Sounds like bullshit but it’s not when I was really young my mate who lived over the road was called Daniel I fancied his sister Liz from an early age our mothers used to joke we would end up getting married but we never did. His dad was Don Hull he and his family ran a demolition and scrap yard all the family were sound as a pound good people and they always had big dogs like Rottweilers and Dobermans so I was never away from the place. One day I went to see if Dan was coming out with the dogs and he said no he’s going to see the lion. I said eh ? Oh yes there’s a lion at the scrap yard we’re about to get in the van and go you want to come ? Well I thought about it long and hard and immediately said too right. He went in and asked Don if I could go and he said yes he’s a big kid and Laddo will be hungry. This didn’t fill me with confidence but I wasn’t going to back out there’s something weird about being that young and believing when an adult says they’re going to feed you to a lion. It seemed to take ages to get there and the van was oily filthy and stank of diesel as we skidded about in the back. The lion wasn’t as big as it was in my head but I was still shitting myself but Daniel had seen it before and was playing with it like a cat so when he said come on stroke him on the head I just did it,it’s a lifetime ago but I remember it’s fur was soft and I was well impressed with his nose which was big and wide and velvety he was a nice animal and I loved it. He smelled like a zoo but I hadn’t been to a zoo at that point that penny dropped years later. When I got back my dad said I saw you getting in Dons van been to the scrap yard ? I said yes they’ve got a lion called Laddo hes great. My dad said yeah right they’ve got a lion.
Many years later Dan asked me if I wanted to go see Hitlers boat ? I wasn’t sure who Hitler was it was just a name you heard on black and white war movies but it was the six weeks school holidays and there was fuck all else to do so I tagged along. I can’t honestly remember much about the boat I played with the steering wheel and shoved the brass levers up and down a bit but the lion was long gone and an old boat didn’t do it for me.
Anyway recently Dons youngest brother Archie died and the whole story made the local press and it brought it all back to me so I thought I would share probably the most interesting story I have. If you got this far thanks people.
Many years later Dan asked me if I wanted to go see Hitlers boat ? I wasn’t sure who Hitler was it was just a name you heard on black and white war movies but it was the six weeks school holidays and there was fuck all else to do so I tagged along. I can’t honestly remember much about the boat I played with the steering wheel and shoved the brass levers up and down a bit but the lion was long gone and an old boat didn’t do it for me.
Anyway recently Dons youngest brother Archie died and the whole story made the local press and it brought it all back to me so I thought I would share probably the most interesting story I have. If you got this far thanks people.
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