..... I was walking up the road ......... earbuds full in
- heading home
- iPod screaming the 'Yeah Yeah Yeahs' ....
......... and I was called to by a man stepping out of a BMW.
"Do you not recognise me Pip?"
As I got to within six feet of him I slightly did - but did.
"I am Rob Hogg" he said ........ and the face clicked back in time and I did recognise him.
He was 13 when he first came to the project I was leading some 32 years ago in London's East End.
This 45 year old before me, as bubbly and as enthusiastic as I remember - started to sing to me, there in the street, ::
"I had a baby out of wedlock
Her old man got me in a headlock
I'm an unwed father ............. " **
He said he remembered me singing this as we travelled to Gwynfydd in the Club Mini-bus "banging on the dashboard-drum". He rolled in to quick-fire memories of going to Gwynfydd, an extremely remote deserted farm in North Wales.
It was a farm which had lost its water table and became impossible to work. I first went there thirty five/forty years ago when I ran a club for Rockers in the North West. It became a place of adventure and most beautiful Youth Work. The first few years it had no water and we had to light it with paraffin lamps. The walls were five foot thick - you had to drive through a ford to get there and it was impossible to walk to a pub or a shop. It was great as a place to take the toughest. Rob recalled how the young east end villains started to feel scared because when you turned the light off it was pitch black. Living in inner city London means that the streets and bedrooms are always illuminated. I remember them going to bed and coming downstairs again because it was too dark to sleep!
"Who has nicked the mars bars" Rob shouted out in the middle of the street. He remembers me 'going into one' because we had been robbed and I was making a point about it - loudly.
I was mad in those days. Must have taken 5 hours to drive there from London - and back again on Sunday!
But wow - what experiences we had - and some of them came gushing back on a pavement in Romford.
He had recently re-read my first book called 'Gutter Feelings', now 20 years old. he said that he never clocked his environment, and the scene he was in, because everything was normal to him growing up there. We talked about a few of his peers who are now famous armed robbers. Ageing robbers now 45-ish!
He recalled the '10-o-clock news' when I used to shut down all the normal activities once a week at 10 pm.
This was a 10 minute gospel slot where I talked and did the most outlandish things to draw attention and drip and drop a positive message midst a packed club. Rob mimicked me in the street - remembering my phrases from 30 years or more. I did that for 10 years in that place. Expended my very soul out to them. Loved em. Told them they were beautiful................... believe me - it got noisy. Then we used to open up the club again until 11pm!
We had a great chat - me and Rob. He is a successful business man now with five kids and grandchildren too.
He told me some great experiences - spiritual moments in his life. The toughest of times and the miraculous times. I asked him to write a reflection about those past times and his journey - for these pages. Hope he will.
One thing.
One last thing.
I noticed, crisp and clear, - his body language!
It was the way he swung his body back and forth as he spoke - I remember those very movements from 30 years ago hmmmm ..............
thank you Rob for making my day - you beautiful human.
** This is an old Larry Norman song, not very well known, I used to sing it all the time.
(The photo is about 1981)
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