COLUMNIST JOE JENNINGS
It?s the leaving of Goodison that grieves me?.
Comments (35) : I discovered a new Everton song yesterday (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q73ieCA24s&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepeoplesblog.co.uk%2F=player_embedded). It really had me thinking. It forced me to take a trip down memory lane, and where it all began for me.
At an early age Everton supporters feel an irresistible desire, a yearning, nothing to do with the opposite sex, that comes later on, and it?s not as significant. You want nothing more than to go the match. Before you can walk you are quizzed by your elders "Is he blue or red? What foot does he kick with?"
You are told by your Dad of Andy Gray and Peter Reid - his heroes of the 80?s. Of Howard, Kendall and Ball - his heroes of the 70s. You sit with the men at family parties, in the back kitchen, listening to their great football debates, the tactics, memories, stories, laughter. The banter with Uncle Emo, the mad Liverpudlian. You are, without knowing it, are being groomed for the grand day, your first ever match.
I recall very little of the action that transpired in my first game, barring a Chris Waddle lob that had Neville Southall clutching at thin air, but that doesn?t really matter. For me, all I can remember is the occasion. Slowly walking around the corner of the Park End for the very first time and being struck by the vastness of the Main Stand that renders you into the shadows, I beamed from ear to ear. There she was; bold, proud and imposing. It was then that the spark began to ignite.
It was little short of an astonishing experience, words couldn?t come out of my mouth. Love at first sight. For a wide-eyed toddler, I had never been anywhere like it in my life. I was in awe. An overwhelming sense of belonging overcame me.
By the time we left the ground, a profound stillness had fallen upon the broad and beautiful Goodison Road. It was with a wrench and a pang that I headed home. With speculative eyes, filled with excessive joy and fascination, I continued to gaze back. I walked away with the sound of the Old Lady?s roar and the smell of the pungent Goodison grass safely nestled within my heart. All along the journey homeward that presence lingered with me like the memory of a delicious song.
When I stand there now and look around the old girl when it?s empty, every vacant seat, blade of grass, beam, stairway - groans and aches with the weight of memories. The place is full of ghosts of the past on and off the pitch. On the great atmospheric nights we know how to tap into our past, I stand with my Dad, my uncles, I know Dixie and Bally are there, willing the Toffeemen on to victory. These nights feel spiritual, religious, a high mass, a holy communion of us all past and present. That?s how I feel about Goodison and what Goodison means to me.
Suffice to say, I was stirred on that cold and crisp January FA Cup afternoon. Bradford coming to Goodison was the day a five-year-old boy found the team that would become his obsession, and a crutch for the years to come. A previously great team that was down on its luck when I came along, I soon became a devoted watcher of even the team's worst defeats and disappointments. And while the years have wore on, and the matches have fluctuated from utter despair to unrestrained joy, I still get the same excitement as I did back then when I arrive at Goodison Park, the same shimmers down my spine. There is nothing that can rival the unique abstract warmth that only Goodison Park can evoke, the royal blue familiarity. It?s a spiritual connection, and it?s one of the best feelings of my life.
There is a famous quote attributed to Soichiro Honda; "The value of life can be measured by the number of times your soul has been deeply stirred".
As you get older, wiser, maybe more cynical as opposed to wiser...I guess I will find it harder and harder to encounter these moments. Your first love, your first car, your first house, your first child...these are the things that supposedly make you feel real, keep life interesting, make you want to get up the next day without feeling you know it all or have seen it all before.
In the end it is just as Honda said though, we are all searching for those moments in life that make us feel like a child again, sampling something magical for the very first time and the perfect feeling that brings. Everton Football Club has brought me many of those moments on the pitch over the years, as well as some of the real lows.
One thing that never, ever, fails for me though is the Gwladys Street at night.
The Sistine Chapel, The Colosseum in Rome...Niagra Falls, The Great Wall of China.....Gwladys Street, L4, on a cold, dark, winters night.
Given the choice, there would never be a choice to make. To practicing Evertonians Goodison Park is our Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's ceiling or the simplistic beauty of Archibald Leitch's trademark criss-cross design that adorns the stands of the old girl? Again...no choice to be made!
To sum up how Goodison Park and in particular Gwladys Street at night makes me feel I will have to use the words of another. Bill Kenwright said that when Andrew Johnson scored the third against our lovable neighbours on that unforgettable day not so long ago that he looked above and thought "God, if you want to take me...take me now?! That's how I feel about the Old Girl. If it's good enough for Dixie, then it's good enough for me.
Goodison Park owes us absolutely nothing. We, as supporters, as a club, owe it absolutely everything.
Nil Satis?
Reader Comments
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I guess the image of my daughter attending her first game always does me in... I walked behind the 8-year-old as she walked the back steps up to the Gwladys St upper level, bending with the effort, taking two steps at a time with the urgency ? why? What genetic memory stirred in her and drove her up to the vision of all things beautiful?
The light seeping in made her quicker and finally she stopped as if hitting a solid brick wall. I heard her long, long sigh as the breath left her, and reached her to be hit with my own memories as the greeness and the magnificent stands striking like a bolt of lightning ? every single time ? and she just stood there for what must have been a full 5 minutes, looking out and slowly scanning the old lady, breathing slowly and as if in a trance.
Finally letting out an even greater sigh ... ?aaaaahhhhh, , she?s amazing dad?. You do her justice, Joe ? thank you.
The sad thing is that some people just don?t get it and never will. First club, only club in Liverpool.
As you have not experienced the sight of a winning team parading a Cup or seen the ground bounce in celebration of winning a title, you have still managed to capture what Goodison represents to most Evertonians. Perhaps, you should send a copy of your article to one BK, to remind him that a good play in an exceptional theatre can become a great one.
As you said ? Awe-inspiring ? add The Great Barrier Reef, The Taj Mahal etc.
Fortunately, I learned a lesson. Both my sons are Evertonians to the core.
Great article... nisi optimum
COYB
Fortunately, I learned a lesson. Both my sons are Evertonians to the core.
Great article... nisi optimum. COYB
Do up the ground over time, I say, although I don?t have to fork out the money for it I guess. Just found out the FA Cup semis are live on TV over here ? be 3:00am on a Monday morning. Yet another sleepy old day at work.
"The round leathered sphere that symbolises the dream of children, our future?s future, found its way into my determined possession from the artistic maestro of Goodison Park Mikel ?the best little Spaniard we know? Arteta. With such professionalism I trapped the ball dead, with a triumvirate of touches. My peripheral vision saw a flash of blue, a blue so reminiscent of Everton shirts down the years, and once my destiny of choice was chosen and choosed, I picked out like a cherry, not a cherry of red like Liverpool, but a cherry of blue, a blue so reminiscent of Everton shirts down the tunnel, picked out Saha?s run and hoofed the ball 40 yards. All the eyes of Evertonians watched the ball moving through the crisp Goodison air as if some strange mesmeric craft from another planet that we all once knew in our dreams; and landed it inch perfect on the head of Rio Ferdinand?"
But to blossom and develop fully, that simple fact has to be nurtured and, yes, groomed. Nothing to do with manufactured. Manufactured is making what doesn?t fit, fit. Groomed just brings out what is already there.
As you say yourself, you are probably being subjective and not objective on this one, eh?
I found this a quite touching read as I?ve just taken my twin boys to Goodison Park to see Everton for the first time ? they were simply wowed by the stadium, the mass of support & the sheer volume. Good job they caught it on a fairly quiet day!
God, that makes me feel old!
There is no place on Earth like Goodison Park for stirring emotions and memories. I was being groomed for Manyoodom by my dad who decorated my room with pics of Best & Charlton and bought me a mini Georgie Best kit for Christmas when I first visited the Bullens Road Upper in 1968. The minute I saw that floodlit, luminous green pitch, I was hooked and the hairs on my neck are standing up now as I type this in memory! I?d been to OT twice by then and never even considered going back after that.
Good luck to the club if Kirkby has to happen but I?ll break my heart when we shut the doors at Goodison.
You have the potential to be a journalist, but the true job of a journalist is to challenge the status quo. There is lots going on at Goodison to be challenged ? do it! Otherwise you?ll end up like a gormless corporate cocksucker like Prentice... too scared to challenge Everton in case he gets his own privileges ruined.
With due respect, Dixie played in a stadium which was state of the art in HIS time. One reason why Goodison was able to build upon the richness was that we were state of the art for many years, and then we got left behind. We hosted the semis for the 66 World Cup. We were the first ground to have underground heating. Players back in the 50s & 60s were wowed by our stadium, considering it amazing etc.
The key is how we can re-develop Goodison, make it state of the art again while being mindful of not robbing it of the atmosphere it can generate.
Neutrals today still find Goodison one of the few classic stadiums that can generate a good deal of atmosphere. But, at the same time, the fans are well aware of the conditions and the poor service.
I understand that one main reason for the less than capacity crowd is because of the blocked view. I hope that?s the major reason. Besides an ageing population, I often wondered why we can?t fill up our seats. How about the capacity crowds before the all-seater stadium? I hope going forward, we can have capacity crowds to really fill up the stadium and keep the Goodison atmosphere rich and alive.
You go along day-to-day aware of your age, but you kind of think, "Well I feel 27-ish and I?m one of those fellers who looks ageless... probably... possibly"
Of course you?re not but...
Then you read JJ?s ? "You are told by your Dad of Andy Gray and Peter Reid ? his heroes of the 80s."
Suddenly it?s like someone is following you with a loud-hailer shouting "This man is 50 this year!! This man is 50 this year!!" while bystanders shout "He looks much older!"
I was struck when watching the match last Sunday on television how many young people were in the Park. Tons of them. All smiling with their parents.
I live near New York City and next week we are opening two new stadiums for our baseball teams. One is replacing a cathedral and the other is replacing a dump. The New York Yankees have spent well over $1.5 Billion to replace Yankee Stadium and the New York Mets have spent about $1 billion to replace Shea Stadium. I support the Mets and cannot wait to see the new place. The old place has great memories but truthfully had outlived it?s time. The new place is SMALLER and the seats are CLOSER and the amenities are far greater. The ticket prices have gone through the roof!
Both stadiums are next to the old ones. We?ll make our new memories there...
I still play the odd game but as a left back I?ve given up on the overlaps and half way is my limit! I am genuinly amazed when people call me auld git and photos still shock me even though I shave in the mirror every morning!
My 9-year-old son is a mad Evertonian in a school full of Chelsea, Manyoo and RS but when I tell him of my heroes they are Alan Ball, Mick Lyons, Duncan McKenzie, Andy King, Degsy Mountfield and, bizarrely, Davey Smallman! He?s been to Goodison and Wembley and Old Trafford, even Twickenham, and the JJB ? he wouldn't swap GP for any of them!
Next day, the MUFC shirt was binned and he bought himself (with his own money!) the Blues home shirt. Even now, he wont allow himself to be associated with MUFC and only ever thinks of EFC.
It?s a pity a lot of posters, especially the pro-Kirkby ones, weren't around in the 60s when, as Christine said, you were packed like sardines and lifted off the ground when the crowd surged forward. They WOULD have had something to complain about then. Most views were obstructed then unless you were a "big fella".
The atmosphere was electric and nobody cared that you couldn't even get out to pee in despicable toilets because we were there to support Everton. You couldn't even get a COLD STALE pie then and there were no "BEVVIES" to be had unless you went to the "Blue House" or " Winslow".
But I wouldn't swap the memories for anything ? particularly a Championship-standard stadium in the middle of nowhere ? but that?s another tale.
Write on, Joe ? you certainly have the talent for it.
We used to sing in the early sixties the history song, which we stole off Celtic. Then it was a slightly different tune, and when we got to where you end with "And dear old Everton will be there" we would all roar out at the top of our voices "GET OUTTA THAT YA BUMS!" to any RS that happened to be in the pub at the time.
Also, I remember the noise the crowd made even when we in the second division, and it was even in the papers, that the opposing teams ,apart from playing Everton had to face the Goodison Roar! Happy Days...
I may be only 18, but if you know your ’istory and all that!
Cheers mate
Do recall if we ever done ones to That’s Amore, Lambeth Walk, Lili Marlene Under the Lamplght song or to Birminghams Keep right on to the End of the Road?
Take a trip through Kirkby Town Centre and look at the boarded up premises, take a trip down where the brook is and look at the trees that have recently been felled. Definately a done deal and there?s nothing we can do about it.
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1 Posted 08/04/2009 at 18:45:18
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