Thirty years or so after my single year in further education, I was in touch with absolutely no one from those few distant, but undoubtedly significant months.
With the advent of social media, I was able to get back in touch with a couple of friends, but I was more than a little surprised, when Ruth got in touch…
I think it was around 2012 (it was certainly on or around 14 February) when I wrote a Valentine’s Day blog, and related the story about receiving a card that contained a hand-written poem – one of five cards I received back in ’83 (I don’t think I received a total of five in the subsequent decade!).
Anyway, I was fairly sure I knew who had sent the card in question and was telling Ruth that evening, when she suddenly started to recite the poem…
I was never the quickest on the uptake, but by my standards I clicked fairly quickly that the sender was in fact the young lady walking next to me. Ruth found the situation as funny as I found it mortifying!
We had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a few weeks at the back end of the previous term, but that came to rather an abrupt end when I was dumped after the Christmas holidays – not the usual set of circumstances for receiving a Valentine’s card … in my limited experience.
We started going out again … I got dumped again … not a massive deal because we were far better as simply friends; but I played on the double-dumping in the blog, safe in the knowledge there couldn’t be any comeback…
Oh but there could!
Ruth had somehow seen the post, read the blog, and left a reply – and once the initial shock was over (and it was a much bigger shock than the card revelation), I must admit it was wonderful to hear from her. We have remained in touch ever since; and she even had a photo of the two of us together in the Halls of Residence, the only picture I have from those days.
When Ruth said she was going to be coming up to this part of the world, it was the perfect opportunity to invite her over and catch up on old times in person.
I’ve said before that however well you knew someone from your teenage years, the passage of time essentially means you become different people … practically strangers; and I was certainly nervous when Ruth’s car pulled up outside our house.
I needn’t have worried though. It was so lovely to see Ruth, to introduce her to Elaine and to chat through what we could remember from the months we spent in Halls, as well as hearing about everything that has happened since. The only disappointment was that she was en route to see her brother and couldn’t stay long enough for me to cook a proper meal – because as well as being rubbish at poetry, the Richard she knew could barely heat up a tin of beans!
With the advent of social media, I was able to get back in touch with a couple of friends, but I was more than a little surprised, when Ruth got in touch…
I think it was around 2012 (it was certainly on or around 14 February) when I wrote a Valentine’s Day blog, and related the story about receiving a card that contained a hand-written poem – one of five cards I received back in ’83 (I don’t think I received a total of five in the subsequent decade!).
Anyway, I was fairly sure I knew who had sent the card in question and was telling Ruth that evening, when she suddenly started to recite the poem…
I was never the quickest on the uptake, but by my standards I clicked fairly quickly that the sender was in fact the young lady walking next to me. Ruth found the situation as funny as I found it mortifying!
We had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a few weeks at the back end of the previous term, but that came to rather an abrupt end when I was dumped after the Christmas holidays – not the usual set of circumstances for receiving a Valentine’s card … in my limited experience.
We started going out again … I got dumped again … not a massive deal because we were far better as simply friends; but I played on the double-dumping in the blog, safe in the knowledge there couldn’t be any comeback…
Oh but there could!
Ruth had somehow seen the post, read the blog, and left a reply – and once the initial shock was over (and it was a much bigger shock than the card revelation), I must admit it was wonderful to hear from her. We have remained in touch ever since; and she even had a photo of the two of us together in the Halls of Residence, the only picture I have from those days.
When Ruth said she was going to be coming up to this part of the world, it was the perfect opportunity to invite her over and catch up on old times in person.
I’ve said before that however well you knew someone from your teenage years, the passage of time essentially means you become different people … practically strangers; and I was certainly nervous when Ruth’s car pulled up outside our house.
I needn’t have worried though. It was so lovely to see Ruth, to introduce her to Elaine and to chat through what we could remember from the months we spent in Halls, as well as hearing about everything that has happened since. The only disappointment was that she was en route to see her brother and couldn’t stay long enough for me to cook a proper meal – because as well as being rubbish at poetry, the Richard she knew could barely heat up a tin of beans!