I had a talk with my man

It is amazing how some friendships start and what it is that holds them together for nearly 6 decades.

It was my first month of attending Regent St., Polytechnic in 1964. The daily lecture schedule always began with an economics lecture in the main auditorium and then after 90 minutes or so we had a break.
Almost everybody would go to the cafeteria and have a cuppa tea. As one would expect from impoverished students, we had nothing more than a "round of toast." Do you know what a round of toast is? A peculiar English phrase meaning two slices of bread toasted, lightly buttered and then cut into a triangle; at least that is my memory of it.
The cafeteria had long tables with seats all around. We usually just plonked down without regard to who we were sitting next to. As it was our first month, friendships had not really been cemented yet. However, there I was sitting at a table, when a guy at the adjoining table leaned, over tapped me on the shoulder, and said:
“ heard a song on radio Luxemburg last night, a really great song by a female singer about her boyfriend. Do you know what it is?”
No, hello, my name is... or, who are you, whatever. Simply a question about music.
His name was Paul, as I found out later. I had never spoken to him before and I have never known why he picked on me. But he made a good choice because I was mad on music, particularly, as it turns out, the same kind of R&B and female group singers that he liked. I answered:
“ I bet it was I had a talk with my Man by Mitty Collier on Chess.”
“ yes yes, that’s the one. Do you want to go buy it at lunchtime?”
“OK, I replied.”
And so began the friendship that has lasted 56 years and counting.
There was no introduction it was straight into a question with a Stranger that happened to hit the mark. The quirkiness of that introduction was replicated in our relationship over the following decades. No one understood Paul the way I did, not even his beautiful wife, that I am pleased to say remains one of my friends to this day.
That simple music question led to a friendship that resulted in the three of us emigrating to Canada in 1970.