steelcityman

   As I lay in bed last night … awaiting the sweet embrace of MORPHEUS (and for all you purists, I know that technically, Morpheus is written up as the god of dreams, but widely categorised in modern times as the god of Dreams and/or sleep…Whatever did HYPNOS do to get forgotten so easily ?… probably fallen into the river LETHE !!!)…Anyway, I digress, again … So, I was awaiting the sweet embrace of MORPHEUS or HYPNOS with a visit from MORPHEUS….satisfied ??… and drifting through my mind was the concept of FRIENDSHIP. I began to recount all my true friends..as opposed to mates, pals, colleagues and acquaintances … I trust you all know the difference? I’ll take it as read that you do…. and guess what? I discovered that I have very few true friends, I barely got past counting the fingers of one hand !! Is that a sad statement or what ?  Since I retired from work and moved back to the ‘Steel City’, hardly anyone rings me up to see what’s happening, how things are etc,… People who I considered to be friends never ring me up for a chat or arrange a meet for a catch up. Contact is through Face Book only…Do we count that as a true Friendship? I’m Undecided on that but the answer is probably …no.

When I was a young teenager, around 1963, I had a grand circle of friends we did everything together..lived in each others pockets almost…but, as happens we grow older, get differing jobs, move away and gradually lose touch with the friends. In my case i joined the Army at nineteen years old, moved to Germany, got married and lost touch with them all, so in 1977, back in civvy street I became ‘Billy no mates’ and never really recovered any of the friendships of old. It was back to mates, pals, colleagues and acquaintances … no real friends that call round, ring you up and are part of your life outside the work environment…….SUDDENLY….right out of the blue, a couple of months ago I get a text message from a friend from waaaaaay back, not seen since the late sixties, asking if I fancied meeting up over a pint of beer and catching up on life and what it dealt us. You could have knocked me over with a feather !! I rang him back and arranged to meet up at the NORTON pub in Sheffield…had a good old catch up over several more pints than the one suggested and now the friendship is slowly being revived after more than 40 years. We now meet up once a month at a pre arranged time and place and just talk (a lot !!), have lunch and drink beer. Its so good to be back in touch with a ‘FRIEND’ again……If you have any…HANG ON TO THEM, THEY DON’T GROW ON TREES !!!!……Thanks John.