Russ Sykes (27/10/07)

This book, has been… around… all my life, as long as I can ever remember. Ahm… I think it were printed shortly after World War II, at least that’s when it sort of finishes. And er, me father and meself we shared the same interests and same hobbies, which all revolved around military, ahm… military subjects. And, this book is just about ahm… ‘bout the army in general, er, and more specifically about the uniforms and everything. But like in the back… it’s got a list of every regiment in the British Army of that time, and ahm… we’ve marked off, (‘cos we used to collect cap badges), and we’ve marked off next to each regiment the cap badges that we’ve actually collected. And er, as you can see we’ve got just about every one of them there. An’… so… ahm as I say we were, I were very, very close to me dad, and ahm, he, when he died I were only nineteen, and ahm apart from me memories, all I were left wi’ were this book. And, er, every time I look in it (I still ‘ave a look through) an’ every time I look in it, er, just reminds me of me dad. And he’s illustrated it on a few pages an’ he’s written sort ‘o little notes in it, an’ y’know, an’ it all just brings me dad back t’me. And, it’s very precious to me. And ahm… even through all the hard times I’ve had in me life where I’ve lived out on the streets and such, I’ve never lost it, I’ve, it’s always, I’ve always managed t’keep hold of it. And er, as I say it’s very precious, and ahm, obviously, I’ll pass it on to one of me kids, probably me eldest son, who’s actually named after me father anyway so… And ahm, y’know, this is from your grandad, the grandad that he never knew. And er, hopefully it’ll stay in the family like, well… forever.

Note: Russ Sykes contributed twice to the Showing: Expectations exhibition. During Week Three of the project Russ talked about his life experiences in a short documentary film. He later returned to East Street Arts during Week Five of the project to contribute [his] Book, which he talks about in this transcript.