Old Friends
Despite my reluctance for social contact I must confess to being very pleased to hear via facebook that some old friends from senior school are well. I seem to recall being only slightly more sociable at the age of 14 than I am now and then only within a small group. That small group though was very important to me and I suspect others among us and formed a core of friends for the entire duration of secondary education for some years beyond with those we could keep in touch with.
Our firm friends were myself, Simon Walters, Darren Archer, John Crowley and Alex Hall. There were others of course but outside of school as well as within, this was the group who would persist. In the 24 years since leaving school I have I think only seen John Crowley. I don’t count Simon, surrogate brother that he is as we’ve remained in touch since we were 5 yrs old and today are god parents (yes, I’m an atheist as his he but that’s a whole other post right there) to each other’s children.
To see photos of Darren today was wonderful. Also of Faz, who whilst not in the circle above due to being in a different form group was none-the-less a frequent co-conspiritor! Everyone is heavier (though none, I suspect as heavy as I) and have similar close-cropped baldness-aint-getting-me haircuts! Remarkable how, after all these years the faces are instantly recognisable.
So, to all friends, past and present, absent or not I wish you all a very happy New Year and look forward to remaining in touch even if by the ethereal medium of the Internet we all inhabit these days.