Wrong place, wrong time

I take it everyone knows the saying "wrong place, wrong time" right?

Well, let me tell you a story involving me many years ago, that still has an affect on my life today. Being tall for my age had some advantages and some disadvantages, and on this occasion it was a disadvantage.

The area I grew up in was pretty bad. The whole housing estate was bulldozed and rebuilt with new houses,
which meant that alot of the trouble makers left to be rehoused somewhere else. After all this, the area became alot nicer to be around. Before this it was a problem area for car theft and house burglaries, mostly cars being taken for joy rides or stolen to order.

I remember a time when I was out with my family visiting my Nan, on the way home we got to the end of our road and people were standing around looking into someones front garden. A car had been stolen, the driver had lost control and smashed into the house. Luckily enough the house was empty at the time so no one was hurt. Things liked this happened on a regular basis. You would see cars that had been left on the side of the road where they had broken down. The people who owned them would just leave them there and get newer cars to drive around in.
So because of this alot of kids would play in the abandoned cars and no one would be bothered as the cars were junk. So this would happen until one day they would just disappear.

Anyways, now I've sort of "set the scene" for you, onto the day in question...

This was some years later, I was older but still in school. I was out with some friends messing around, playing football and doing silly things that kids do. We saw a car sitting, looking like it should be in the scrap yard. Thinking back to when the cars were abandoned on the estate, we went over to look inside the car.

The car was in a sorry state as most of the interior had been ripped out - not taken out! The outside of the car was just as bad. The panels had dents and glass was missing. So we were really thinking that the car was going to the big scrap heap in the sky.

My friend sat in the drivers seat as this was the only seat left in the car. Some of my friends walked off and really I should have left with them, but for some reason I just stopped where I was standing by the drivers door looking into the car.

As we were speaking to each other I felt sting in my lower back but I couldn't work out what it was, as I turned around to see what was happening I saw a man standing there with a big block of wood, taking aim at me trying beat me with the object he was holding. Some how I managed to run away without being hit again.

My friends who saw it happening said to me afterwards that the man just came running out of the shadows and starting hitting me until I ran off. My friends thought it might have been his car and thought that we were trying to steel it, but no the man had nothing to do with the car. He was just someone looking for trouble and came across us standing there by the car. He attacked me because he saw I was the tallest, I think he thought I was older than what I was.

A woman saw what had happen and phoned the Police. They came and he was arrested, went to court and got a community service order. So really he was given a slap on the wrist and sent on his way to continue on with his life, while I, on the other hand, have suffered with back problems ever since.

Its been 21 years since that happened and I still have days where my back plays up if I bend down for to long, or move in a funny position. I know when I have to stop because if I don't my back gives out and I'm stuck in bed for a couple of days.

It saddens me to think that that I still have trouble from that day and yet the person who caused it is walking around scott free and most likely doesn't remember doing it. So, just goes to show how being in the wrong place, at the wrong time can have an impact on your life.