This is Mrs. Thompson's grade 3 class at Queen Mary School in Vancouver (1955). I'm the one fourth from the right in the second row; the one with the suspenders and the barrettes. I pulled this photo out of a box today, along with others from my elementary school for a specific reason. I'm trying to find a boy who was in some of my grade school classes. Why? You might well ask.
Well here's the thing. My very best friend, Heather, from elementary school and I reconnected about ten years ago. (She's the one on the far right in the third row.) Heather lives in Toronto but she emailed me the other day to say that a classmate from those days lives not far from me here in Saanich. She had met him at a high school reunion. Now I didn't go to high school with this group because I moved away from Vancouver at the end of Grade 7. So I remember this boy only by his name and a shadowy impression of his eyes--and the back of his neck. I think he sat in front of me in Grade 5 or 6. You know how it is with ten year old girls--they think boys are just a noisy nuisance. But somehow I did remember his name so there must have been something about him that I liked.
Anyway, this boy (uh...man) is my age. He lives nearby in a rural area, he has a Border Collie, and he's spent most of his career doing writing work. There are some parallels here. So this guy sent me a note and the upshot of it is that we are going to get together next week to introduce our Border Collies and ourselves. In fact he and his wife have invited us for a lunch of Thai food. She is apparently an excellent cook and gives Thai cooking classes so it should be a wonderful experience. Plus Harry and I adore Thai food.
I used to be kind of shy, in fact I probably still am--but I've decided in recent years to follow whatever paths open up to me. I don't know what will come of this. Maybe he and his wife and Harry and I will really enjoy each others' company; maybe not. But I just think it is so cool that we can connect again with someone from the far distant past and see where our different paths have taken us.
In any case it will be an interesting afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it.
Have lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteWho knows maybe the four of you will become couple friends?
I think the universe has many surprises for us.
Sherry
Hello Sherry,
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you about surprises from the universe. It's good to be open. Couple friends can be such a delight if everyone enjoys each other. Quite rare in my experience.
Joanna
Joanna, I loved the picture of your class. It looked so much like mine, but in Indiana.I have recently reconnected with quite a few classmates on that classmates.com dealy. I will look forward to hearing about your Thai food and how it was to be with a classmate from many years ago. I so enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteNana Trish, isn't it funny how all those class photos have the same look? I shall have to look up classmates.com as I didn't know about it. Perhaps I'll see how this first reunion goes. though. Thanks for visiting my blog.
ReplyDeleteMaybe as we grow older, we have learned to ignore the shymness in favor of connected-ness and the spirit of adventure.
ReplyDeleteBTW, classmates.com is limited in usefulness unless you pay but Facebook is free. I found my best friend from Grade 4 there - as well as other old friends.
I hope you had an amazing lunch!
ReplyDeleteI hope you find your friend!
ReplyDeleteSo glad it is working out so far.The parallels are indeed interesting. I agree with you: why not look people up? The worst that can happen is they're not interested, so you move on.If life is a storybook, I like to see how the story ended for people, after a long gap, not that we're on The Last Chapter-God forbid!I always thought that was the cutest picture of you. I also got out my other pics to see which grades Randy and I (and you) were in the same class.I see he is looking sideways at Perry Haddock. Funny how many of the names come back when I see the faces!
ReplyDelete