Longtime Ago People
In a world where family connections shape us, stories bridge generations. Many of us carry cherished memories of those who touched our lives, which I think deserve to be shared.
Each episode I hope will feature guests recounting touching, funny, and inspiring memories, celebrating the impact these individuals had on their lives. I aim to beautifully remember loved ones, offering listeners nostalgia, warmth, and connection.
I am looking for people to reflect on the impact of these relationships.
Longtime Ago People
Dad, My Memories: John’s Reflections on George Palmer
George Palmer - John 1966
father/son
Every family has its storytellers—the keepers of memories that might otherwise slip away. In this conversation, recorded on the sun-drenched Mediterranean coast of Spain, I spoke with my brother-in-law who, John, without even realising it, had found himself living out his father George’s dream.
Early on, a quiet revelation set the tone: “I just found out from my sister that I’m probably living his dream.” From there, the conversation unfolded gently, full of memories—family holidays to Cornwall where his dad hand-sewed wetsuits, an old air raid shelter reimagined as a music-filled bedroom, and the comfort his father George, found in the sound of a distant motorway, which reminded him of the sea.
A vivid portrait emerged of a man driven by creativity and curiosity. He once hang-glided off cliffs, built tennis ball machines before they were mainstream, developed photos in makeshift darkrooms, and turned everyday materials into tools of adventure. Through his son’s John’s recollections, we glimpsed a spirit who valued ingenuity as much as imagination—and passed down a musical legacy stretching from Johnny Cash to alternative country.
What would he make of smartphones and AI? John & I both believed he’d have embraced the possibilities, while staying true to his love for authentic sounds and hands-on crafting. That reflection led to a quietly profound moment: “The sad thing about life is that when people are no longer there, everything they ever thought or believed disappears too.”
And yet, by sharing stories like these, something vital is kept alive—not just memory, but meaning. As I sat there listening, I couldn’t help but wonder: what stories of your loved ones deserve to be remembered?
Have a story echoing through time? I’m listening—300 words or fewer.
Instagram @longtimeagopeople
"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."
We're listening to Miles from some long time ago Now. I'm in sunny Spain today and I'm with my brother-in-law, john John. Where are we in Spain? Okay, we are on the Mediterranean coast, commonly known as the Gold Coast. I hope we've got people wandering by. Yeah, we've got people walking by the Gold Coast, la Costa de Obrada, an hour away from Barcelona. And the weather today it's lovely. It's actually not as hot as it's been, but it's beautiful blue skies. Okay, and we're going to talk about your dad today.
Miles:Now, I did meet your dad. I met him just three times back in the 80s. What would your dad make of your life that you've built here in Spain? Actually, I just found out the day before yesterday from my sister that I'm probably living his dream. Okay, I mean, I didn't really know that, I hadn't sort of realized, but yeah, his dream was to be living on the coast, by the sea, and that's what I'm doing Now. As I said, I only met him three times and the one thing I remember was that he said he'd be happy if he could live and walk on the beach with a dog. Yeah, yeah, I just need the dog. Yeah, I've got the dog, but you had a family dog. Her name was Tina. She was a collie, a special brand of collie. It was a short-haired black and tan collie, not your typical lassie that everyone knows from the film.
Miles:Earliest memories of that dog I have from photographs black and white photographs on the Isle of Wight. She was a beautiful dog, yeah, and did you spend a lot of time? Yeah, I don't remember too much beach in those early days. I remember countryside with the dogs. My dad's always had dogs, but that particular family dog I think it was countryside used to take us up into the downs on the Isle of Wight and explore. Okay, so what's your earliest memory of your dad? I think we get our memories from photographs and I think You're not supposed to say that, because memories, memories everyone says oh, from maybe about three or four years old, but I don't know. I don't know if I have those memories, but I've seen photographs of us, as I said, out in the countryside with the dog, you know, with the family dog. I suppose Probably two different things. Really. Earliest memory would be, yeah, that being out in the countryside with the dog, and my fondest memory is a lot later, when I was a teenager going to London to try and find the Madness Information Bureau, which was the Madness fan club, which was somewhere in Kentish Town. You could find it easily today on Google, obviously, but we didn't have any maps there. We just knew it was up in London somewhere and we went on the tube and this was just the both of you and a girlfriend of his at the time. Okay, yeah, no problem, and we went searching for the Madness Information Service, which was a fan club. We didn't find it. I think we ended up in Camden Town, which is even better.
Miles:Okay, well, let's just stick with the music thing for a minute, because obviously I know that music is a very big part of your life. It is, yeah. Do you think that comes from your father? Yeah, it's his fault. Definitely. Tell us something about that. Earliest memories about musicny cash records at home. Perry como records for some reason. Wow, but yeah, johnny cash, elvis presley he looked a little bit like elvis. Yeah, he did. In some of those early photographs he's got a bit of a quiff. Yeah, um, dark hair, yeah, um.
Miles:Okay, so, going back to the music, so you, we found out recently that you had a song that you quite liked. That's one of your dad's favorites. Tell me a little bit about that. Uh, okay, john miles, yeah, john miles music, yes, did you know that was one of his favorite? Um, I, I didn't know it was one of his favorite songs, but I imagine like it was a long time ago, that's what. I think it was maybe late 70s, yeah, something like that. So I don't know if I've heard him ever play that song, but it's always been a song that I've enjoyed.
Miles:So did your dad like madness? Did he like the music of the 80s, or was he really just? No, I think he had to like it because I played it all the time and I told him the same way. He told me to listen to this and listen to that, and you're going to get something out of it if you actually listen to the words. I think he did that to me and I did the same to him. So he to me and I did the same to him. So he had to. He didn't hate them. No, my mum didn't like them that much. No, no, but all the sex pistols, but no, no, my dad appreciated that stuff. I mean, he was a bigger. I think he was a country music fan more than anything, and I am a huge what we would call nowadays alternative country fan.
Miles:Yeah, the roots are all back in sort of hank williams and you know those sort of bands that my dad used to listen to. How did he listen? Listen to it? Radio, record player yeah, he had a record player. I remember in Bethsham, the old house, there was like a corner, a huge corner cabinet built for music, with speakers, with a record deck, with a radio and underneath all the vinyl records in a cupboard underneath Elvis Presley, blue Hawaii, I think was one of the first vinyl records I actually took out and played myself, played yourself. Wow, on a regular player. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so was music on all the time as far as I remember.
Miles:Yeah, yeah, there was always music in the house, always music on, always something playing and stories of. They used to go to a place called the Ponderosa, which was like a country club on the Isle of Wight. I don. He used to have a wagon and six horses up on the roof, I remember it, and they had like jazz bands and things play there. My dad was a I don't know if he was a friend of he was called Kenny Ball and his jazz man, okay, and there's a story. I think it's me, I think my sister thinks it's her that Kenny Ball came home and actually played his clarinet over the cradle, you know where. I said it was me sleeping. My sister says she was there, so I don't know. You have to get her on here to talk about that.
Miles:So, moving on from music, tell me a little about this, this bunker bedroom that you had. Yeah, tell me a little, what was that all about? So it was, um, it was actually an air raid shelter that they used to build into these old houses. Yeah, um, it was like underneath the stairs, wow, and I think it must have been about 1970, 1980, something like that. I moved down there from my little bedroom upstairs into my bunker and painted one wall white, one wall black, one wall white to follow the two-tone, which was what I was into at the time. You know madness and the specials and all that sort of thing. So that was my little, uh, my little den, you know, daniel, bunker under the house, under the house, yeah, and I had my record player in there and, uh, it's where I could turn my music up as well Without bothering anyone. Okay, yeah, soundproof, soundproof, almost airproof, okay, so come, coming back to dad.
Miles:What about holidays? Did, yeah, holidays. I can remember a lot of trips to Cornwall, to the West Country. As I said, we used to live on an island but we used to go on holiday to the coast. I said before my dad was in love with the coast and you live on the coast. Now we live on the coast. Now we went on holiday to the coast Newquay, fishville Beach, places like that, st Ives, I think we visited when I was a kid the furthest, I feel to work with spain, which is where I ended up. Having lived in london, I moved to chora, molinos, which is where I met my wife, and now I still live in spain. So it's been like full, full circle, full circle.
Miles:Yeah, yeah, I think I went to trauma with my dad and my family when I was about seven years old, something like that, for the first time, to malaga. And how did you get that drive? No, we flew one of the very first. Uh, laker, well, they call those package tours, package holidays, and I know Freddie Lakers obviously must have died years and years ago, but it was the first all inclusive trips that they did from England to to Toronto. Yeah, before that, of course, we went to the olive oil? They did. Yeah, great place to go on holiday, by the way.
Miles:Anyone listening out there in Oregon or something yes, thank you for you people listening in oregon, so, uh, so that was the main sort of so again surfing and stuff like that. Was that down in cornwall, was that? Well, no, it started on the isle of wight, first of all. I mean, the isle of wight is a great place to surf, south west side of the island. You know compton bay, which my dad used to take. You see, he used to hang glide out there. He took me surfing there. I think that was the first place. And then dad used to take his suit, he used to hand glide out there. He took me surfing there. I think that was the first place. And then we used to go to Cornwall, to Newquay, to Fistula Beach.
Miles:Yeah, I started off with a little polystyrene, a little white polystyrene board, and I remember I had a wetsuit that was actually handmade by my dad. Yeah, I mean he put all the neoprene together. He was quite good, you know sewing and stuff like that, and he actually made me a bespoke wetsuit. I think I was like seven years old, you know, the only kid on the beach with a self-made you know, hand-made wetsuit. It was great, fantastic.
Miles:You mentioned hang gliding. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, I never tried it, but my dad was really into hang gliding, almost killed himself a couple of times, oh really, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's not an easy sport. He just liked to throw himself off cliffs and hills and things like that. Yeah, I was there a couple of times when he had a few crashes, but not the actual time when he went off and the wind. All of a sudden there was a gust of wind and it took him back and smashed him into the cliff and he sort of dropped 15 or 20 metres. Yeah, but he was lucky, he was all right. Yeah, he didn't hurt himself or anything like that. Yeah, he didn't hurt himself. Yes, it's a bit of a risky sport. I tried it, I think, on a small slope with a small hang glider once. But I've always wanted to fly Since then, I think I've always wanted to fly.
Miles:I think my dad had this thing about flying. He's always just wanted to get out there and be free. I suppose that's probably why he lived near Heathrow At the end. Yeah, I don't know if he was that happy about the end. Yeah, I don't know if he was that happy about the flight at the end of his garden. Actually I was there in that house and they did used to fly very, very close to the back garden.
Miles:I remember one of the one, the one times I said that I met him. I remember talking to him in his garden, in his house in staines, and one went over and I said to him, why do you live here? And he said the m25 sounds like the sea. Okay, and that's what he said to me. So he he said I love standing here. It sounds like the sea, it sounds like the beach when you hear the cars going by. That's about London. I think it's probably the furthest away that he's ever lived from the sea. I imagine, yeah, in his life. And then Walthamstow, yeah, very far Good stuff.
Miles:So he had a lampshade shop or something he did on the Isle of Wight, the back. He had like a little um workshop where they used to actually sew and put together these satin lampshades. I don't even get them anymore, you see them, but they're very rare nowadays. So he had, he had a couple of uh women in there actually cutting, shaping, sewing from scratch. Yeah, no, I mean he did the wire bending in the end, the welding the wires together to make the frames and then, uh, yeah, he was very good with his hands, very inventive. He was inventive coming onto that. So I my perception of him was he was a bit of a corrective spot. You know what I mean by corrective spot. He was the inventor for the film chili bang bang right. So your dad seemed to be a bit of an inventor.
Miles:Yes, tell us a little bit about some of the invented to do with yeah, um, okay, another photograph that comes to mind me I don't know how old I was, eight or nine standing next to a tennis ball machine. This must have been one of the first tennis ball machines ever made. It would have been like 1975, 66, 76., yeah, 74, 75. I was lucky enough to live opposite a tennis court and he put this tennis ball machine that used to shoot out tennis balls. You could change the height and the speed and everything. I mean it was an amazing idea. I don't know why he wasn't clever enough to get it patented and sell millions of them. You know, I don't think he was the first inventor of the tennis ball machine, but it was one of the very earliest ones.
Miles:I mean from there to links for the golf course. I don, one of the very earliest ones. I mean from there to links for the golf course. Yeah, I don't know if you've heard about this. No, no, tell me. But because, coming from the lampshade frames where he, he thought about this like he used to play golf as well. I mean, he did everything. He played caronet, hand gliding, surfing, played golf, road motorbikes. So another idea he had was these golf links to separate the green. And he thought about these, these white links. You see them all over the place. Now it's just bits of metal that are dipped in, uh, in plastic. He made those years and years ago. What else did he invent? Uh, these.
Miles:I suppose he was thinking very ecologically back in the day, because he made these bricks that you could use, that you could burn on a log fire instead of burning logs. It was like a paper mache of materials that burn. But what you had to do was he actually built a machine to compress all the material together. It was wet, okay, so it was like paper, wet paper with wood chips and things like that, and you had to put it in a press and squeeze it into blocks. But he Still invented a machine to press those blocks so you would see them outside of a garage now in the winter, the blocks. Yeah, he actually built the machine to do that. You know, he built a machine so that he could press these stuff probably loads of other things. I've forgotten about them.
Miles:If, if you could have one more conversation with him today, what would that be? Well, I don't know. I suppose it would start off with music. Yeah, it would have to start off with music, because that's something that would be our connection. I suppose I really don't know. It's a very, very good question. I don't know what. What do you think he would make of today? I mean, if we talk about We'll start with music, then we'll talk about technology, what then? We'll talk about technology? What would he think of music today? I'm sure he would find his niche. He would find something that he likes out of all the music there is today.
Miles:I'm not sure he would be so happy about AI creation, creating music and auto-tuning and all this sort of stuff, because I think he was a bit of a purist. His rock and roll was rock and roll, no technology involved whatsoever, although, having said that, I think he would also be into computers because he wanted to know about everything, so he would be into it. That comes on to my next question what would he make of mobile phones and photography? Well, because another memory from a picture is seeing my dad developing his own photographs in that garage that turned into my bedroom, in your bedroom, that air raid shelter that turned into my bedroom. He turned into your bedroom, that air raid shelter that turned into my bedroom. He had a darkroom in there, I think, with a machine for developing photographs. So I think he would have embraced technology just because he could do things with it.
Miles:Would he have a mobile phone?
Miles:Yeah, I think he would. He would have had to have one in the end. Would he have been one of those 80-year-olds using a mobile phone? I think he would have been. Yeah, I think he would have been. Yeah, and he would have found things to do with it. Maybe that you know, normal people wouldn't, I don't know. He would have. He would have. Yeah, definitely he was an inventor, tuned it somehow. Brilliant job.
Miles:No, but this is episode one. There will be another one. There will be another one, because this brings back the more you talk about these things, you just don't think about them on a daily basis. But the more you talk about photographs, you talk about memories, things come to you and I'm sure More stuff will play. This is sort of off the cuff, yeah.
Miles:So, yeah, maybe we'll come back at another time and I'll take the opportunity to thank miles for for doing this, because I think it's a great way for us to remember people you know, not just people who have died, but also people who are around. For sure it's anybody that's influenced your life. Um, everybody's got a story to tell and um, yeah, I think the sad thing about life is that, when people are no longer there, everything they ever thought believed has just disappeared, also disappears, yeah, and so it's good to keep that. It's a good way to keep it, good way to keep it alive. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna sign off now. So if you, if you could say something in spanish, just to say goodbye to other people, thank you.
