Echoes from a Childhood Long Forgotten

You know there's very little that surprises me these days, in an age where everything is superfast, disposable and expendable, so when you hear an echo from a time gone by it make you think about all sorts of things.

I'd like to share a story with you.

Its about two little girls who were friends for what felt like an age, but in reality was probably only a few months back in the mid '70s. Like many children, they were carefree, happy and innocent with their whole lives ahead of them. They promised to be best friends for life when they met in primary school aged five or six. They played games endlessly, went to each others houses for tea, and talked about how when they grew up they were going to marry Donny Osmond or David Cassidy. They ate Spangles and Ringos, they watched The Banana Bunch, The Clangers and Bagpuss, they listened to The Bay City Rollers, Shawaddywaddy, and Leo Sayer. They played games like Kerplunk and Mousetrap and desperately wanted a wind up Eval Kineval toy for Christmas, or hoped they would get a Stylophone for their birthdays. They spent their pocket money on Jamboree Bags, Lemonade Powder, Jubblies, Mini Milks, pink shrimps and Toffos. They pushed a Tiny Tears doll around in a toy pram or played dress up with Sindy dolls. They skipped with skipping ropes, played with hula hoops and wore stripy socks with jumpsuits, or flared jeans with a T shirt of the Muppets on it and plimsolls, or a frilly dress with red piping around the collar. They sat in the street with the other children for the Queen's Silver Jubilee Street parties and ate fish paste sandwiches, cheese and pineapple on sticks, and scotch eggs, and drank Corona fizzy pop and scoffed fairy cakes with pink icing on them till they felt sick, while the Mums and Dads and Granmas and Granpas and Aunies and Uncles passed the pink wafers around...

And then one day, when these two little friends who thought they were going to be best friends for the rest of their lives, all that changed.

It changed when the Grown Ups decided one of the little girls would move away with her family to another town, to another school, where they didn't know about Donny Osmond or David Cassidy, where they didn't play games like "The Alley Alley Oh" or have streets where you could hold parties in and eat pink wafers and scotch eggs.

And the Grown Ups didn't tell the little girls about the new house, or the new town and the new school. One day, they just moved house.

And the two little girls, who thought they'd be best friends for life didn't know what had happened to the other and were very sad, because no longer could they talk about marrying Donny Osmond or David Cassidy, or have skipping races or swap half a banana for half an orange in the school playground on a hot summer's day, or sing songs about flowers.

Time passed.

Each little girl, tho saddened at the loss of her friend, went about their lives but thought about the other. The weeks turned to months, the month to years, and the years to decades as they got older, wondering if they grew up and went on to marry Donny Osmond or David Cassidy...

And then one day, thru the miracle of new milllenia technology, the two little girls who had lost each other all those years ago, found each other, quite by chance, almost by accident you could say. Through the miracle of social networking sites, those two little girls, who had grown up into two fabulously strong and beautiful women, found that their friendship had survived. It had survived a The Iron Lady and her Tory Government, The Fall of the Berlin Wall, seen thru countless wars and several royal Marriages. It outlived Top of The Pops and Nationwide and Tizwas. It outlived a Queen of Hearts and a King of Pop, it lasted longer than David Cassidy or Spangles or Ringos. It survived 9/11 and a Tsunami and is recession-proof.

The two women found that they now lived in opposite ends of the country, neither lived in the town in which they first met, so many years ago in primary school. Both had loved and lost, both had suffered and survived, and both had borne beautiful children, whom they told about Eval Kineval, Sindy and Bagpuss and parties in the street with gallons of Corona fizzy pop and fish paste sandwiches, and taught to sing songs about flowers and have skipping races on hot sunny days.

And for everything they had thought they had lost, for all the times those two children had thought about the other, their friendship survived.

So, despite believing that they would never see or speak to each other again, they kept their promises to each other, to be friends for the rest of their lives.

So in an age of throwaway and disposability, dear readers, remember that your friendships and promises are precious. Dont give up hope when you think life takes you down separate paths, and you miss your friends, because you never know if one day you will find each other again to tell of great stories of love, survival and adventure.