-14

i remember bunking in.
back then cinema trailers were both a promise of things to come and tease of the forbidden fruit. it was all about the ‘x’ movies – the films i couldn’t see. the films i wanted to see, mostly because they promised action, thrills and spills, but partly because i wasn’t allowed to see them.
going to see an ‘x’ before you were allowed was a rite of passage.
i had decided my time had come.
i knew what i was going to see. i knew where i was going to see it. nothing was going to stop me.
i dressed grown up. i had on my neatest faded blue jeans, a white shirt, tie and a blazer, which if memory serves me was of a blue paid design. i thought i looked sophisticated – in reality i looked like a cheap hood out of an even cheaper gangster movie.
i hopped on the 140 bus.
once in harrow i made my way to the grenada cinema, it was a place i frequented a lot and of the cinemas i went to as a teen it was one of my favourites (it still remains one of my favourites now – even though i have not be to it in close on 25 years). the nearer i got the more nervous i became. mad flights of fantasy ran through my head as to what they might do if they realised i was underage (the simple not sell me a ticket was not among them). i hesitated. i went to look in the model shop that was next to the cinema (i don’t think i ever went into the model shop – even then i realised that my ability to make models was nil and why waste money – but i did hanker after the apollo rocket model from airfix they had in the window – oddly i still want it).
finally plucking up courage i made my way to the cinema (i wasn’t worried about the time as one of the things people used to do back them was just sit through the films until they had seen what they missed or watched it until the end again). i walked to the ticket office and asked for a ticket. my heart pounding, waiting for someone to accuse me of something.
my money was taken.
the ticket given.
i walked up the stars to sit in the circle.
i watched ‘death wish’ with charles bronson. the hard man of action movies. i loved it. don’t think i have ever watched it since. it was on with ‘mean machine’ starring burt reynolds. i fun movie that appealed to the rugby player in me. have watched it many times since and have even watched a couple of lame remakes of it.
i had passed my rite of passage. i had been to see an ‘x’ movie.
the cinematic future looked bright, it looked silver.

(less so for the grenada - its future had gold in it as it became the home of a well known gym chain).