I was listening to the best of ELO CD today and one song brought back some memories. The Diary of Horace Wimp was a single that my Uncle Alan played me when I went to visit him once. I was only 9 or 10 when I went to see him for the day. Mum put me on the train and he met me at his station. It would probably be thought of as wrong to put a 10 year old on a train on his own for 45 minutes these day, but it was great for me and I enjoyed the experience!
Anyway, Alan had a huge record collection (not to mention a huge library of books) and I think he’d just bought the single, so he played it for me. It seems odd now that he had this, as I think most of his record collection was classical with a few comedy records (which I still have). I thought it was quite good (10 year old’s taste!) and we played it a couple of times and then went off and made lunch together and did other exciting things. It was always a treat to go and see him and I think I must have gone to see him on my own a couple of times.
The big shame was that about 4 or 5 days after having a family meal at our house for his 40th birthday, he committed suicide. That was quite a big shock to me (as a kid of 10) and my sister, although we didn’t find out until many years later he’d killed himself.
I often wonder how our conversations would have gone if he were still around. Still the memories are there and so are the records. I still have that single!