Remember Facebook?

I can’t recall my first Facebook post, either the content or the date. I could scroll back through my Facebook feed to find out and undoubtedly I would stumble across photographs that would make me smile and more than likely a whole lot more photographs that would just make me feel old.

Instead I will hazard a guess that I jumped on the FB bandwagon sometime in the mid 00’s. At one point I had amassed something the region of 3000 ‘friends’. Friends in inverted commas here because, seriously, who has or needs, or indeed, wants that many friends.

I am not here to gripe about Facebook. I see it as a very useful yet inexpensive tool. Play the game correctly and you can garner a fan base that makes selling out a show easy, makes getting your product out there easy and could even increase attention to your blog, PLEASE GOD!  For a small business it’s invaluable.

FB is a part of my life but it takes up too much of my time however it does afford me the chance to share shows others are plugging and I know that if only a fraction of my friends buy tickets it’ll make absolutely no difference (I’ve only 41 followers on my ClassicAdams27 Facebook page but I am expecting a surge in that number any day now. Go, follow, this blog will be here once you have done so).

But it’s not for everyone and like anything that gets as big as this forum has it was always going to provide a place for less colourful characters to mingle. I may have a different opinion than you on a subject. I won’t defriend you. I can just keep scrolling. I don’t care what meal you’ve chosen and care even less for what it looks like. I can just keep scrolling. And I really don’t care how big that standing ovation was. Congratulations but if you don’t mind I am going to just keep scrolling.

But the point of this blog is to remember how Facebook used to be. I wanted to remember what I loved about this place and what I still enjoyed whilst I kept scrolling.

Memories. Everyday Facebook will remind me what I was doing on this day over the last couple of decades. For sure half of these had been long forgotten which in turn reminds me that I am getting older. It amazes me to read about a trip, taken years ago, to the very spot where I find myself reading about it. This happens more than a reasonable person could reasonably expect. Not because of the frequencies involved but the random destinations. Take Skjolden in Norway. Specifically Hauge Gård: a coffee shop with the greatest view I have ever enjoyed. I’ve only been there three times in my life but two were on June, 26th 2017 & 2022 and the third was this year but a week later on July 3rd.

Photos. I think I am correct in saying that the sharing of photographs with friends and family was the original idea for FB, no? To make that job way easier. It also saves me valuable time when asked to take a group photograph. Now I don’t mind that job, I am a half decent photographer so I’ll happily take one of the offered cameras. But when the job is done don’t hand me another. Don’t be asking me to take the same photo with nine different cameras. You’re friends? I’ll ask. Then share this photo.

Yep, I am getting older.

I have slammed down many a laptop lid and thrown many a mobile phone across a room due to a frustration caused by something I have seen on Facebook. I have closed my account a few times but I always seem to find my way back to this oh, so toxic environment. I still have faith. Blind faith.

Faith that comes with age.

And that faith was rewarded big time six days ago. Clare Langan shared both a link to last week’s offering from Classic Adams and a comment. I was tagged in the post which brought it to my attention. Then a mutual friend of ours, and a mentor to me, Kevin Devane, posted a comment as well as a picture of a bookshop he’d passed by in Greenwich. He thought I’d like it. I did very much but I liked what happened next even more.

A conversation, of sorts, ensued between Kevin and Clare which resulted in Kevin suggesting if Clare was ever to find herself in Greenwich they should visit Greenwich Book Time and also enjoy a coffee. Me being me I know all the best coffee spots in Greenwich and tell them that Naked Coffee is just a short walk up from the bookshop and that’s where they should start. Then I comment and tag both Clare and Kevin saying how much I’d like to be on that date.

The next comment is Clare professing her love for this ‘triple date’ idea. And almost immediately another friend pipes up. Harry the Piano declares that the idea of being in a bookshop with Clare, Kevin and me had created a “kind of excitement that makes me happy.”

Some, maybe most, would be happy with this cheerful, friendly thread but I had other ideas and switching to a far more private forum I WhatsApp Harry, Kevin and Clare. Within an hour we have whittled down our availability and come up with a date. The four of us are making this date happen.

Early in 2025 we will all be inside Greenwich Book Time with a Naked coffee in hand.

I am beyond excited for this ‘date’. I have already picked out my outfit and cannot wait to share two of my favourite pastimes with three of my favourite people.

Luckily I only have 41 followers and six likes so the chances of this exclusive group being infiltrated by the masses is remote.