yorkshire Blue and other friends using a tennis ball in the North West playground at Westcliff High School (I regret not making more effort to make proper friends with YB, as he always seemed to me to be a great guy even then but then I digress).
Watching Southend United there are all sorts of memories - the ebb and flow of the mass crowd in the North stand when a goal went in, famously (for me!) sitting next to Alison Moyet and some bloke she was with at Charlton away one year (we drew 3-3 that day, coming from behind with Andy Ansah among the scorers), the misery of the pre-mobile phone/internet coach journey back from Port Vale after losing 5-0, you name it there are loads and loads of those memories.
Those memories are the fabric of me and are utterly cherished. There is nothing Ron, Covid, health or anything else could ever do to take those away from me.
Over to you: what’s your story, and if possible is there a song that speaks for you? Why is Southend/Southend United important to you? This is your opportunity to share with your fellow lovely Zoners.
