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TITLE: HOME SWEET HOME! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Danielle King
01/28/09
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I’d stayed awake all night in order to secure my place at the front of the queue. Nothing and no-one would have stopped me from getting what I wanted. And now the long awaited, magical moment had arrived. Within minutes I was transported into another dimension, an unknown quantity, an enigma that was baffling the nations. Clutching lumps of hair by the roots, I threw back my head and sucked in one ginormous breath from the very toes of my white plastic boots.

And I screamed and I screamed and I screamed!

One or two girls fainted and got trampled in the surge to the front. St John’s Ambulance men were shaking their heads in disbelief as they risked life and limb to rescue frenzied teens clad in tiny skirts barely covering white flesh.

And all the while John, Paul, George and Ringo continued to belt out the lyrics.

Almost half a century later and I’m told that the ticket stub, for which I’d paid five shillings and sixpence, will be a collector’s item now. How strange! But no thanks. It’s staying in my scrap book where it’s been quietly residing in the darkness of the loft, along with my secret diaries and autographed picture of Mick Jagger.

It reminds me of an era you see. I mean, think about it, The Beatles, performing live at Leeds Odeon, a picture house in the West Riding of Yorkshire! Well why not? After all they were all four born bog standard, dead ordinary Liverpudlian lads from Lancashire. But wow! Did they usher in a new age or what!

There was no-where like England in the ‘Swinging 60’s.’ Well, apart from San Francisco maybe. Flower Power, peace and the like. However, I longed to get away from this dull little island, and find my way around the big wide world.
I became half a hippy. I wore beads and bangles and colourful headbands with bum length hair. My mini dress and hot pants were replaced by flared, floral print skirts and tie dyed tops, and of course I owned an Afghan coat! I was enticed by the notion of freedom and love. I was searching for meaning and purpose. Wasn’t everyone at that time? But the other half of me was staid and pensive. Not fully committed because it didn’t sit right.

It passed. Of course it did. I grew up, got me a hubby and had babies, as you do. I never did get to see the world although we did all the typical British family things.

We had trips to the capital to see Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London, tour the Houses of Parliament, feed the pigeons in Trafalgar Square and visit St Paul’s Cathedral. There were people of every nationality.

We toured the beautiful lochs and mountains of Scotland. The Dutch and German tourists outnumbered the Scots!

We became regular week-enders in the stunning Lake District of Cumbria, home and inspiration for the poetry of William Wordsworth and the works of Beatrix Potter. Orientals armed with Nikon cameras spilled out of coaches throughout the season!

Now I really couldn’t fathom why all these people from far off lands would want to come to the UK for holiday for goodness sake!

And do you know what? I’m still waiting to be whisked off to distant shores in a big jumbo jet or ocean liner. But it may be that the Sky travel channel is as close to that as I’ll get. Husband points out that it’s cheaper and you get to see more on telly. I suppose he’s got a point.

But there’s something else you see. I’m not searching anymore. In my youth I was seeking for something that was missing, but never knew where to find it. How could I? I didn’t know what I was looking for.

When I found Him, I realised that it was Him I’d been thirsting for all along, but I’d been looking in the wrong places. I wonder how many ‘beautiful people’ are out there still, deluded by false doctrine.

What will heaven will be like? My own version, pure fantasy and speculation of course, will be our beautiful blue planet circling on its way, with me hovering somewhere in the ether looking down on the countries and nations of the world, soaking in the diversity and majesty of God’s awe inspiring handiwork.

But in the meantime, I’ll stick to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the UK.

It’s simply Home!

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