My mother wasn't a football fan and my Dad was a Crystal Palace fan. They met in and married in the early 70s. He has an aircraft handler on the Ark Royal and had moved to Yeovilton airbase to work as a Naval Fireman, and my mother was a Wren. She had a few miscarriages and when I was on the way she wanted to move back to Sheffield to be closer to her family. The football lineage of my Sheffield family came from Shiregreen consisted of my Grandad a true old school Sheffield socialist who was heavily involved in the trade unions and his interests were Sheffield United and Yorkshire cricket, and i was weaned on tales of Jimmy Hagen and Doc Pace, and my mums 3 younger brothers who were all big Unitedite and all still are.
They ended up getting a council house at Angram Bank, High Green and I came kicking and screaming in to the world in November 1977, slap bang in to the middle of a Wednesday strong hold. I came under pressure from my peers to follow the herd and support Wednesday, and even got took to a game in the early 80s when I disclosed to the other kids at the match that i was a Unitedite and some of the bigger boys gave me a Chinese burn and tried to make me cry and make me become one of them. However my first United game came on a Tuesday night. I was taken to my Grandma and Grandads because Dad was at work, my sister had to go to the children's hospital with my Mum and it ruined Grandads plans as Grandma had bingo so instead of staying at home I got taken to the Lane and was hooked from that point.
1980s Angram Bank wasn't a place to be a Blade, the vast majority of the other kids were Wedneadayites and you would get kicked picked on for being a Blade, but I liked being different, I always knew that being a Blade meant that I knew that me and my fellow Blade mates were superior to the arrogant, posturing gruntlets, and that continued right through the rest of my school years and adolescence. Ecclesfield School was even worse as the gruntlets seemed to multiply and they got good for a while on the pitch, and it seemed like everyone jumped on the bandwagon. (Most of them haven't been to a game for years now) However I was always United daft from being a young boy, I was regularly given all sorts of different United merchandise from my Grandad and Uncles, programmes to be read inside out for days, scarves, hats, shirts and i was taken to games, and when they didn't take me my old man began to take an interest and take me as well, and even had a couple of years as being a season ticket holder in the 90s, although his heart was still with Crystal Palace and i often would go and watch Palace when I was taken to see my relatives down south or when they played up north, and the 1997 play off final has a lot of good memories as well as I took my Dad on the United end and it was a quality day with him, and treasured memories as he passed away 13 years ago.
I don't think that in a way you choose to support United, it is a mixture of circumstance and serendipity that you get chosen to be a Blade. Right from being little I was always going to be a Blade, and it has given me some great times. Most of my closest friendships are with fellow Blades, I've travelled all over the country and made a lot of friends through United. I've even got a mate who i grew up with, and whose family lived two doors down from mine at Shiregreen and our kids will be the 4th generation of Blades to be friends with each other. I met my best mate when I worked for the summer at Skegness Butlins, mainly because we got talking about the Blades as we was both massive United fans. There might have been some times when the football has been shite, but being able to go to a match, spend some quality time with my mates has given me more than the football sometimes has. It is feeling like being a part of a community and something special that has given me a lot over the years and I'm glad that I became a Blade, because I wouldn't change any of it.
