Well my first birds as a ten year old, were mainly stray from my grandads, but i do remember a black pigeon i got from blackpool, on a coach trip with the sunday school in 1987, i picked it up in the town, proper scrawny townie it was, (baby) my mum told me to put it down, and i said no way, i ran off into a building, mum ran after me, it was only the mens toilets i ran into!!!!! will never forget the look on my ,mums face, or indeed the blokes in there!!!! ;D ;D. i fetched the bird home, had no box!! it went in and out no problem, had it nearly a year, then 1 day i took it training on my wheelbarrow with the other, must have been all of half a mile!!! never saw her again.
then i started again in 2005 with wildermeerch, from albert austin from winsford, still have 1 of the originals now a chq w/f cock called "sam"