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Underground, overground, Wombling free
The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we
We just got back from Blighty.
A typical tale for many expats is people asking you “where’s home?”
“Where’s home?” has myriad answers.
Of course there’s something quite wonderful about going home to the house that you knew as a child. Many of our friends have continued to enjoy that into their 30s and 40s. But that anchoring feeling is lost when your family home is sold.
Inevitably, you drop anchor elsewhere.
I left Wimbledon over 20 years ago. Our family home, where I had grown up, was sold around the same time.
In recent years, with every visit to England, we find ourselves getting lost; driving in different places, in everyone else’s neighbourhood. It’s a disorienting feeling, going from guest bed to guest bed and place to place. And there’s never just one destination. It’s always a few nights here, a few nights there.
Being back in Wimbledon, I felt at ease. Wimbledon is no longer home. But it will aways be my hometown. We stayed quite near to our old family home and my high school. I frequented a few familiar haunts. We met with good friends.
It was easy to remember those long, weekend walks with our dogs on Wimbledon Common. My darling dad, full of mischief, egging me on to climb higher and higher, to find wombles in the trees at Caeser’s Camp. “Go on, just a little higher, it’s there”. And if I was lucky, there was a ’99’ from the ice-cream van, the one with the Popeye theme tune.
It was all wonderfully nostalgic and wonderfully familiar being back.
A highlight of our trip was getting to go to Plough Lane. AFC Wimbledon were at home. It was my first opportunity to go to a match at the fantastic new stadium.
As it will most likely be the only game that I’ll attend this season, we decided to buy the best match tickets and ‘go for gold’, or as the AFC Wimbledon site calls, it ‘champagne football’. And why not? We enjoyed pre match drinks, a delicious buffet, great seats, and a ‘pie and a pint’ at half time.
Many things have changed at the club since I last watched a match, at the old Cherry Records pitch, near Kingston. Players and managers will come and go. But what never changes is the atmosphere at this very unique, fan owned club.
We were welcomed by so many staff. Pietro, the club’s Commercial Executive, had a long chat with us in the lounge before kick off. Ivor Heller, our Commercial Director, stopped to say hello. In the same week, there was an event at the Phoenix Pub, to celebrate 20 years of the Dons Trust. The club sent an e mail, inviting all trustees to a celebration.
This club has come so far. It’s great to see. AFC Wimbledon were playing a match at home. And for a while I felt at home too.
How far are you from your hometown?
Maggie M / Mother City Time