Surprise visit

I've just had one, from a friend with whom I began primary school 50 years ago! Steve and I shared a classroom for practically every year of our education and had a number of adventures and scrapes together as those years played out. He and I shared a love of and ability for throwing. Stones mainly, but famously and cryptically, lemons. Many a glazier knew of our habit and range. Steve's great passion was fishing and I learned that it still is. He would take his dingy out on the waters around Nelson and fish patiently at a time when I was wasting my time in less productive ways, as boys do, and I always marveled at his self-assurance and distance from the usual pish lads of our age embroiled themselves in. He developed skills as a potter at the same time and that too was unusual. That sort of application was usually reserved for chasing girls or pouring over motorcycle magazines amongst my other mates and me. Steve is also a gardener of the  vegetables for the table kind and though I haven't seen his garden (he didn't bring it with him), I imagine it being superbly productive and not at all hit-and-miss the way mine is. It was great to talk with him and to discover what similarities there are in our world-views, especially with regard environmental and social issues. I was interested to compare, to myself, quietly, the effects that staying your home town, in this case Nelson, and moving away to a place like Riverton, had on our respective fortunes. While it's hard to be sure, I believe that my peregrination south was the best thing I could have done, given my predilection for easy living, and Steve's staying put, for his self-contained approach to life.
Meeting again, someone from the far-distant past is a fascinating experience and creates a curious warp in the time/space continuum. I'll be mulling over this for days.