Going forward to the past here in Pontyp ...

Friday 25 October, 2002

# Going forward to the past here in Pontypridd this evening. Ali's going to be having a festive time working for Marks and Spencer in Cardiff over Christmas. Twenty five odd years ago, our Dad was the assistant manager of that very shop. After that he was the acting manager of the M&S just down the round in the middle of Ponty.

Back then we lived in the new suburb of Pentwyn, in a little close inappropriately called Glyn Rhosyn (Valley of Roses). It was largely a building site with new houses going up at an incredible rate of knots. Those houses that had been built were all identical and shiny, their newly turfed lawns curling gently in the summer sun.

Pentwyn is only a short step from Splott, so I took a little drive up there earlier this evening. It's funny how things change and they don't change at the same time. Glyncoed Infant school appears to be utterly unchanged, and the only change in the road I walked home along is a new zebra crossing. Bizarrely the zebra crossing is hard up against a pedestrian subway. The subway always smelt of wee back then, so I guess it must be pretty unbearable by now.

I didn't expect to recognize much as I turned the corner onto Pentwyn Road for the last little part of my journey. There's a whole new estate on the far side of the road, replacing the scrubby grassland. Then I saw a little road sign for Ty Cerrig. Road signs arn't something you generally pay attention to as a 6 year old, but when I saw it, I got an almost physical feeling of recognition. I took a little cruise round the Glyn Rhosyn - still no roses, much smaller than I recall. Like any other dormatory suburb, cars out numbered garages by about two to one, lots of net curtains, and nobody out and about.

I drove round to the shops, and crossed over a little stream. I remember playing alone down there, and somehow getting myself stung under the eye by a bee. Up the road, past a junction where I got stuck when the chain came off my bike. Bus stop on the right. The big patch of open ground where I got stuck in mud upto my knees is now yet another close.

I remember going birdwatching one Sunday with my Dad. We walked from the house to a lake, and went round with a group of people I didn't know. I think we saw a woodpecker, but I'm not sure. Years afterwards, I began to doubt that this had actually happened. There wasn't a lake round the corner from our house. Surely I'd have noticed.

Reassuring to know I didn't make it all that stuff up.