[Misc] Memories- How A Lot Of What We Remember Is Remarkable- But Often Untrue.

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Earliest memories.....I moved away from Rottingdean when I was 5, so I have definite memories from then, including my brother being born a home when I was two (the midwife was Mrs Armstrong), and of course the Big Snow and going into town on a toboggan (down the Falmer Road) with my dad. And of course smashing my nose on a coal bunker in a tricycle accident. Loads of memories. Real ones? I I suspect the midwife's name was backfilled later.

 

[Jam The Man]

My recall memory from 30-40 years ago is surprisingly good. So much so, my mates ask me to be recall things that happened to THEM at school in the 80s/90s as they are very sketchy about the details.


But since having COVID, my short term memory is shot. It’s a long COVID symptom apparently.
Or it could be age! (I’m 48)

 

[Jam The Man]

I also wrote a retro diary 15 years ago for every year of my life that I thought might be of interest to my future descendants. Boring though it may be, I quite enjoyed doing it and knocked up 120,000 words covering 35 years

 

[Driver8]

For me the biggest Albion delusion, and one which I have often been slated for because I wasn't there, is the below truth.

There were 10,000 Albion fans present at Newcastle in May 1979.

This is false. There were around 5,000 and possibly slightly less than that.

So why do folk, including Mark Lawrenson who was playing say there were ? Well, firstly, they didn't at the time. This is the key statement.

Here are the facts:

1) Local news, including John Vinicombe, reported an Albion group of 5,000 at the time of the event.

2) The Leazes End at Newcastle only held 5,000. Video evidence shows it was covered by folk but certainly not at capacity. There would have been Albion in the seats, but elsewhere in the ground ? As one Newcastle fans says of the event:

'I was at the game, the confusion for Brighton players is that our away strip was blue, so our scarfs were black, white and blue at that time. Scarves were popular. I was in the paddock and they did a walk round the pitch to celebrate and our fans are always sporting, so they got cheered and applauded, with scarves being whirled as we always did end of season. The Brighton support was in the Leazes end and not packed full, but a healthy size of around 4k. There wasn't any Brighton anywhere else, they would have been mullered as I was with nutters in the new stand paddock who had chased them earlier and there for that purpose. The legend is but a myth, you couldn't be an away fan in any other end but your own, in those days, without serious consequences'

Mark Lawrenson dodgy claims of coming to Newcastle United backed by 10,000 Brighton fans

Mark Lawrenson and his unreliable memoirs, remembering coming to Newcastle with an army of over 10,000 Brighton fans.

www.themag.co.uk

3) Sunderland fans have their own claims, there may be some truth, but I would suggest much delusion too:

'Newcastle's fans were outnumbered by the Sunderland contingent cheering the Mags'

'I was there, the ref had a mare and Brighton were 2nd best for long periods. Cant say that I noticed any Mackems in the crowd. Brighton packed the Leazes End'

Newcastle v Brighton 1979

Saturday 5 May 1979: we are away at Wrexham needing to win and hope that one of the 3 teams above us - Brighton, Palace or Stoke - lose for us to go up. Brighton are away at Newcastle and take about 5,000 fans up. Loads of our fans who don’t travel down to Wrexham go to the game at Newcastle...

www.readytogo.net

This one has always been the most perfect study of how memory, sometimes willingly, deceives.

Me, my brother (Piltdown Man) and Dad were sat in the main stand at the side of the pitch amongst other Albion fans so we definitely had an allocation there.

 

[Eeyore]

Me, my brother (Piltdown Man) and Dad were sat in the main stand at the side of the pitch amongst other Albion fans so we definitely had an allocation there.

Yeah, see Post 40. It looks like it was a fairly full Leazes End (capacity 5,000) and others in the seats. So 5,000 was about right as reported at the time.

Not sure how Sunderland got their 12,000 in

 

[hoveboyslim]

I was always taken by, and amused by my dad's certainty over some rather trivial issues, and it certainly comforted him to have this memory archive. Every time we drove past a house on the Old Shoreham Road, my dad would point out that we nearly moved there in 1963, and that instead Peter O'Sullivan move there because the house was bought for players by The Albion. No idea if this is true, but it's a cracking yarn.

Is that the house on the corner of Upper Kingston Lane?

Not sure if you mean he moved there instead of your family, or something after, as he didn’t join Brighton until 1970.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Me, my brother (Piltdown Man) and Dad were sat in the main stand at the side of the pitch amongst other Albion fans so we definitely had an allocation there.

I remember a chap sat near us wearing a blue trilby hat towards the end of the game opening a bottle of fizz and handing out plastic cups.

 

[Dun Lurkin]

I was in the home end too. Staying with friends in Darlington, they got us the match tickets. I am not very demonstrative at the best of times so it was fairly easy to keep a low profile. What amazed me though was the intensity of the home supporters. Last game of the season, losing 3-0, and they were still cheering their team on. In the same scenario at Brighton, the stand would have been virtually empty!