Memories and Midget Gems - Dan Tunstall

When I first posted to this blog, I talked about my football baptism. Leicester -v- Brighton, 1978. It brought up a whole lot of memories. The funny thing is, I can't actually remember much about the match itself. I know we won 4-1. I know I saw Leicester City legend Keith Weller score one of the goals. Other than that though, it's all a bit of a blur. What really sticks with me from that day is a whole mass of little details.

My dad used to work at Leicester University, so we parked the car there that Saturday afternoon and walked down the hill. We went past the fire station, under the railway bridge, across Nelson Mandela Park, past the Royal Infirmary and the Granby Halls, then headed right down Walnut Street. Turning left into Burnmoor Street, we stopped off to get a quarter of Midget Gems from the Lucky Supermarket. And then finally, the stadium came into view. I'd been past before, of course, but this was the real thing. This time I was going inside. I felt like I was going to explode.

Once we were inside the ground - East Stand, Block T - my senses went into overdrive. Everything was getting downloaded. The sweet taste of the Midget Gems. The bright green of the pitch. The chanting of the crowd, bouncing down off the low corrugated roof. The smell of whisky, the smell of aftershave, the smell of Pukka pies and the smell of cigars. I'd never experienced anything like it.

A lot has changed since then. Leicester City play in a new ground now, a few hundred yards from Filbert Street. There are no low corrugated roofs, and the smell of cigars is long gone. Some things have stayed the same though. The Lucky Supermarket is still there, I still go with my dad, and I still chew Midget Gems through the games. It's hard to buy them in quarters now though, so I get them in pre-packaged bags. I just wish the black ones still tasted of liquorice.

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