Funny thing about memories of childhood, sometimes they have great clarity, in particular when your family moved out of the area and those memories and times seem frozen, like the proverbial fly trapped in pre-historic amber.

Not that it`s THAT long ago - though it`over 60 yrs since we were crawling in the gardens together and 8 yrs after that before the plug was pulled - as it were.

The 1950`s were like that - no cars for the majority and often,parents seemingly only thinking of themselves. Almost as though you were not a person in your own right as an 8yr old.You were unplugged from a complete set of friends - and school - and thrust into another school, over the horizon.

And that was that.

Never went back and looked them up except for a trip on my scooter aged 16yrs - with little success.

Found some of them NOW though...........

On the lane down which we used to walk to school is an ancient Iron gate - with a distinctive shepherds crook for a handle. We all tried to flex it going past - but It`s half inch thick wrought Iron - though we could move it, just a fraction.

It`s still there - and this is Cemetery lane between Lofthouse and where it joins Ouzlewell green.. On the road to Carlton, where the primary school with the circular windows, still looks out onto the road to home.

I`ve discovered that several of my friends are now back home. Tucked away in the Cemetery - behind that mid 19th Century crook on the Iron gate and on the slope that leads to the small wood and pre Beeching branch line - now just a trace on the fields, except by the end of the Cemetery, where there is a secluded wooded area - home of the exceptional tree.

I remember them as saplings as a child, but now one of them looks like no other in the area. It`s a good 4ft in diameter and the trunk is fluted for strength, pushing straight up through Beech trees - making them look tiny in comparison.

The last time I saw that form of trunk , power and strength, was in the rainforests of South East Asia ..

Why such superb form, here though - in only 60 yrs?

Only standing well back, do you see the true complete form of the upper canopy - It`s a truly massive Lombardy Poplar - and the `penny drops` re the growth. It`s been able, with a Poplars root growth - to push well into the Victorian part of the cemetery - and perhaps into the newer sections - while the Beech trees have not.

I pondered on that - the continuity of life - and there`s something reassuring to me about things going on - and on.

Of course, being here in Yorkshire, you`re aware of the bigger picture - evidence in the land of the last ice age and thoughts about the next., where possibly everything here will be moved along the surface and perhaps form a terminal moraine in Milton Keynes...

But for now, that Poplar`s growing well, and where it`s leaves fall in the dell, woodland plants grow, Dock, nettles, himalayan balsam.

You think, that if you return in Autumn, when the West wind blows strongly down Cemetery Lane towards Calton Primary, that you might walk amongst your friends again - sort of `homeopathically` absorbed, diluted into the infinity of time, as the leaves swirl around your feet.

They would have been amused at that - I remember them.

I thought about it later, in bed, and determined another trip - and returned the following day.

Himalayan Balsam pulls up easily - cut off above the basal shoots it will hopefully regrow and self seed in a bog area I created in the garden just for the purpose.

I was thinking, that memories of long lost childhood friends would be retained by the venture, that something had been brought home. And that home really is where the heart is - and that a part of that will always span the two villages of Lofthouse and Carlton. Connected by the school walk - down Cemetery Lane.

Edited by oilrag on 07/06/2010 at 10:21