8 years old, Christmas morning & having managed to stay in bed till the set curfew of 7AM (no earlier or he won't have been) I rushed downstairs to see what Santa had delivered.
Pillow cases under the tree were sitting there for my older brother & me. I don't recall what my other presents were that year, but there would have been a board game, an apple, an orange and a bag of chocolate coins for certain.
After enjoying the traditional routine of exchanging presents with my parents, they in turn handing parcels to us from Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles our morning was then filled playing with the toys & games.
After Christmas dinner of Turkey along with sausages wrapped in bacon (the best bit) my mother appeared with one extra gift for each of the family. Mine was an A4 sized brown envelope. It didn't look all that interesting to an excitable 8 year old if truth be told.
As each of the family opened their little gift in turn, I was left till last to unveil what I'd got.
What the envelope contained was a letter from the wonderful Daphne Biggs, who amongst many roles at Loftus Road, ran the Junior supporters club. I was already a junior R, though trips to see my team were limited to seeing them whenever they played nearby at Ayresome Park. So why was Daphne writing to me?
What fell out of the envelope with the letter was the BEST present EVER. A signed squad photo. What a squad it was too, packed with English & Scottish internationals- I gazed at all the signatures and checked each one, searching for THAT special one.
Gerry Francis, Phil Parkes, Don Givens, Frank McLintock, Dave Thomas, Dave Clement, Don Masson, Dave Webb, Ian Gillard
And there it was. STAN BOWLES! Stan had actually signed my Xmas present!! Stan had sent me a Xmas present!!!!!
My day was made and all these years on the photo remains a treasured possession. It takes me back to precious family xmas memories and of course, fantastic football memories.
The 75/76 QPR squad, now where did they finish that season......?!
Tony Jameson-Allen
Director
Sporting Memories Network
Memory added on December 20, 2012
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