So we go on...Just Some thoughts
I was thinking about what I would share with you this week. I came to this. Where are you Now?
Crazy question you might ask. But, just stop and think.
There was a time, long ago when I was a very impecunious student (no money),whose friends were more or less in the same state. What we were rich in was time and speculation. It was the time of Jea-Paul Sarte, Kafka and Camus. We were too late for the sixties but we were still somewhere in the overhang.
Many night s were spent walking around Rathmines in Dublin, just chatting. Luckily none of my companions were drinkers as such, even if we had the money. Our tipple was a cup of coffee , accompanied by a slice of homemade apple tart in the Alcé Cafe, Rathmines. I wrote a poem about it in 1971. Maybe it will be discovered when I am long gone and then I will be recognised!!
Really, though, they were great times. We had the most serious of debates, up through Rathgar and over to Harold’s Cross. We would take a look at the new models in Murphy and Gunn’s Garage, speculating on which one we would buy eventually. Innocent dreams of a bygone time. On we would go, as my friends would drop off one by one and I would end up at home in Templeogue. Foreign territory if you are from the North Side but you get the drift. Think Fairview, Marino and on to Collins Avenue and you get the sense. A lot of walking, and a lot of talking.
Who does that now? Very few I think. Why? Well think Bebo, Myspace, Blogs etc.
The dynamic has changed. We now walk in a cyber world. Not the same as turning up your collar in a chill Autumn wind or kicking through the leaves in Bushy Park. Can’t come near an awful game of tennis on the public courts there and a bet lost that couldn’t really be afforded, because that little prat from UCD really was as good as he said at tennis. I think they were good times. The friends made in the Gaeltacht, the late nights and early mornings. It just felt good. Because it was.
We did not do drugs. We did not break windows. Most of us went to Mass. One of us smoked, he was always adventurous. He is quite successful in London. Here am I sharing my ramblings with you. The other chap has five children, all grown up. He still speculates and ruminates. Just did a course in psychology in TCD. We wer e just ordinary guys, taking it easy.
By the way, the little prat from UCD made millions in America. He always was a winner.
As a person once said in a different context, “what was it like for you”?