Old Friends

 or "How Terribly Strange to Be Seventy"... *

Among the old papers I was sorting over the weekend (cf previous post) were also some letters written by myself to my parents after I had moved away from home, up to Karlstad, at age 20. I lived in that town for about 10 years - first studying (1½ year of secretarial college), then working for a few years, then back to university for more studies. Out of those letters, most of those that I decided to keep were to do with things like starting a new course, or a new job. After secretarial college I first had a couple of short term temporary jobs, then worked for about a year for a company constructing machines for pulp and paper industry, and after that I was recruited by a consulting firm in the same line of business. There I came to remain for three years - even though the company itself went through some changes of ownership etc during those years. Anyway I worked there long enough to make a couple of long-lasting friends among the engineers, whom I continued to meet with now and then even after I quit that job. They also came to visit me in Borås in the summer after I moved here (back in 1986); and with one of them + his wife (K+M) I'm still exhanging Christmas cards, and the wife and I are also Facebook-friends, so keeping track of each other a bit that way. But it struck me as I was reading my old letters, that a very long time  has passed since we actually last met in person...

Then, yesterday evening, a totally unexpected private message suddenly dropped in from M, saying that they were going to be in Borås the next day (i.e. today), and could we meet up? She suggested meeting at some café in town. This put me in a dilemma, though, as I had the laundry room booked today... I went down to check but there were no free time slots for days ahead. So I texted back and asked if they could visit me at home instead? They could, and they did. (They were on a holiday trip by car and had spent the night in smaller town not very far away.) Around 10:30 am today, they turned up at my door; bringing some pastries bought on the way. Luckily I had a new jar of instant coffee in my fridge (bought fairly recently and never opened). (I only drink tea, but keep instant coffee for guests. It's been a while since I last had anyone here for coffee, though!)

We wasted no time but chatted away for 1½ hours in a strange mix of agreeing that it must be no less 38 (!) years since we last met in person... and yet it kind of felt like yesterday! (Or at least not all that long ago...) I also told them of those letters I'd been reading only a couple of days ago - stirring up memories of how and when we got to know each other in the first place - so that for me, their sudden suggestion right afterwards to meet up actually felt like sort of thought transference...!

They left at noon to do some touristing in the city on their own - and I got on with my laundry as planned...

We took some photos before they left, but for the blog I feel more comfortable just asking Bing for an illustration. K does not have a beard, and M does not have hair long enough for a "bun" on the top of her head - but otherwise it's not too bad... ;)

Afterwards, this old song by Simon & Garfunkel came to mind:  

 

Old friends, old friends
Sat on their park bench like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes of the old friends

 

Old friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settle like dust on the shoulders of the old friends

 

Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be 70

Old friends, memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears

* (I'll not turn 70 until next year, but all three of us are "around there" now.)