Author: jamenelson@gmail.com

The Garden Blackbirds.

I saw them this morning hiding in the naked tree next door, the tree where I think they nest every summer.

There was no song, instead they looked like they were wary, hopping from branch to branch perhaps checking it out for the nest later in the year.

I wondered if blackbirds migrated or stayed near the nesting site. I also wondered if they were married if they paired for life, so I googled blackbirds.

Continue reading “The Garden Blackbirds.”

The flat grey sky reflected darkly in the deeper water beyond the shallows.

James gambolled happily at the edge of the sea; running away squealing playfully from incoming wavelets, and then chasing them back as they retreated.

I picked up his discarded shoes and strolled along, the crunch of the sand, shell and small rounded stones underfoot; breathing the salty seaweed air and watching the sea move slowly in the deep water, heaving, almost soundless.

All was tranquil here.

Continue reading “Crab Fishing.”

My First Football Boots:

A Short story by: Jim Nelson

From the age of five until I realised that I was never going to be a professional player (Around the age of 40), I was obsessed with football, and when that realisation dawned upon me, I became an enthusiastic participant until I was too old to play anymore. 

Now I am just a big fan. 

Throughout my childhood I kicked the toes out of my shoes, tore the knees out of my trousers and regularly broke windows whilst indulging this obsession.

My earliest recollection of playing with a ball like object was when we visited my grandmother McGowan who lived just up the road.

There was a lawn which took up half of the long back garden, and our Nana used to roll newspaper into a ball, tie it with string and give it to us children to play kicking it around on the grass.

Continue reading “My First Football Boots.”

Diving (sports)

Some fifty five years ago, I was seven, and while on a family holiday in Killala Co Mayo, my parents bought me, after much whining on my part, a full diving kit consisting of snorkel, mask and fins.

The memory of my first diving equipment is clear. Blue rubbery type plastic, but not modern pliable rubbery plastic, the old stuff, that was almost as unflinchingly non-malleable as the material used in the making of buckets.

However they became my key to the undersea world of Jim Nelson.

Continue reading “Diving Non-professional.”

European odyssey 1981

In early August 1981, due to a failed romance I decided to join the Legion, the foreign one, not the ‘of Mary’ type.

I had heard that there was an enlistment office in Lille in northern France, so I decided to travel there and to sign up.

At that time I worked for a shipping and trucking company, so hitching a ride on one of the trucks as far as Cherbourg, as my last official duty, was no problem.

My younger brother Dessie who had been working as a carpenter in Holland for two years and felt that he deserved a break, decided to accompany me until I joined up and then he would go on a bit of a tour of Europe.

To fund my trip and a potential five years as a legionnaire, I sold my much loved Ford Capri and my collection of audiotapes for a total of £500, tapes like Blondie, Boston and Rainbow, to be played loud on the car’s stereo. There was also a whip around in work for me which generated £250 (a tidy sum back then) and at my leaving do in the office, the managing director presented me with a cheque for £100, so I was pretty well funded for five years as a legionnaire, or a year and a bit as a non-legionnaire (or a failed one).

We travelled by truck to Rosslare on Saturday morning then availed of trucker’s accommodation on the voyage from Rosslare to Cherbourg, big steak and chips dinner, a good 10 hours sleep in a driver’s cabin, and full Irish breakfast before our arrival in France.

Continue reading “European Odyssey.”