Part 1: From Despair to Hope
Having moved rapidly into the autumn of my life, being literally bankrupted as a result of my own stupidity, the closure of my business accompanied by the deaths of close family members, my own heart failure and the return to my career being blocked off with no money, what do you think I would feel? Yes … absolute panic!
All these events had occurred over a three or four year period to 2002, and, with my much younger wife’s health also declining, we quickly dropped into the penury zone, which meant reliance on the state and the benefits system. Also, and not least I hasten to say, with reliance on my spiritual beliefs.
Towards the end of 2004 and after recently attaining 60 years of age, a brief interlude of financial clarity emerged – a return to my I.T. profession. But, 9 months later, that came to an abrupt closure with redundancy. No other avenue emerged despite trying to find further work, so by December 2005 such redundancy money I had received had dwindled and reliance on the state soon returned. I was nearly 62. What were the options available? Not much!
They say that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, and the fact that I had been a Villa supporter for over 50 years, and being a great student and admirer of the club’s history, it suddenly came to me that here I was, living quite close to the British Library’s old newspapers department at Colindale, North London, that perhaps I could research the ancient history of the club and also publish that history.
I set about doing just that, and from the beginning of 2006 and for another 15 months, that is what I did. Three or four days a week I undertook what I called ‘my great adventure’ at Colindale and spent the rest of my time documenting the findings.
It was 15 months of magic, pouring through those ancient newspapers and journals – many of them nearly falling apart – and others already microfilmed. When sitting at the microfilm reader in a somewhat darkened room with the main light coming from the bulb in the reader, it was often as though I was looking into a crystal ball. And the magic of the writer’s description of Archie or Andy Hunter (or whoever else amongst that fraternity it might have been) was gripping and elevating.
Astonishingly, in the summer of that same year the news came that Randy Lerner had bought Aston Villa. And, soon after, it was beginning to be clear that part of his concern was for the heritage of the club. Would my contribution to the record of the club’s heritage be of use, I wondered … ?
Next: Part 2 : To Villa Park
.
Having moved rapidly into the autumn of my life, being literally bankrupted as a result of my own stupidity, the closure of my business accompanied by the deaths of close family members, my own heart failure and the return to my career being blocked off with no money, what do you think I would feel? Yes … absolute panic!
All these events had occurred over a three or four year period to 2002, and, with my much younger wife’s health also declining, we quickly dropped into the penury zone, which meant reliance on the state and the benefits system. Also, and not least I hasten to say, with reliance on my spiritual beliefs.
Towards the end of 2004 and after recently attaining 60 years of age, a brief interlude of financial clarity emerged – a return to my I.T. profession. But, 9 months later, that came to an abrupt closure with redundancy. No other avenue emerged despite trying to find further work, so by December 2005 such redundancy money I had received had dwindled and reliance on the state soon returned. I was nearly 62. What were the options available? Not much!
They say that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, and the fact that I had been a Villa supporter for over 50 years, and being a great student and admirer of the club’s history, it suddenly came to me that here I was, living quite close to the British Library’s old newspapers department at Colindale, North London, that perhaps I could research the ancient history of the club and also publish that history.
I set about doing just that, and from the beginning of 2006 and for another 15 months, that is what I did. Three or four days a week I undertook what I called ‘my great adventure’ at Colindale and spent the rest of my time documenting the findings.
It was 15 months of magic, pouring through those ancient newspapers and journals – many of them nearly falling apart – and others already microfilmed. When sitting at the microfilm reader in a somewhat darkened room with the main light coming from the bulb in the reader, it was often as though I was looking into a crystal ball. And the magic of the writer’s description of Archie or Andy Hunter (or whoever else amongst that fraternity it might have been) was gripping and elevating.
Astonishingly, in the summer of that same year the news came that Randy Lerner had bought Aston Villa. And, soon after, it was beginning to be clear that part of his concern was for the heritage of the club. Would my contribution to the record of the club’s heritage be of use, I wondered … ?
Next: Part 2 : To Villa Park
.
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