This year I have had the pleasure of meeting up with old friends. Not that we are old at all, it’s just we’ve known each other for almost 39 years. I find that so hard to comprehend, 39 years sounds a terribly long period of time!
There was a group of four of us who used to be quite close. That’s Chris, Neil, Paul and myself. Naturally we all had other friends but the four of us used to hang around each other quite a lot. We are all very different and each one of us with our own little quirks which made us who we were. We have all kept in touch with each other to some degree, sometimes a little erratically but we have, nevertheless, we have kept those links alive.
I saw my friend Chris a couple of weeks ago in Cheltenham and I spotted the above photo on the wall of his studio and quickly snapped it. We think it was taken by Paul and the River Severn is meandering away in the background. Somehow I look a bit sad in the photo, perhaps I was but I can’t remember. With Chris, he had a variety of nicknames including The Fonz and looking at him here it is pretty obvious. Quite a strong resemblance to the real Fonz!
I took the above photo of Chris in his studio, using my iPhone and its come out quite well; I do like images of people in their own worlds. Sadly Chris has recently lost his 97 year old mother and I remember her friendliness so well, having met her many times over the years. It was fascinating hearing Chris talk of her wartime experiences as a young Polish woman subjected to Nazi forced labour.
Rachel and I paid a visit to Neil about a month ago on our way to see Hannah in North Wales. He’s married nowadays and a real pleasure to see him. He has a certain politeness about him which I still remember from the 1980s. No photo to share.
And then I met with Paul in London. We went to the same place in central London where we met a couple of years ago and it was so nice to see him. Appearance wise Paul is probably the one who has changed the most but still sounds exactly the same!
Reflections
While the four of us have had a great deal in common, we have each taken our different pathways in life and we all value those times back in the early 1980s with some affection. For Paul, Neil and myself it was our first time living away from home and this helped shape us as we are today. For Chris, while he was able to remain living at his family home, we still spent much time together. I am sure each one of us has influenced the other.
We have all aged and mellowed. A few grey hairs, perhaps some thinning hair and I’m not sure our jeans would still fit us as easily. But we’re not in bad shape either.
I look back and think of how we all wanted to make our mark on the world. In some way to show the world in a different light as we looked for the beautiful things around us and how we tried to capture them in a fraction of a second; or perhaps even the stark, sombre and yet moving things of the world which needed to be recorded and a statement made.
How have we fared? Have we done those things? Some might say we haven’t. Actually I think we have, each one of us, but the truth is we have probably done those things in ways we couldn’t imagine at the time.
Me, I’m feeling wistful now.