We all have wonderful memories of Mike, and mine are from those early days of childhood.  I was about 3 and Mike 1, when he came to live in Cwrt Ty-mynydd in Radyr.  Our mums became friends and so did we. Mike was my first friend.  One of the early memories was that Mike loved his dummies. I never understood why,  being a thumb sucker myself, but I do remember when those dummy fairies threatened to take those dummies away from Mike and hide them in Castle Coch, Mike was determined that they were not going to take all of them. He would smile a mischievous grin and say that he would keep one hidden in secret….That cheeky grin stayed with Mike; it never left him. Eventually, they did all go and thanks to you, Mike, it was the same little trick that I played on my own children years later, when it was time for them to grow up a little.
 
We were best friends back during the 70s balmy hot summers. Our mums would always be popping over each other’s houses for coffee and we would play upstairs in Mike’s room.  Mike had two rooms.. two! A playroom with a huge wigwam in the middle of it, what a brilliant den, and his bedroom. I remember Mike got the Grease album when it first came out and we would jump up and down on his bed (with the jungle book bedding...so cool) to every song.  Why did our mums not appreciate that was dancing? We were obviously Danny and Sandy, but apparently we were making too much noise.   I realise that Mike may lose some of his“rock coolness” by me saying that he did like Grease… but he did!
 
We would always be going over each other’s houses for tea….always sausage and chips or fish fingers and chips…not gourmet, but always tasty.  Mike would  ask my mum for those really thin cut potato chips, with lots of “must have” tomato sauce…that went on everything.  I liked it when Mike came to tea because my mum would make the thin crispy chips.
 
Most of the time we played outside, in the grounds around Cwrt Ty-Myndd.  All of the kids would play mob, British bulldogs, stuck in the mud, or football by the garages. We rarely argued, but there was the one time Mike had a little lorry that when you pulled the wheels back and let go, the lorry would roll forward by itself… a lovely toy until Mike decided it would be fun to let it roll in my hair.   My long hair got wrapped up in the wheels of the lorry and created a huge knot with a toy lorry hanging out of a mess of long hair. Needless to say I was in tears and Mike fled back to his house. However, after a bit of slow unravelling and I think some scissor work, the lorry was set free and we both forgot all about it, back friends again.
 
Everyday I would call on Mike to come out and play or Mike would knock on my window to see if I was coming out. If I called too early Rose would say….”Mike’s having his bath, he’ll be out later”… at the end of the day in the evening Rose would shout “Michael …. Where you too?” from her door step.  Mike would rush around the corner to see his mum with his hand up saying “Five more minutes mum….just five more”. After at least 10 or 15 minutes,  Rose would be back at the door “Michael, time for your bath”… I never quite understood why Mike needed more baths than the rest of us, but he used to always beg for another five more minutes of playing out.  There would be times that Mike would run away so as not to go in, but Rose always caught him and it was at that time we all knew that Mike wouldn’t be coming back out, probably time for us to go back in too.
 
One very warm summer afternoon, Mike and I thought it was about time the ice cream man should have been around, it was way too hot, the grass was all yellow and dusty, and it was too hot to play out much. So, we asked our mums (sun bathing on the green) if we could go and find the ice cream man.  Our mums thought that we were going to go down to the bottom of the road, by the Cwrt Ty-Mynydd sign, to look out for the ice cream man and gave us 50p each.  Mike and I however thought that this was our chance to wander around Radyr clutching our coins looking for the ice cream man.  We were 5 and 7 at the time, but we knew Radyr and knew where we were going.  We wandered down the road, down Maes-yr-awel, up past Radyr primary school and along Windsor Avenue debating what we were going to have, ….ice cream with a flake, a screwball with the bubble gum at the bottom, a cider lolly (because those of course made you drunk) or the usual fab or zoom lollies which were a firm favourite.  Once we walked back down onto Heol Isaf, my mum in her car pulled alongside us.  The door flung open and ….”get in this car!”, a look of anger and probably relief on her face, but I didn’t recognise that at the time.  Straight away Mike and I knew we were in trouble…. Heads down sat in the back of my mums car, mum got Rose.  Mike had it worse than me, I think.  Such a telling off in the back of the car, “Don’t you make me worry like that, ….we thought you were lost or taken!”. I remember sniffling through tears, as all we were doing was trying to find the ice cream man!  We were not allowed out for the rest of the day, but the next day I called on Mike and everything was fine again….we always waited for the ice cream man from then on.
 
We had lovely times as children and it was such a carefree time.  Even though you moved away, our mums still kept in touch and I always found out what was happening in Mike’s life.   Goodbye my old friend, I will always remember those days when it was laughter and smiles all day. Love Tasha xx