When I was a boy my mum used to take me and my sister Alison
to Manchester City Centre, about seven miles away. This was a rarity for she
owned and ran a shop and had little time away from the counter. What big treat it
was to board a bus and not only go upstairs but claim the front seat. I
remember me or my friend Ste finding a Camels cigarette pack – Camels were
American. Clint Eastwood, Kojak and Starsky and Hutch
were American, too – had the owner of this cigarette packet met them?
Three
instances remain in my mind and all were set at Piccadilly Gardens: I saw a…
(1)
tramp retrieve and eat a packet of chips that had been thrown in a bin.
(2)
man dressed in women’s clothing stood on the edge of a department store with
hundreds of people looking up (we were ushered away quickly.)
(3)
man crying in some toilets.
This
painting relates to number (3). I was about nine years old and needed the
toilet. My mum waited outside the small toilets near some telephone boxes on
Piccadilly Gardens while I went in. At the urinals I could hear a man crying audibly
in one of the cubicles. There was no attempt to stifle the sobs. I told my mum but
I don’t think she knew what to do. I suppose she asked he if was okay but I
just can’t remember. I was a little anxious myself – I’d never heard a grown
man crying before. Women in cowboy films cried when their man got shot in front
of them.
Back
in the toilets I peeped under the gap below the door. There was a man sat on
the toilet crying. His eyes widened like plates when he saw me. I can remember
he was wearing red-check socks. I assume my mum pulled me away and we
disappeared into the shops as I can’t remember any other details. The man was
black, I remember that. I didn’t know any black men and he reminded me of Shaft
from the television series called…er…Shaft. I was too young to stay up to
watch Shaft but I knew who he was a
cool dude.
This
painting was finished before I knew it and now hangs on my bedroom wall (I
doubt anyone would want it on their wall.)
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Not sure what
I’m watching here….probably Juggernaut
Jugs, something like that…
Plan view…
Adding undercrackers and socks…
The painting not
hangs on my bedroom wall. View from my bed night and morning…