DISAPPEARING COMMENTS, EXPIRED FRIENDS, DILUTED AND DIMINISHED MEMORIES...

In February '26 it'll be three years since my pal Moonmando passed away.  He commented on the blog quite regularly and sometimes, when I'm re-reading a post and see a comment from him, it's almost like he's still alive and only left it moments before.  Obviously, I don't recall off-the-top-off-my-head every comment he ever made, which lends to the illusion, but one I do remember is when he commented on my Gordie Goose strip which was published in The Boots News back in 1976.  He complimented me on the likeness of my mother's cartoon incarnation (in the final panel) to the real thing, but it now seems to have disappeared, which is a shame, as his 'voice'  on the blog has now been diluted to some degree.

Which got me thinking - something I do quite a lot, believe it or not.  When I was a first year pupil in Secondary school, in art class one day, we were given a small lump of clay and tasked with creating something.  Lazy as always, I fashioned a tapering, eight-sided figure, which was covered (by teach) with a ruby glaze then fired in a kiln.  It had two eyes like a Corgi or Dinky toy car's 'diamond' headlights, though I no longer recall whether they were added before or after firing.  There was a two or three millimetre gap between where the glaze and the bottom of the figure ended, to prevent (so I was told) the glaze cracking when it was removed from the kiln-tray.

I didn't have the figure for long, perhaps two years at the most, but I never forgot it, assuming I'd be the only person who remembered it.  Imagine my surprise then, when my late pal Joe (he was alive at the time, obviously) mentioned it to me over 40 years later, describing it with surprising accuracy.  I didn't even recall ever showing it to him, but obviously I must have done at some point.  This shared 'connection' to an item from my early teens reinforced my own memories and confirmed the figure's existence outside of my own experience.  I'm not sure why it mattered to me, but it was good to know that it had made an impression on someone other than myself.

Now that he's dead, I'm the only person who remembers the ruby-glazed diamond-eyed figure, the memory of its existence 'halved' in some way, as there's now only one person who recalls it, not two.  It was a bit like having a 'back-up' in case I ever forgot.  That make any sense to anyone?  I likewise wonder if I'm the only person who recalls Moony's vanished comment?  I'd say it's extremely likely - or is there someone out there who can prove me wrong?  I hope so.