Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Padding- Daily Writing – June26

Boxed quilted jacket, a green anorak. Walking to school on crisp winter mornings where the puddles had frozen over, stepping on the puddles and hearing the ice crack. Seeing the rainbow colours of petrol that had leaked form a leaded fuel tank. The smell of leaded car exhausts purring while waiting to exit the dirt road with frosted rocks form the breath of overnight stars. Waiting to cross the Kings Ride, snuggled up safe in the anorak with its pillows of padding. Safety, protection, insulation against the hard cold world. The road icy as I cross between drifts of traffic.

The first lesson is music and singing. All of us in 2A crowded into a room adorned with maps of the world in plastic topographical correctness. All the mountains of Europe staring and pointing out from the wall like molehills. Doe, Re Mi, Far, So La Tee Doe – the Solfage method as I later come to understand. Why is it so easy to do and why is the rest of life so hard?

English history the conquest of the Romans – trips to Fishbourne in a big diesel bus chugging along dual carriage motorways and eating jam sandwiches for lunch – all squishy and mushy by lunchtime – the jam stuck between a padding of hand cut leaves of bread. Roman ruins, the mosaics now covered by a layer of glass instead of a layer of dirt. Implements, tools and coins from the Roman era padded from time by layers of dirt. Shards of pottery, entire jugs as tall as me, a dome of light above that echoes with our 8 year old voices…..