大象传媒

I was nearly three when my father left home to fight for his country. Obviously he had odd leaves from time to time, but, as I was only a baby, I cannot really recall seeing him. By the time I was four he had left England and begun the great adventure of his life, sailing round Africa to join the 8th army in Egypt and then following them through Libya, Tunisia, Sicily and eventually into Italy and Austria, where he was when the war came to an end.
I can vaguely remember seeing strange little letters on celloloid which arrived from him and the occasional photograph.
In all honesty, however, I believed that home was somewhere where children lived with their mother, and I remember how shocked I was to attend a fiend's birthday party, hardly being able to wait until I got home to tell my mother that there was a man in Mike's house. Of course, it was his father who must have been already too old to be called up or had a reserved occupation of some kind.
Eventually, of course, the war came to an end but still my father did not return as, being one of the first to be called up, he was one of the last to be 'demobbed'.
I can remember the excitement when one evening, with my mother,Auntie Flo (her sister) and Uncle Albert we all went to the station to meet the train that my father was going to be on.
I had not seen him for over 5 years, so really had no concept of what a 'father' was like.
I remember the anticipation and the wonder I felt as I stood at the bottom of steps on the railway station as the train steamed in and the sudden cries and screams of my mother and auntie as they ran towards the many troops getting off the train.
I stood with my uncle and I know that I felt very strange - I was going to meet my father at last, a person who was going to be a god for me, a person who was going to change my life for ever. I had never felt such anticipation in all my life.
As the crowds dispersed, I saw my mother and auntie returning with a soldier and, although I never told him in all his life, I just felt nothing at that moment. He could have been any man getting off that train. When he picked me up I know I didn't laugh or cry or anything, for there were no feelings to express. He had been too long out of my life and now I had a growing sense of trepidation, wondering what effect having a man in the house was going to have on me.
I still relive that experience every time I go on to that platform on the staion. It has never left my mind.
Bob.

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