How I used to befriend strangers in the days before the internet

In the days before the internet, things required a bit more effort and creativity than they do now.

For example, if you had to do a comparison between New York and Calcutta for your homework, you had to get your ass down to the local library and thumb your way through the Encyclopedia Britannica to find stuff out.  This included using a few skills which are falling out of fashion these days, eg walking, reading and thinking.  I got 19 out of 20 for that homework by the way, so I must have been able to do all 3.

Meeting and getting to know strangers also needed a bit of creativity too, and a little known thing called 'Being able to have a conversation' used to come in useful.  A good forum for having conversations in my youth was the ferry from Dover to Zeebrugge.  I used to go to Germany quite a bit in the 80s and we mostly travelled on the Transline buses.  These took about 24 hours to get from Leeds to Northern Germany and they required a 4 hour ferry crossing aswell.  They were brilliant for talking to people, because they couldn't get away.

Although it seems unlikely now I actually made some friends this way.  And one of them I'm still in touch with, although it took Facebook for me to find her again after losing touch for a while.

She used to be called Ute Fehn and she was from Stuttgart.  We got talking on the back of a cross channel ferry.  It was in the early hours of the morning and it was dark so we couldn't see each other for the first 3 hours or so.  In fact it wasn't till 5 am that I found out she was dressed in yellow.  

Because I couldn't see her my first impressions of her were that she was funny and kind and had a nice voice.  Oh and also that she was German, although I'm not sure she is any more (I think she might be American now).

I've met other people in similar circumstances, but I can't go on about that now, because Ruth has invited Graeme round for coffee, and I didn't know, because I wasn't looking on Facebook, and even though she's in the same house, she failed to tell me...Ah, it wasn't like this in the olden days.  Actually I take that back, it was, friends turned up at your house unexpectedly all the time then, because it was easier to go to their houses than use the bloody massive phone with the dial on...