BFF?

Well I have prompted my blog friends to explore the stories of the BFF Best Friends Forever... and here I am wondering if I ever had one?  It's not a sad thing, it's just I don't remember ever having a friend I was that way with, you know, inseparable, had to sleep over all the time, couldn't go a day without talking to...

..I grew up in a small community where most of us were related, our parents were cousins and despite us not being very closely related like first cousins we had a common history and even now we share the same memories and we have not fallen far from the trees.. 

As I was kind of an only child, my brother was 11 and at Secondary School when I was born, perhaps I grew up happy enough to not have someone around me all the time..I recall my eldest daughter commenting once that she would hate to live alone, and that was at a time when all I thought she wanted was to be away from us.  Living in our extended family has definitely made all our kids able to enjoy company but also make a space for themselves when they needed some quiet.

At our local school, St Levan, we often had children coming to us for only a few terms, their parents worked at Porthcurno Cable & Wireless Station and would often be moved around after a few years, others had Dads in the Coastguard Service and again it was a shame when a new friend had to move away when you were just getting to know each other. 

I remember Alison Normanton, and her sister Carol, gorgeous girls with blonde curly hair, at our Junior school. They wore uniform gym slips and shirts and ties but we didn't have uniform, I guess it was from their previous school.. they really stood out in the year photos.   Alison was so funny, she got a big telling off one day for miming the story across the desk to me as our Head was reading us some tedious book on a Friday afternoon.  Two years or so and they were gone, I think to Wogga Wogga(?) in Australia, we never did do well on the pen-pal thing though.

Other times names cropped up many years later.. I recall a cute little lad called Nicky Nash, I think a bit younger than me, but I had a soft spot for him when I was about 7, you know how cute 5 year old boys are when you are getting gangly at 7!
Turns out he is now a captain with Princess cruise ships, though my Zac has not met him yet, and he only lives about five miles from here, even though he left the school after a year or so..story goes he hit one of his ships against a rock or something and got the nickname Crash-Nash!

Probably my best girl friendships came at 16 when some new girls joined our group to do 'A' levels, we stayed in touch after we all went to Uni but it kind of tailed off when we all got married and didn't stay too friendly. Now I bump into them sometimes, but it isn't the same, again we are all close to home and have raised our kids, in fact Ross often comes home with a new Facebook pal and turns out I was at school with their mum!

Of course I had almost forgotten my best childhood friend, Teddy, I have written about him before., last year this time actually.. here!  He lived right opposite me, about three years older and was probably more like a brother growing up than my teen hero!
I was a sweet gullible thing, believed everything he told me...and this is the best one.. In July 1965 Ronald Biggs the infamous Train Robber escaped from prison and it must have been on the television and the radio (we didn't have  TV til I was 9) as big news. Teddy let me into a huge secret....

'you know that Ronald Biggs who escaped from prison.. (not sure I did to be fair!)... well he is hiding up Jonack Lane, near the crabpot stands'

                            ... well, you know, I didn't know whether I believed him, but I sure as hell didn't go up that Lane for ages!

Even when I moved in 1973 we stayed in touch, met up for lazy Saturday lunches and evenings listening to Roxy Music and Bowie, (and for this musical influence I thank him wholeheartedly) but again marriage beckoned to other people..even though lots of people thought we were a pair!... and we lost touch, but now and then I see his family and hear his news..