Wednesday 10 March 2021

Originally broadcast on CHED radio - Date unknown

I've known Blinkey Dekker all my life. We went to school together and he was in my outfit during the war. After the war Blinkey and I settled in the same city and we've been good friends ever since. I feel sorry for Blinkey because he has gone through his entire life without taking a chance on anything. When we were kids we had a swing tied to a tree out by a creek near the city. One by one we’d grab the rope and swing away out over the water then back to the shore. Now and then one of the lads would drop into the drink, but it was pretty thrilling business for 10-year-old boys. Blinkey never tried it. He wanted to, he said, but he didn't take a chance. I remember once during the winter when five of us decided to go over a little ski jump on a toboggan. We imagined ourselves flying through the air with the greatest of ease to the slope below. We all tried it, except Blinkey. He never stole a kiss from a girl, played hookey from school, flipped a street car trolley, smoked leaves twisted up in newspaper, let air out of the preachers tires or any of those things young boys do. During four years of service, Blinkey again was a bystander. When the rest of us would go ashore for a well-deserved blowout, Blinkey would stay on the base and wait for us to return so we can tell him about the time we'd had. I met Blinkey just a week ago and he was telling me that he had a good chance to enlarge his little business but he didn't want to risk taking a loan from the bank. Well, I guess we all know a Blinkey. I'm not suggesting kids do all the crazy things we did, but I would like to remind them that life is the sum total of all your experiences and you only get one time around. So live a little while you can. What a pity to get to the point where you walk down memory lane, but you don't have a single thing to remember.

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