Second/Third generation exiles?

Chicago Green · Jul 2, 2020

Looking at the 'first away game' thread and it got me thinking...
I was wondering how many on here are second or even third generation exiles and have never lived in the southwest?

I'm third generation, as my grandfather moved up from Saltash after the war, and both my dad and I grew up in London and Sussex respectively as green blooded Argyle fans.

Any of you who are second or third generation will know what it means to grow up as the solitary Argyle fan in your area or school. You will have been to ten times more away games than home games, with a few pilgrimages down to HP each season to see the odd family member and buy as much as you can carry in the club shop. You may be used to sitting on the Paddington train in the dark for hours reading the programme cover to cover on your way back from a 'home game'. You will end up chewing the ear off any EFL fan because they are the closest thing you have to anyone who knows the slightest thing about Argyle (You can get a good 20 minutes of chat if you can find a player or manager that has been at both clubs!). You will get excited when you see a glimse of a green and white scarf on the local high street, only for your heart to sink when after following the bloke into WHSmith you see it's actually a Celtic scarf. It can actually feel a bit strange when you go to a game and are surrounded by hundreds or thousands of Argyle fans.

People always find it odd that I go to the football on my own, until I explain that growing up Argyle mad in rural East Sussex, there's not many folk who fancy a round trip to Darlington in a day just to watch Argyle lump it around in the mud. While some think of it as cruel to burden a child with a love of Argyle without even coming from the area, I have always been so grateful that I was raised an Argyle fan, and the moments I have experienced and places I've visited make me so glad I was not a Sky watching Man U/Arsenal/Spurs/Chelsea fan like all those I grew up around. The lessons you learn about humility and enjoying the highs and enduring the lows cannot be matched by the dull existence of being a fan of a 'big club'. Now in Chicago, we're expecting a son any day now and if he is into football, he'll (hopefully) be a 4th generation exile, even further from Plymouth.

See you on the 18:16 from platform 7!

twist of lime · Jul 2, 2020

Great post Chicago Green

Just got my 16 year old Argyle mad son to read this and he relates to it all (apart from Paddington train....which he wants to experience soon :greensmile: )

He's grown up in Hertfordshire and loves the fact we get to regular away games while all his mates follow prem teams that they never see "live".

Dare I say it, supporting Argyle gives you great life skills......

PS it's a gamble but you mention you have a son on the way.... My sons middle name is Argyle so it turned out a match made in heaven

COYG

Barrie Davis · Jul 2, 2020

I moved away from Plymouth in 1970 and lived in Torquay, South Wimbledon (where the kids were born in the late seventies), Bristol, Harrogate and Newbury. Introduced the boys to Argyle at Elm Park, Reading in the mid-Eighties. With the youngest, the experience fell on stoney ground but the elder one kept his affiliation through college in Kent, work in London, Exeter and then through 10 years in Australia. He's now back and coming up to 44 years old, living in Tiverton. He's never lived in Plymouth. Still as green as ever.

Voice of Reason · Jul 2, 2020

Great post.

My father left Laira in 1966 as an 18yo, I came along in 74, got taken to Roots Hall in 79 as my Argyle debut. Lived in numerous counties but never in the South West.

Seen Argyle at over 100 different venues, it's a 500 mile round trip for a home game which I do 4 or 5 times a season, but away games are my core fix. Very proudly my son has shunned all the Premier League hype and is Argyle mad and has grand plans to live or work in Plymouth when the time comes.
I never tire of explaining "Why Argyle?" When bemused locals work out what im wearing, I dare say Argyle is in the blood and hopefully a good few years away, grandkids will be green, even if they are hundreds of miles away

MickyD · Jul 2, 2020

My son, now 25, has never lived in Plymouth (nor even come closer than the A38 on the way to Cornwall/Eden Project) yet his middle name is Argyle. I couldn't believe that my wife agreed!

Taft · Jul 2, 2020

Loved the OP!

It did a great job of summed up the experience of having never lived within 150 miles of Plymouth yet loving the Argyle.

Are we reverse glory hunters?

There were relatively few (well none) Argyle fans at school in Warwickshire and then Oxfordshire. Everyone else supported Liverpool or United. I was always the only kid wearing green at games.

8-10 aways and a couple of homes a season has been and remains the standard fare since 1980.

Travelling to and watching are still the best way for me to spend time with my (Plymouth born) dad and sometimes my brother, while the internet has meant that I’ve met a couple of greens local to me. I’ve also got really good at persuading football-mad friends and sometimes even clients that support the other team to come to home or away games on corporate trips (hoping that Oxford stay down for that reason).

It’s a bit odd feeling so passionate about the Argyle but not quite one of the Plymouth gang (and having a different accent). Wouldn’t have it any other way though.

PL2 3DQ · Jul 2, 2020

Great post Chicago Green.

Fans living in or near Plymouth can take supporting Argyle for granted, whereas it must take a lot of dedication for exiles to keep supporting the club when there are no other Greens around, especially in the days before the internet. It would have been so easy to drift away or take an interest in the local team.

The internet and social media has really brought exiled fans even closer to the club and closer to other fans.

landons forehead · Jul 3, 2020

I grew up in SW London, Kingston area, but born to a Janner mother. Trips each year to Brentford (including the 7-0), Wycombe (including the relegation in 94/95), Kingstonian, Staines, Leyton Orient etc were the only times I usually got to see Argyle, with an occasional home game when we came down on holiday.

I was the only Argyle fan at my school, which was full of Chelsea and Brentford fans, but weirdly there was a Torquay fan there!

Now living the dream having moved to Plimuff in 2006.

Sam Phillips · Jul 3, 2020

Great post, enjoyed reading these.

Greendawe · Jul 3, 2020

We are now in to our fourth generation of exiles covering 90 years. My father left Saltash in the 1930s and ever since then the family have been in exile mainly in London and the South East. Dad would tell me stories of glorious Argyle victories in London fixtures in that decade including at Spurs with Sammy Black and Jack Leslie. He then gave me the bug in the early 1950s, the time of Jumbo Chisholm's promotion team who remain my top Argyle heroes.
Then I passed the bug on to my son who went with me to the FA Cup semi final at Villa Park and many London fixtures, sometimes with Michael Foot who quite by chance I was working for as his private secretary in the Department of Employment in the 1970s. And my son in turn has passed it on to my three grandsons who join the two of us at matches in London and the South East. Our main ambition now is to see Argyle win at Gillingham!

I think there is something special about being an exile at away fixtures surrounded by a vociferous minority in the crowd. And for those of us who mainly watch away matches a victory is something rare and very special. It can have a big effect on young grandchildren. That includes one of mine who was sent to his primary school headteacher about the language he had been using trying out words he had heard for the first time at an away match at Millwall the previous Saturday.

So on we go possibly to a centenary of Argyle exile support - if I last that long!

Ted · Jul 3, 2020

Indeed this is me, and I can relate to a lot from the OP.

School for me was good, especially when we stuffed Forest at the City Ground the year they were eventually relegated.
That being said my recollection of that day is somewhat blurred :lol:

I am sure ponty can vouch!!

My lads are 4 and 7 now and will tell anyone their favourite team is Plymouth Argyle. Though the eldest has said he wants to go and watch Forest because of his friends.

They've only ever seen Argyle win so I'll pick a must win game to take them too next!

Princerock · Jul 3, 2020

I'm a first generation Devonport born green.....but I must admit that having taken my son to Charlton when he was nine with his mate... the outcome 40 years later is... that the second and third generation of my family are Charlton season ticket holders....they have no connection to the W Country at all other than through me.....and we do all live in their catchment area of NW Kent.....good friendly club that revived from near death and have a good ground at the Valley.

sussex green · Jul 3, 2020

Lived in West Sussex my whole life, my old man moved up from Cornwall in his late teens and settled up here with my mum, was lucky enough growing up that he was football mad and a die hard argyle fan that has travelled up and down the country for decades, was a mascot when I was 5 and since then been argyle mad myself, never lived closer than 3 and half hours away but still get in as many home and away games as I can, my dad still does atleast 20-25 a season

Luscomio · Jul 3, 2020

I'm a 2nd Generation Exile living in Essex and get to more away games than home. Favourite Away day is Dagenham as it's only 5 mins away. However I did live in Plymouth for 3 years (I went to uni there) - the main reason was to watch the football though.

Winchelsea Green · Jul 3, 2020

Thanks so much CG for raising this.

I still feel slightly out of it when going to Plymouth as I've never lived there and have to ask basic questions all the time. Friends dropped jokes about "Swilly" for ages before I realised it was a place. True story.

So - yet another Sussex kid as the only Argyle fan in their comprehensive in the late 70's, converted to the true path by my exiled stepfather (which sounds like a Disney movie, but really wasn't). As we always stood with the home fans "to avoid trouble" the only Argyle fans I knew were family, until I met X-Isle sometime in the late 80's, Worthing Green in the early 90's and the rest of the Sussex Greens in 2000. We've been friends ever since.

Supporting Argyle from afar hasn't always been easy, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Mike :scarf:

Second/Third generation exiles?

Chicago Green

twist of lime

Barrie Davis

Voice of Reason

MickyD

Taft

Administrator

PL2 3DQ

Site Owner

landons forehead

Sam Phillips

Guest

Greendawe

Ted

Princerock

sussex green

Luscomio

Winchelsea Green