Bumping into an old aquaintance is one of those little moments in life which could be considered priceless. Such an event can never be planned so the surprise itself is significant. However the ripples from such a meeting could extend far beyond the moment itself.
This thought is on my mind because on Saturday I met an old colleague from my very first job. I probably haven’t seen him for 20 years or more. He recognised me through a shop window. At first I just saw some strange old bloke waving at me from the outside (my mind was elsewhere, lusting after an array of unaffordable equipment in the music shop). My first thought was ‘Who’s that nutter?’. But then that wave of recognition crashed over me and he no longer looked old - he looked exactly the same as I remembered him when we were both 20.
I went outside, we greeted each other and quickly talked through old and current times.
‘I saw Dave from ‘Security’ at a reunion 10 years ago’, he said.
‘I still see Jerry about twice a year’, I added.
Etc etc.
We compared family - mine was actually there, complete - the second-wife and two semi grown-up kids (we couldn’t have imagined a posse like that back then!) His wife is the same girl who I had known as just his girlfriend - they have been married now for 21 years! And they have two kids of the same age as our two….
A similar event occurred a couple of weeks ago when Vanessa met an old colleague in a shop. He came rushing round the end of an aisle and they both immediately recognised each other. Same old Michael, he was, always a story to tell, camp as ever and resisting 40 with a vengeance. It was like they had been working together just last week.
And after your chance meeting? You swap numbers and emails. You even get in touch and go out for a drink. But where does it go from there? Maybe it depends on who you meet, and when…
I think most people would enjoy bumping into an old flame. The spotty-faced youth that she remembers will have turned into a successful and wordly adult- a potential chance to impress not to be missed. Unless you are out with your wife at the time, of course!
Conversely, if you are unfortunate enough to have a ‘previous’ spouse out there somewhere, what would you do if their face presented itself to you out of the blue? It would be embarrassing enough if you were on your own but imagine if your current wife was with you!!! Would Wife 1 still pass as good-looking enough for your current standards? Has she aged well? And while Wife 2 might like to get to know Wife 1 better (for the purposes of comparison on ALL levels) you would probably rather curl up and die.
And finally, some people meet accidentally under some very unlikely circumstances. You occasionally hear stories of people walking down a street on the other side of the world and recognising an old neighbour. Given the billions of people in the world and the miles between them, it’s amazing that it happens at all!
24/09/2007 at 02:09 pm
Thank gawd my ‘Wife 1′ now lives on the other side of the planet, so accidental collisions are pretty unlikely. I’ve had a couple of nights out recently with a friend from school and a mutual buddy from that time. The schoolmate, Neil, is some top-knob pooter programmer type with a penchant for Marxism, and is currently looking for a holiday home in France….(no, I don’t get that contradiction either), and Mat is currently the deputy editor of Arena magazine, having worked his way up through Melody Maker and Heat amongst many others. He gets to meet lots of famous people. One particular favourite was Peter Cook, who’s writings and humour had a huge influence on all of us during our previous incarnation as friends. We spent last Wednesday evening in Mat’s regular haunt, Blacks in Soho, which was a whole new experience for me…..
Like you say Steve, although we’ve been apart for more than 25 years and our lives have moved on in every way, meeting up again is like all those years simply never happened….. Cool!