The Vicar - John 1958

father/son

“The Longtime-Ago-Person is Probably Me”

When I sit down with John, I’m taken straight into a childhood that feels almost impossible now. He grew up in a vicarage on the edge of Dartmoor, the kind of place where a boy could walk out after breakfast, vanish for the entire day, and nobody thought to worry — partly because there wasn’t a phone to reach for. As we talk through his own mind map of longtime ago people, the memories return with astonishing clarity: the huge lawn and orchard, ponies on the moor, bikes as transport, and the absolute normality of knocking on a stranger’s door for water and maybe an apple.

Being a vicar’s son in a small Devon village gives the story a unique texture. Sundays meant church, whether he liked it or not, sitting among older parishioners while his dad — the most recognisable man in the community — did the work of keeping people connected. John reflects on faith, on the tension between everyday humanity and spiritual authority, and on how those early years shaped his sense of community, care and responsibility.

Then come the stories that make rural 1960s Britain feel wonderfully alive: open fires that smoked out the room, ice on the inside of the windows, hot water bottles, the post office that doubled as a sweet shop, returnable bottles swapped for treats, and the pub hatch where children bought sweets — or sometimes just knocked and ran. John talks about camping with his younger siblings in a farmer’s field, a whole day spent wandering in search of an osprey that never appeared, and a perfect culture clash when teenage him played Black Sabbath’s Paranoid to his vicar father just to see the reaction.

If you love British nostalgia, Dartmoor history, village life, or the bigger question of what childhood freedom does to a person, this episode will speak to you. Hit play, share it with someone who grew up pre‑mobile, and leave a review telling us what you miss most about the analogue days.

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