Title
'You were in this sort of ritual in a way': David Crocker on running habits, strange experiences, and chance encounters.
Subject
David Crocker
Description
An excerpt of an oral history recording with David Crocker. David speaks about the pleasure and benefits he derived from his early morning runs in Folkestone, as well as some of the strange and surreal encounters he experienced along the way. (Transcript attached.)
Creator
Michael Romyn
Source
David Crocker Oral History Recording
Publisher
Kent's Sporting Memories
Date
Interview recorded on 31 January, 2020
Contributor
David Crocker
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
David Crocker Oral History Recording; David Crocker Oral History Summary
Format
MP3 (3:49); Microsoft Word Document
Language
English
Type
Sound Recording; Typed Transcript
Identifier
David Crocker
Transcription
Kent’s Sporting Memories Oral History Transcript (Excerpt)
Interviewee: David Crocker
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 31 January, 2020
Location: Folkestone Care Centre, Kent.
Recording Time: 48:14 – 55:13
Michael Romyn: Is there anything that really stands out from your running career?
David Crocker: Well all of it, I enjoyed all of it actually. It’s quite nice when you went running out – because I used to do virtually the same route and you see the same people every day, you know, and you used to wave to the people, the girls walking their dogs, you were in this sort of ritual in a way, quite good. As I say, you saw the places as they should be seen, when there’s nobody about and it’s a beautiful sunny morning, suns coming up. It’s weird, I’ve had a couple of things happen to me, I was running up – in the winter especially – I was running up on the Leas, do you know the Leas in Folkestone? There’s foxes there, down there in the undergrowth, and sometimes it was like running through the set of Dracula, because it was like these wolves howling, I thought they was wolves, they were foxes, howling, you know, ‘Oh my God, I could be in trouble here with these foxes!’ And you used to get funny things happen to you. One thing that happened to me – do you know Audrey Hepburn? She was here as a child. She was born in Holland, I think it was Holland, but she moved from there to here at the start of the war and, so she had an affinity with Folkestone because she used to stay with someone at the top of the Leas. And I was running one morning, just me and her, and she was walking the dog up the top of the Leas. She said hello to me – my biggest regret, because I was quite a fan of hers, I didn’t stop and talk to her! I had the chance to but I didn’t. I’m sure she would talk to me if I’d have asked.
MR: Unbelievable! So you used to get up at three o’clock in the morning?
DC: In the summer. Because I’m not a very good sleeper, I never slept well at night, you know. I used to sleep in, sort of a bit on and off. So I thought ‘Oh I’m not going to stay here, I’ll just get up and go out.’ Go at three and be back at half past four and it was a good start to the day then, you’ve got the whole day ahead of you, you know, and you feel you’ve done your running so that’s out the way, so it was good.
MR: This was before work?
DC: Yeah. Well more so when I retired. I didn’t go running before I went to work, I used to do it at lunchtime at work. No, when I was retired, I was retired at 54, but again I had quite a few funny things happen. I’d be running on a Saturday morning and I’d be running, say, about half past five in the morning and all these kids were coming home from the nightclubs. And I always remember I was running down the road and I saw this lot they were shouting and I thought ‘God, I’m going to be in trouble here’, you know, ‘these kids are going to start something on’, and I ran towards them and I thought well I better keep going, if I have to I’ll just run through them, and they said ‘Excuse me sir, can you tell me if McDonalds is open?’ There’s me expecting trouble and I didn’t get it yeah, it’s funny some of things that happen to you. I had a few nasty moments, I had a few falls at times. Come home with your knees bleeding and – one time I got attacked by a seagull, and I come home and my wife was going to call an ambulance because I had blood pouring down my head. Because when they mate and have chicks they are very vicious, seagulls, they do attack if you get near their chicks. And I think afterwards, I was running by a garden and I think there must have been a chick on the other side, and they’d swoop at you like that. They do it anyway, even if you’re not near their chicks. It’s quite frightening the way they swoop at you, and this one must have just caught the top of my head with its – when my son in law came down, because he’s a first aider, he said ‘it’s alright, it’s not that deep. It’s just bleeding because it’s your head’. My son thought it was so funny, he went out a couple of weeks later and he had the same thing happen to him!
--Ends--
Interviewee: David Crocker
Interviewer: Michael Romyn
Date: 31 January, 2020
Location: Folkestone Care Centre, Kent.
Recording Time: 48:14 – 55:13
Michael Romyn: Is there anything that really stands out from your running career?
David Crocker: Well all of it, I enjoyed all of it actually. It’s quite nice when you went running out – because I used to do virtually the same route and you see the same people every day, you know, and you used to wave to the people, the girls walking their dogs, you were in this sort of ritual in a way, quite good. As I say, you saw the places as they should be seen, when there’s nobody about and it’s a beautiful sunny morning, suns coming up. It’s weird, I’ve had a couple of things happen to me, I was running up – in the winter especially – I was running up on the Leas, do you know the Leas in Folkestone? There’s foxes there, down there in the undergrowth, and sometimes it was like running through the set of Dracula, because it was like these wolves howling, I thought they was wolves, they were foxes, howling, you know, ‘Oh my God, I could be in trouble here with these foxes!’ And you used to get funny things happen to you. One thing that happened to me – do you know Audrey Hepburn? She was here as a child. She was born in Holland, I think it was Holland, but she moved from there to here at the start of the war and, so she had an affinity with Folkestone because she used to stay with someone at the top of the Leas. And I was running one morning, just me and her, and she was walking the dog up the top of the Leas. She said hello to me – my biggest regret, because I was quite a fan of hers, I didn’t stop and talk to her! I had the chance to but I didn’t. I’m sure she would talk to me if I’d have asked.
MR: Unbelievable! So you used to get up at three o’clock in the morning?
DC: In the summer. Because I’m not a very good sleeper, I never slept well at night, you know. I used to sleep in, sort of a bit on and off. So I thought ‘Oh I’m not going to stay here, I’ll just get up and go out.’ Go at three and be back at half past four and it was a good start to the day then, you’ve got the whole day ahead of you, you know, and you feel you’ve done your running so that’s out the way, so it was good.
MR: This was before work?
DC: Yeah. Well more so when I retired. I didn’t go running before I went to work, I used to do it at lunchtime at work. No, when I was retired, I was retired at 54, but again I had quite a few funny things happen. I’d be running on a Saturday morning and I’d be running, say, about half past five in the morning and all these kids were coming home from the nightclubs. And I always remember I was running down the road and I saw this lot they were shouting and I thought ‘God, I’m going to be in trouble here’, you know, ‘these kids are going to start something on’, and I ran towards them and I thought well I better keep going, if I have to I’ll just run through them, and they said ‘Excuse me sir, can you tell me if McDonalds is open?’ There’s me expecting trouble and I didn’t get it yeah, it’s funny some of things that happen to you. I had a few nasty moments, I had a few falls at times. Come home with your knees bleeding and – one time I got attacked by a seagull, and I come home and my wife was going to call an ambulance because I had blood pouring down my head. Because when they mate and have chicks they are very vicious, seagulls, they do attack if you get near their chicks. And I think afterwards, I was running by a garden and I think there must have been a chick on the other side, and they’d swoop at you like that. They do it anyway, even if you’re not near their chicks. It’s quite frightening the way they swoop at you, and this one must have just caught the top of my head with its – when my son in law came down, because he’s a first aider, he said ‘it’s alright, it’s not that deep. It’s just bleeding because it’s your head’. My son thought it was so funny, he went out a couple of weeks later and he had the same thing happen to him!
--Ends--