Long ago Thoughts

By skinner_jennifer

Thu, 05 Feb 2026
  • 128 reads
11 comments
 

Breathing 3am air, the streets

showed hidden secrets as we

combed the low walls, initials

were carved with no real value,

and full moon failed to appear.

 

Chill air embraced as me and my

companion walked in pure silence,

many deep thoughts on life flowed

during the descent into dawn.

 

Reaching home, too sleepy for

chatter of the night, gradually

preparing for peaceful sleep,

visualizing glittering moments

etched...

 

I was part of the weird and groovy

hippies, dancing with nature to

increase my energy, strengthening

love of imagination.

 

I've always been open minded to

friendly gestures that touch my

soul, when someone shows an

action that's swift as wind – like

expressing thoughts in writing that

are here today and gone tomorrow.

 

A memory of walking home after

a night of much merry making.

 

Certificate 12
Poem
Scrap Book Of Memories
Love
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by HarryC on

Ah, youth. Where does it go? 

I'm still a hippy now, in my own way smiley

Very evocative poem.

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Hi Harry,

this poem is about a time I was living in Redland Bristol during the 1970s in a flat with a friend. We used to take our tape recorders into Leigh Woods with some beers, lager and bottles of cider and have some fun. We had to be careful incase we got caught, but we never did. It was exciting because we were doing something we shouldn't have been doing.

One night after leaving the woods, we decided to cross the suspension bridge and stick around in Clifton village and hooked up with some students who were really wild and weekend hippies, I ended up with this guy called Hunk, he was a huge guy with long dark hair and a full blown face of hair, he was quite a character and made me laugh. We had many trips to the woods and I wouldn't have changed that time for the world.

From one Hippy to another, many thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by HarryC on

I was living near Totnes in the '70s. I started work there when I was 15 - at Hill's Devon Cider, near Ashburton. Maybe you sampled our wares on one of those evenings. smiley

It was a magical time for me, too.  I knew nothing. But I didn't know that I knew nothing. And that ignorance was a kind of bliss. It wasn't until I read Thoreau that I realised that other people thought as I thought. I still stick by those principles as much as possible. Tread lightly. See the profound in the simple.

Here's to the years behind and the years ahead of doing things we shouldn't be doing!

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Tread lightly. See the profound in the simple. I love that quote and it sums up everything I feel. I can't recall what cider was drunk as I always stuck to cans of lager, because cider always made me feel depressed...sad really as I lived in Cider Land.

Your right ignorance is bliss and as a teenager I never thought of being sensible when I was having fun, that was saved for going out to work, come the weekend it was just fun, fun, fun all the way.

Always enjoy the chat Harry and thanks for coming back.

Jenny.

 

 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I like your first two lines so much, showing how night time can seem like a different world, your walk home must have been very special, and your memory stays so clear between writing on a wall to writing about that writing here, even if the full moon didn't appear, you have conveyed the intensity of a bright moment

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Your words gave me a smile Di. I often think about that experience and the many parties I attended in and around Redland in Bristol during my late teenage years and early twenties, they were special because we had so much freedom that we never realized at the time, but now I think how lucky I was to have come through them all and here now to write about them.

Many thanks for reading and sharing your kind thoughts on my poem.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Clifton's a lovely place Jenny. I've many great memories of it too. This is going to wreck my credibility as a would-be hippy but I once saw S Club 7 and Billie Piper performing live at the The Radio One Big Sunday gig on Clifton Downs. I might not have gone had it not been for my children.

I also have fond memories of grown-up fun sitting on the quayside near Bristol Bridge with friends and döner kebabs on warm summer evenings after the pubs had shut but with the need to continue talking nonsense and laughing hysterically.

I always enjoy your recollections of past times in Bristol as they stir recollections of my own. And I very much enjoyed your poem.

Turlough

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I know exactly how you feel Turlough, I too have so many happy memories of Cliftonand and the Downs. Leigh Woods holds a particular place in my heart. Me and my friend would walk from Redland where I lived for a short time, all the way up Whiteladies Road, along the Downs and across the Suspension Bridge to the woods. I sometimes wonder now how we ever got back we'd be quite drunk, but we did. It was definitely a long way.

Me and my friend had a lot of fun gate crashing parties around Redland, there were so many University students living around that area and you could always guarantee there'd be a party going on somewhere on a Saturday night. Sometimes we'd go in the student union bar and drink parsnip wine, that stuff was so strong it knocked your head off.nearly...Oh to be young without cares.

Any way I always enjoy a good old chat with someone who gets me. Sorry for rambling on. Thank you for your kind words Turlough and for sharing your story.

Jenny. Keep the Love Peace and Happiness alive.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Ahh, Bristol!

I hated my job in Bristol but I loved the journey to and from work. Each morning I would cycle from my house to Chippenham railway station, a journey of about three miles, most of which was along the bank of the Avon and through a big park. Once the train had passed through Corsham and Box tunnel the route followed the beautiful St Catherine’s valley, skirting the Kennet & Avon canal in places, until it reached Bath. There the wonderful Georgian architecture could be admired from the train window because of the elevation of the railway line. Beyond Bath the river broadened and meandered, passing through Keynsham before entering the built-up part of Bristol by squeezing through a gorge somewhere near Longwell Green.

From Templemeads I would walk along the pathway that followed the bank of the Cut to Bristol Bridge where our lovely old Victorian red brick office building was situated. Sometimes I’d buy a bacon butty and a coffee from a shop near the station and eat it on one of the river taxis that ran to Bristol Bridge. Until the point where I sat down at my desk it was like being on holiday.

I’d see kingfishers every morning by the river in Chippenham and cormorants in the Cut in Bristol, and I’d see deer, rabbits and hares grazing in the fields near Keynsham.

The people I worked with were lovely too. It really was only the work and the company’s awful clients (who were scattered all over England and Wales) that spoiled it. I’m glad I went there but I’m glad I left. It was a long six years.

Ahh, Bristol!

Turlough

Submitted by marandina on

Atmospheric and pensive. Bristol's not far from me these days. 

You build reflection into your poetry so naturally, Jenny. It makes it so accessible. 

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Hi Paul,

that's so kind of you to say. I really did love my teenage and 20s years in the 70s. Being wild, young and free to be who I wanted to be was so important and luckily I had friends who felt the same way.

I'm so glad you enjoy living in the West country, it's certainly a beautiful place to live and I have to say I do miss Bristol, but find myself harping back to the 70s. I know it's not the same now, so I suppose I'm glad I haven't returned...it breaks the magic spell to think of what it's like now.

Many thanks for reading and your lovely comment was most appreciated.

Jenny.