Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!
With an audible groan of protest from my Shattered self, my right arm arced out of bed to hit the button on top of my incessantly protesting alarm clock, nagging me in it’s desire to inform me that I was about to roll out of a comfortable, warm bed and begin my ritual morning ablutions.

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!

Slap! Having slienced the alarm clock, I gathered my thoughts for the day ahead. I stepped over the scattered sheets of A4 paper that constituted The Commitments to my English homework, abandoned in a fit of indecision the previous night. I’d decide that I’d have another crack at my coursework The Hard Way during the morning free period prior to the lesson after lunch. To look back now and think that I actually questioned why I never graded higher than a ‘C’. I suppose I wasn’t alone, a good many of my peers behaved like the immortal Hot Shots we thought we were back then.

An hour later, I was walking towards the bus stop near my home, full of false confidence and hair gel. In truth, I had very little time for the demands of academia, my life was centred around her, My Girl who I knew would be waiting for me at the bus station whereupon we’d walk to college together. As I paced, I lit a cigarette and enjoyed the giddy light headedness as I blew the blue Backdraft of smoke out in front of me.

As I boarded the bus, the folly of my emotional entanglement weighed heavily on my mind. I remembered the advice of my friend Alan, who’d displayed an attitude to monogamy akin to a randy tomcat. “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken” he’d chide me, somewhat despairing of the fact that I’d passed up several opportunities to spend time of a horizontal persuasion with girls whom I’d struggle to put a name to name now, several years later. No, at that time it was as if all my Mortal Thoughts were dominated by her porcelain face and tumbling blonde hair and her softly spoken voice with its faintly clipped accent, betraying the country of her birth if you knew what you were listening for.

Finally, we pulled into the concrete monstrosity that was the town’s bus station, stained in various shades of dirty grey by two and a half decades of diesel fumes, rain and graffiti. And then I saw her, waiting for me with that same innocent but strangely attentive expression on her face. She stood there, looking beautiful and representing yet another Undiscovered Country ready to be explored. I was all too aware of the primeval calling of the Jungle Fever coursing through my young veins, guiltily reminding myself of course that Men of Honour had more than a one track mind. Against the backdrop of the dishevelled station, she stood out like a Rambling Rose. I made my way over to see her stood there, burdened with a rucksack full of lever arch files and textbooks.

On our short walk to college, budding trees passed me by, the tiny bundles of leaf ready to spring forth into a world full of hope and devoid of fear, much as I was at that time. Even sat on the bus, I could detect the faint scent of early blossoms, I inhaled deeply, Delirious with the Awakenings and newness of life all around me, full of promise, opportunity and hope.

I could look back fondly at the Days of Being Wild I enjoyed too, but there’s something about the memory of this particular spring that made me feel Close to Eden. When I look at myself and my peers now, at the City Slickers we’ve become, I cannot help but lament the fraternal comfort Brother Future seemed to have in store for me. Many Hours and Times have passed by since and I have every reason to be appreciative for the hand life has dealt me since. However, sometimes I let my mind wander to the past, a welcome distraction from the current Career Opportunities I’m perusing.

Here’s to you, wherever you are, in gratitude for that intoxicating springtime long ago.

And to the rest of you, see if you can name the year by the movie titles.

(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 18 Jul 2008, 17:03, 6 replies)

Is it
1998?
(bamboozled Can hear you getting fatter, Fri 18 Jul 2008, 19:15, closed)

Nope

(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 18 Jul 2008, 21:43, closed)

Dammit
I checked my DVD of one of the titles, and now I know the answer - but I'll be nice and give it to someone else
(bamboozled Can hear you getting fatter, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 1:04, closed)

Brilliant and refreshing
And of course you get a click for The Hard Way ;o)

*sniggers and clicks*
( Tourette's ( . )( . ) has a monkey hair in her fried egg, Sat 19 Jul 2008, 13:50, closed)

I could say 1991
but then I'd have to admit to cheating and checking IMDB as I only knew City slickers for sure.
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Sun 20 Jul 2008, 0:10, closed)

Correct!
1991 it is...
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Mon 21 Jul 2008, 18:12, closed)