Tuesday, June 17, 2008

DOG'S LIFE WITH BONZO

Sunday's Brigg Blog posting about Kev Stapleton celebrating his 50th birthday brought back memories for another long-standing town resident, Gary Smith, the well-known cricketer.
Gary writes: "If my memory serves me correctly, Kev moved the short distance across the road to live in South View after the prefabs. I was also a 'prefab lad' and wonder how many Brigg residents started off in those prefabs, which were built as temporary accomodation. Can anybody also remember the name of the large dog that used to roam around there scaring us kids? At the time I thought it was a great dane but being so young it may have been a bit smaller."
To take Gary's points in order: Kev lived on the corner of South View Avenue and Atkinson Avenue, overlooking the playing field, where he used to join many of us for games of football and cricket.
The dog to which Gary refers could have been the infamous Bonzo, which was a very large Rhodesian ridgeback. While playing football, if we saw Bonzo in the distance we would shin up the metal fencing which bordered the recreation ground.
Anyone remember who owned Bonzo? And do you recall I'm An Urban Spaceman, the hit record by the Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band?

1 comment:

gmsmith said...

Bonzo !! I thought that was the dogs name , must have been scaring kids for a few years Nigel . We also used to have games interrupted on the recreation ground by the cry of "Bonzo's coming ! " and then the ensuing scramble over the wire mesh fence that used to seperate the football pitches from the comunal area. II think the dog used to know his reputation had been maintained because he would the turn and amble back into the prefabs. I must admit I can never recall him actually hurting anyone but we weren't going to hang around to be the first.!