Alison Task had been my childhood friend

I could not really remember life without her

Our houses were near to each other

And we enjoyed each others company for many years

In retrospect we shared a typical Kent childhood

 

About a month ago I received a letter from Alison

It was the first letter that I had received from her in ten years

But it was a letter full of sadness as her husband had died

And she planning to come to the UK from her home in Australia

She asked me if I would like to meet her in Canterbury

 

We spent a great deal of the summer of 1968 cycling around Kent

As we both had a insatiable appetite to discover all things new

It was during one of our adventures that we met Richard David and Doreen

They introduced themselves and said that they were making a series of films

Around the county to an effort to record the what was vanishing before our eyes

 

They asked if we would like to appear in one of their films which we agreed to do as long as our parents approved

They followed us around on our cycle rides around Teston and other parts of the Medway Valley

We were filmed watching cricket in West Farleigh and using the milk machine on the Maidstone Road

Trains featured a great deal and we recorded waiting at railway stations and chatting to crossing keepers

Sandwich Bay was our final destination and the movie ended with us swimming in the sea

 

After what seemed an age our short movie movie was shown as one of three supporting features at a cinema in Maidstone

It was a grand family occasion with a number of members of our extended families present

What we had not grasped was that our movie had been shot in black and white and even though it had only been filmed the previous summer

It felt like it been made many years ago such was the mood of the piece

And that was that we had had our fifteen minutes of fame and life soon returned to normal

 

In her letter Alison explained that as both of her sons were independent that she would spend her time both in England and Australia

She had retired early to look after her husband during his final illness

But she now felt the urge to travel back to the country of her birth which she had only visited three times since her initial move

We had last seen each other in 1997 although we often swopped photographs and letters

 

Almost a year to the day after we had made our film Alison’s parents announced that they were emigrating to Australia

This hit me like a train as I had always thought that she would stay in the village forever

But the die was set and about six months after the announcement the family left the village

Alison promised to write to me and send me cine films which she did or many years

But slowly they faded and we went for long periods without any association

 

I have never married and incredibly live in the same village where I was raised

When my father died I took over his carpentry business which has thrived throughout the years

The opposite was true of Alison as she married Martin only three years after she arrived

I still have the letter that she sent to me asking for my blessing which I happily gave

Although very deep in my soul I wished that she had stayed in our village and had shared my childhood home

 

My childhood friend is due on the 7th of March and I have booked a table at the Sea Inn

Recent photographs have betrayed Alison’s awful journey and I hope that our visit will help to repair her hurt

As a surprise and with the help on the British Film Institute I have been able locate our long lost film

And I now have a copy which I will give to Alison as a gift so that she might remember our golden summers

I was less successful in tracing Richard David and Doreen as although close at the time we were just passing ships in the night

 

I am excited by Alison’s visit as I am expecting nothing but hoping for everything and much much more

But the movie apart I know that we cannot recreate our early years as too much as changed in our lives

Even my beloved village has grown bigger and houses now stand in our former meadows and ponds

This is the land of lost content I see it shining plain, The happy highways where once we went and cannot come again

I might have written these lines but I am no poet and will leave this labour to those who can write with an affection for the fading years

 

 

 

Mark Green (2020)