Tangentially...

After last night's little scribble about memory, I was minded to write about something else entirely, but then I had something left field pop into my mind: the 1954 FA Cup, which of course I was not alive at the time to have been contemporaneously aware of. What I did recall, however, was that the Baggies played Preston North End and won 3-2. Considering I wasn't even born at the time and would only attend Baggies' home games for but one - 1964 - season, it might seem a tad odd that I would home in on such a random 'memory'. But that memory was triggered by last night's posts and the remembrance of a lad called Ian Thistlethwaite, who, as a teenager was one of the coolest people I ever met outside of my actual social circle. However, my first interaction with the fellow was quite remote. When I was around nine or ten I was gifted a large collection of football programmes from someone my dad knew.

Anyhow, a year or two later, my father had gotten to know Ian's father and the lad had developed a serious condition that necessitated a brain operation. The lad was in hospital and the outcome uncertain, and so my father asked me if I'd give the collection of programmes to Ian, as he was a massive football fan. I said yes, OK, no problem, and dad took the bag of stuff over to the hospital. In amongst this large collection was the programme featured above: the 1954 Baggies' winning programme. A part of me wishes I'd just kept this one back, however. Ian recovered from his surgery, and moved on to being a face in the emerging urban freak scene of the early seventies. Where he ended up, I've no idea. Maybe I'll try and locate him, although by now he'll be in his mid-seventies...