Who's The Daddy: Forty years on, it was like we’d never been apart
If you’ve got a school reunion on the horizon and are umming and ahhing about going - go. If it’s anything like the one yours truly went to last Saturday it’ll be the best decision you make all year.
It’s a scarcely believable 40 years - FORTY YEARS! - since the Class of 86 went their separate ways from a comprehensive school in South Cumbria. But for a few short hours it was almost like we never left.
It goes without saying that 40 years is a long time, and to put it in to perspective the kids currently sitting their GCSEs in the school hall where we took our O-levels, CSEs and 16-Plusses (yep, we’re that old, we pre-date GCSEs), if and when they get around to holding a 40-year reunion it’ll be in the summer of 2066.
It’s an amazing thing, but people you haven’t seen since Doctor And The Medics were No 1 with Spirit In The Sky, you can without effort instantly remember their name on sight - even though you sometimes struggle to remember the reason you walked into a room in your own house now.
And they are a bunch of wonderful people. It was an absolute pleasure to be in their company and catching up on the events of the past four decades. I won’t lie, walking in at first was like one of those stress dreams where you turn up for work naked and all your teeth fall out, but that feeling lasts for about two seconds and ends when someone you haven’t seen since you were 16 bellows your name.
The best phrase I can come up with to describe the night is life-affirming. The only downside was wondering where the hell the last 40 years went - and could we please have them back?
Back to the present day and Daughter #1 and The Boyfriend aced the Great Manchester Run last Sunday, 13.1 miles of pounding the streets of the city where they live - and their flat is a hop, skip and a jump from the start and finish line, so after a quick wash and brush-up, they were out on the town celebrating their success.
Daughter #1 said it wasn’t easy, sometimes runs are tough for no reason, but she gritted her teeth and did it - and she’s been like that since she was two. And not to be outdone, Daughter #2’s ship set sail from Southampton on its first trip of the summer. She’s on her fourth tour of duty in the last two years and at the time of writing is somewhere off the coast of Spain.
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