Methuselah
Player Valuation: £35m
We had an Uncle Charlie, Mum's brother. Our Dad worked away a lot and Uncle Charlie used to visit us, usually on a Sunday. I was 13 and my brother 14. Uncle Charlie used to regale us with stories of his time in the Navy during WW1. He was also a fan of boxing and told us stories of fights he had seen. He claimed to have once sparred with Nel Tarleton, a well known Liverpool boxer. Best of all, when he left he always gave us sixpence each. On one visit he asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. We both said in unison, 'we wan't to play for Everton'. He thought for a minute and then he said 'if you wan't anything in this life you have to go out and grab it, it won't just fall into your lap. 'What you must do' he continued, 'is go to Everton and ask for a trial. If they say no, then say you are going to Liverpool. They will then call you back as they won't want to lose out to Liverpool'. The following Sunday me and my brother got the tram to Goodison. We found a door open at the back of the main stand and walked up several flights of stairs until we reached a landing. There was a door with a glass panel which had 'Enquiries' written on in black and gold letters. There was a bell which we rang. After a few minutes we heard footsteps and the window slid open. A woman said 'waddya want'. In unison we said 'we've come for a trial'. She looked us up and down and said 'wait here'. She closed the window and disappeared. After several minutes we heard footsteps returning, the window slid back and she said 'how old are you'. We hadn't expected this but my brother blurted out 'fifteen' so I added and year on to mine and said 'fourteen'. She said 'wait here' again and disappeared. She returned a few minutes later and said 'come back when you're eighteen' and the window closed. Disconsolate, we walked down the stairs but half-way down we remembered uncle Charlie's advice. We shouted 'We're going to Liverpool' and again 'We're going to Liverpool'. We waited but answer came there none. On his next visit, we told Uncle Charlie about our visit to Goodison and I was puzzled by his tears of laughter. Anyway, he gave us a shilling each on that visit. We never did go back for our trial as at 18 my brother was doing his National Service in Hong Kong and I was doing mine in Singapore and Malaya. As the title of the thread says, looking back, I can't believe we did that!lol (1949)
