… or what I read in the newspaper today.

My train got delayed today which meant that, after clearing the work emails etc., the only thing I had to read was Metro, the free newspaper.  I normally stop reading when I get to the sports pages and the classifieds, but today I had time and I saw this advert (I’ve copied the exact spelling faithfully):

I am looking for a married lady called Mrs Pauline Pratt I think she is living in Croyden and it would be great to find her. I do not know her address as it has been a long time since I saw her last.  I met her in Sandown on the Isle of White in 1960-1965.  She was staying with her husband Alan Pratt, he was an understanding man with a cottage in Ashfod, Kent.  If you have any information please email clint_sard@hotmail.co.uk

Now, I know nothing about Mr Sard, or the Pratts for that matter.  And the whole thing might be a big spoof or an in-joke for someone. But this personal ad has caught my imagination.

I guess the chances of that generation being on Facebook or Friends Reunited or MySpace or Bebo, or any social networking site for that matter are fairly slim.  Because of course those would be the starting points for my generation.  We might lack the local networks that past generations had, but our online social networks and a bit of search engine technology, they give us the chance to find people that we might never have got hold of again…
A quick Google search reveals one Mrs Pauline Pratt on Kemsing Parish Council, one at East Kent blood transusion services, and any number of Alan Pratts in Kent, Pratt after all is a local Kentish name (rather like Thorneycroft, Ovenden, Fortescue etc.)  But I can quite understand that if you were Mr Sard you wouldn’t want to just email them randomly to enquire whether they were the same person from 40-odd years ago.

And read that ad – the mind boggles as to what actually happened. 
Did we just bear witness a 1960s Brief Encounter?   
Was Mr Sard at Sandown  alone?
Did he just happen to meet and get to know Mrs Pauline Pratt by chance? 
Just how was Mr Pratt understanding?
What happened?
What’s prompted Mr Sard to search for her now?
Is Mrs Pratt likely to be pleased to hear from Mrs Sard?
Is Mr Pratt likely to be pleased to see this attempt at re-establishing contact?

There’s so many unanswered questions in that ad.  
And so much scope for a novel!  What a fantastic potential plotline.  I didn’t know that ads like this really got placed.

So I wish Mr Sard well, and hope he gets the information he’s looking for*.
And thanks for the inspiration…

————
* Well, sort of.  As you know I believe in marriage, and in marriage for life.  So if it’s just to know how she’s getting on, fair enough, and if she’s now single and he’s single and getting together was ultimately what they both wanted then fair enough.  But if Mr Pratt is thriving and especially if he and Mrs Pratt actually have a relationship which is less understanding than implied, then in my view Mr Sard should be backing off…

No related posts.