Sunday 4 August 2013

Have you ever been on a reunion?

Have you ever been on a reunion? I never have before but tomorrow I'm meeting up with a workmate that I haven't seen for about 22 years! (That makes me feel really old). Let me tell you about her. She's called Denise and I totally loved working with her. In actual fact there was three of us working on the household dept in a large department store. We had nicknames given to us by Karen, (she was funny too) I was Baby Bear (I was 16 at the time) a lovely lady called Val was Mummy Bear and Denise, much to her annoyance was Daddy Bear! (Her best friend Caroline thought it was hilarious) Over the five years we worked together we went through every emotion. We laughed loads but also sometimes cried together. I was delighted for her when she got married but I felt great sadness when she moved away to another county but once again joy as she became pregnant and had a little girl. Unfortunately, we lost touch over the years but I never forgot her. Denise loved listening to the music from the West End play Tell me on a Sunday, in particular a song of the same name. I often found myself singing it and I thought of Denise and the impact she had on me. Also, whenever I stood at a bus stop I'd remember the times we walked to the bus stop together after work to wait for our buses. We'd give secret names to the regular people that was there each day, (I know I'm immature, but if you're a regular reader of my blogs then you'll know that all ready) I can't remember them all now but we decided one nice lady looked a teeny tiny bit like a horse (sorry nice lady) so at the end of each day when we'd clocked off and were getting our bags and coats from the locker room myself or Denise would shout "are you ossing"? (oss was the shortened version of horse) The other would call back "Yes, are you ossing"? Others would look at us as though we'd lost the plot, especially when we told them that it meant we were asking each other if we were going for the bus! Denise and I had a connection that was quite unique even though she's ten years older than me. I suppose, looking back, I looked up to her. The first time I went to her house and I saw her kitchen was painted white and all her accessories, kettle, toaster and mugs etc was bright yellow and it looked fabulous. I decided when I left home I'd want the same in my kitchen. But what I remember most of all was her sense of humour and also the fact that she didn't care what people thought of her. What you saw was what you got! I admired her for that. Last week Denise found me on a social networking site. I was blooming delighted to say the least. A couple of days after that she rang me. We were on the phone for nearly two hours, catching up on what we'd been up to for the last twenty odd years. I soon found Denise hadn't changed a bit. She still got up to mischief but didn't want to go into to much detail as she said she still thought of me as Baby Bear! "Denise" I said, "I'm forty-four so spill the beans, I want to know all the juicy details" (But even at forty-four I still blushed)! So, tomorrow at 11am I'm meeting her, as it happens very close to where we used to work. Will I recognise her? Will she recognise me? What will are first words be? No doubt it'll be "are you ossing later"? So dear readers, have you ever been on a reunion?