:) Trawling through my old files on the computer and found this Graham Mack read it out one day on 106 century fm dare to read it with out a lump in your throat!! I think it's suberbly written and it's full of emotion..Sorry if it is not light hearted.. :( THE HOMEMADE FLAG
Dave Kirby a.k.a. Braces & Boots
In all the years we’ve been apart
I thought that time would heal my heart
But the hurt came back just yesterday
It never really goes away.
Came back from Cardiff full of joy
I hugged my daughter and little boy
I ask this question again and again
Why weren’t you spared to do the same.
My mind drifts back into the past
Some thirty years, it’s gone so fast
Two teenaged boys’ whole lives ahead
Off down to Wembley draped in red.
A homemade flag we took that day
It’s incomparable to today
An old bed sheet, a bottle of dye
About eight foot long and four foot high.
It took so long to make that thing
Scissors, cotton, you would bring
Every evening after school
Sewing on the letters of Liverpool
Down to London, midnight train
Attempts to sleep were all in vain
Euston is cold at four a.m
That flag came in handy once again.
Snuggled in our flag, like peas in a pod
At 6.45 we were woken by ‘plod’
"Wake up now boys" you cant sleep there
So off on a tube to Trafalgar square.
Only 8 a.m but oh what a sight
Trafalgar was bouncing as if it were night.
The black and white Geordies, the Liverpool red,
As the statue of Nelson looked on overhead.
About three hundred strong, we then marched without malice
Through Marble Arch to Buckingham Palace
"Let’s wake up the Queen" you said for a joke
With our flag tied around you like batman’s cloak.
All day around London it was much the same theme
So proud of our city, and the flag of our team
We hung it from buses, we hung it from trains
And as we hit Wembley, up it went once again.
The whole day was perfect, and so was our team
The most one sided final that I’ve ever seen
I can never forget the joy on your face
As we lifted the cup, then we turned and embraced.
As the years went by and we grew into men
We’d meet up every now and again
We’d talk of old times and things we had done
The exorcist, Jaws and Band on the Run
I remember so vividly the day I found out
That God, had called your number out
I thought of your parents, I thought of your John
I thought of your wife and your three year old son.
But death has no mercy, doesn’t play by the rules
To take a man in his thirties, is so very cruel
You fought it so hard but always in vain
Then the Trumpets sounded and the Angels came.
Some three years later I was round at my Mum’s
Looking through all the old photo albums
When my ma shouted from the bottom of the stairs
"There’s a bin bag of yours on the spare room chair".
Inside the bag there were all sorts of things
Old programmes, scarves and a book called "Kop Kings"
Ticket stubs, news clips, things I’d not seen for years
Then I stumbled on something which reduced me to tears
I stared for a moment in disbelief
My whole body went weak, overcome with grief
For there near the bottom of this old memory bag
Folded up nice and neat was our homemade flag
I closed my eyes as I opened it up
My heart was racing as I finally looked
I wept like a child as I kneeled on the floor
As I thought of that day back in ‘74
I held it so tight as I whispered your name
Oh Tommy I wish I could see you again
Had I known it was here I’d have done my best
To drape it around you when they laid you to rest
But alas, now its mine and it always will be
When I open it out it’s your face I can see.
Adventures and memories that will always last
That flag is my window into the past.
So, goodnight God bless Tom until my next prayer
I know that your spirit is around somewhere
You could be millions of miles on some heavenly star
But when I’m holding our flag you are never that far.
Tommy McFadden 1958-1995
