Joey. Deacon. Joey Deacon. Two small words. Two small words with enormous historical clout. If you are between the ages of 25-35, and were educated in the U.K. then there is a good chance that you may remember the mighty J.D. Joey was brought to the forefront of the collective playground psyche by that proud and upstanding organ of childrens television `Blue Peter`. It was the 1981 and the International Year of The Disabled, `Blue Peter` had chosen the disabled as the target for their annual fund raising efforts - a worthy choice I`m sure you`ll all agree. The catalyst of the appeal was of course your friend and mine, Joey Deacon. However, `Blue Peter` failed to take into account the underlying sense of spite and general malevolence that is present in 99.9% of all kids when faced with someone who is a bit `different`. Within twenty four hours playgrounds and classrooms the length and breadth of the country rang out to the cries of: `Deeeaaaconnn!` `Joey!` `Spazmo!` `Spaccy!` Often these shouts were accompanied by quite breath taking impersonations of Mr. Deacon`s contorted face, claw like waving of hands, his cheery grunting and occasionally an ad-libbed stumbling walk from the more advanced `Deaconists`, of course the stumbling walk was pure fiction as Joey was always safe within the confines of his trusty wheelchair. Some may argue that this page is in bad taste - well stop reading and never darken the door of SpleeN! again; but the point that`s being made here is about harking back to more innocent times, before political correctness was a twinkling in the eyes of the marketing men, when you could have a laugh at the misfortune of others without being judged too harshly. Joey Deacon forms part of the very glue that holds together the memories of a certain age group, things like rounders, The Empire Strikes Back, Ethiopian/Cambodian jokes and discovering wanking. Memories are precious things and should be cherished, hopefully this page has brought some of yours flooding back; even if it`s just being called a `Deacon` for letting in a goal during a five-a-side game or acting as the class `Joey` during a particularly boring maths class.
