A Time of Connection

I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance.

Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [blog posts passim], we also met the (also late) Paul Davies [cf. also blog posts passim] whilst walking near Tan Y Foel, one Sunday. I ended up joining the Association of Artists and Designers in Wales (AADW), Bethesda branch, of which Paul was Chairman. 

We subsequently moved to Caerberllan, at which point Paul railroaded me into becoming the Secretary of the branch, all the while taxing me for every cigarette on my person and dumping about twenty-five kilos of paperwork on me. Almost immediately after this, I roped Alan into joining AADW, for moral support as much as anything, and thinking that as a painter, he ought also to be part of whatever it was I was embroiled in. This led to our continued involvement with AADW, in various capacities, until the demise of the organization in the late eighties.

That first couple of years living here was just packed: we lived in four different places, fetching up in Rhes Gerlan in that first-bought house. Competitive cooking and entertainment and fabled parties commenced, which nurtured the ad hoc formation of the social grouping that became known colloquially as The Gerlan Bohemia - still remembered today by the children of some of our number - which created the model by which we would live, throughout the rest of the decade and well into the next. Interesting times, in a good way...