Well, coincidences happen I guess, a few weeks ago when I was out for a walk I met my former boss who I hadn't seen in a decade.

Thor

Nigel 2

Tell me about it!

Long Service Club Outing, warmly greeted by two former colleagues, faces familiar, but could I remember their names as we drank coffee together? NO, and still cannot recall the names.

Old age brings problems, but damages memoiy

Howard

In the early 60’s I joined the Air Force and in 1967 was posted to Sharjah, a desert airfield in what has now become the UAE. I was at lunch in the airman’s mess one day and an army lance corporal sat down opposite me and when I looked up it was a school friend of mine that had been in my class and we hadn’t seen each other since leaving school five years previously, strange coincidence. Dave W

'Intro'

In 1962 I joined the army. On the train from Waterloo station to Aldershot I got talking to a young chap about my own age from Melton Mowbray . When we got to Aldershot he got up as I did – it turned out that not only were we both signing up but we were both enlisting in the Parachute Regiment. Needless to say we became good friends and stuck together throughout the arduous training. In the platoon behind us was a young guy called Dave Jeffries who had recognised my Lowestoft accent. Along with another Dave we four were really great mates and we were all posted to D Company 3 Para in Jan 1963. Amazingly all four of us were in the same platoon – No11 – too.

Eventually Army life saw us go our separate ways but Dave Jeffries and I stayed in vague touch over the years.

He moved up this way to Norfolk and had a job as Head groundsman at a Holiday camp in Gt Yarmouth.

'Situation'

One morning he is cutting a hedge in front of a chalet. Holiday maker comes out and begins to chat. Tells Dave he's from Melton Mowbray, Dave mentions being in the Army with a guy from MM. What were you in asks the chap. When Dave says 3 Para he responds with "It wouldn't be a Mick Naylor would it by any chance ?

So after some forty plus years three of the four of us met up again.

As Bazle says a window of opportunity so small as to be unimaginable but occasionally it happens.

Here we are just after joining 3 para on a bit of leave during a winter training and exercise in Winnepeg Feb 1963. L-R Dave Jeffries, Dave Taylor, Myself and Mick Naylor

Dave W mentioned Sharjah – I found this pic passed to me of our battle camp there circa 1964/5. Apologies for the squaddie annotation. Just the way it was back then. No showers but a tiny drop of fresh water daily for shaving in – the sea for everything else

Best – Tug

My fathers mother passed away unexpectedly in 1943, my father was stationed in Ceylon and said he knew she had gone before the notification arrived.

Mike