I enjoyed being a free range kid,
living on the edge of open countryside, and not too far from the coast..

When I started grammar school and fell between my old working class estate,
and new middle class mates in the big town..
I became dislocated between 2 cultures...
The old council estate schoolmates became antagonistic,
and the new posher ones tended to look down on us kids bussed into grammar from poxy rough little towns..

Me and my little scruffy dog would easily do a 5 to 10 mile walk following the river on a saturday afternoon...
Or on the weeks I was off school with one health problem or another,
me and my dog spent as much time as we could getting out and far away on our own..

Walking my dog for hours alone in nature was a great escape when I was in my early teens...

Though dog did start to get a bit neglected when I discovered girls and electric guitars.....