WORDS CHIPPS
Every now and again, I’ll get in touch with an old friend. Sometimes it’ll be a ‘hey, I’m in town, are you free for a coffee?’ phone call; sometimes it’ll be a text to an old number that I’m not sure works any more – or I’ll find an old print photo of them and feel I have to send them a copy in the post. Sometimes, though, we’ll just run into each other. Either at an arranged reunion of people who worked, or rode, or drank together or more organically at a friend of a friend’s party or wedding in an ‘I didn’t know you knew Malcolm, but great to see you’ kind of way.
What I love about all of those moments though, is that your relationship usually goes right back to the last time you met, undimmed by years. A close friend from 30 years ago might not be that geographically or socially close any more, but when you meet up, you can feel that deep connection of friendship, not lessened by time. Sometimes that spark has faded and, while it’s nice to see them, you simply introduce them as ‘an old friend from way back’, but more often, it seems despite the dozen years since your last day together you can carry on where you left off.