Monday 10 August 2009

A Small World...

I had something of a school reunion today.

Primary school, that is...

We had an engineer in today from one of our service providers to fit a new control panel. He paused for a moment when I introduced myself.

"Your face is familiar," he said, the way you do when you're trying to place someone but can't quite.

"I get that from time to time," I joked.

"You went to St Benedict's* National School, didn't you?"

Amazed at how he could possibly have known, I admitted that I had.

Turns out we were in the same class - over thirty years ago.

For my part, I must admit I didn't recognise him in return - although I have an old school photo that I must dig out - it's not scary if you fold back the end with the priest on it. Well it is, a bit**...

But it's bizarre that he recognised me - I think I've changed remarkably in appearance over the years, and I have way less hair than I used to when I was ten. It makes me wonder what sort of impression I must have made on people back then - was I a little monster? I don't think so, but I was no Boy Scout either.

I didn't go falling out of trees or tying tin cans to dogs' tails - and of the gang of us that hung out together and went tearing around on our bikes, I always thought of myself as being in the middle; rarely leading, but not dragging along behind either.

Strange...

Er, not me, you understand - just the episode in general terms...

*Name changed (as on Dragnet) to protect the innocent.
**And no, it wasn't one of those schools...

2 comments:

PJ said...

I'm still in touch with a few people I met in infant/junior school, and I like hearing the gossip about our classmates.

I think I'd probably remember most of them if I saw them in the street as it was such a fun time, and we had a lot of characters in my class.

Captain Incredible said...

I don't see so many of my primary school friends these days - a lot of us lost contact when we went to secondary school, and that was quite a while ago.

I can still remember my first day of school quite well, if not the people in it - but then I've never been particularly good with faces, and the images fade with time...

A full reunion would be - interesting...

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