"Incidental" people you remember from childhood and sometimes wonder about...

[GiveMeOil]

By "incidental people" I mean those we knew in passing in some way rather than people who had a more central role in our lives.

Are there any of these people that you often think or wonder about?

For me, there was a girl I went to college in the early-00s with whose shoes (kitten heels or ballet pumps), belt (one of those chunky ones worn on the hip with a bit hanging down one leg), handbag (tiny shoulder bag), and eye shadow (right up to the eyebrows) were always a perfectly matching colour.
I think about her every time I'm shopping for new clothes and wonder what her style is like nowadays. I don't think I ever spoke to her and I can't remember her name.

There was also a boy who used to live up the road from me who used to lie about everything. I often wonder what he's like now and whether he grew out of the lying. I've tried finding him on social media but he had a really common name and haven't been able to do so.

Oh my, this one is sad.

I presume it was likely forced marriage for the pair of them.

Thanks @NorthernGnashers

30 years ago my sister and I stood behind a couple in line for a ride at a theme park. They had just got married and the whole time we queued the woman talked to her new husband all about their wedding and things that had happened with the dresses and flowers etc.

I sometimes find myself wondering where they are now, if they're still together, did they go on to have a family, are they still happy?

@izzygirlis4 I think I can imagine what likely happened. How sad. If it's what I imagine then I hope they are ended up with husbands who were kind to them.

I hope you have a happy safe life now and that it really has been a new beginning for you.

How heartbreaking. I hope she somehow has been able to fulfil her dreams in spite of that.

There was a girl in my primary school class called Paula who was physically tiny, always wore a dirty and smelly brown dress and would hardly come to school at all. She was bullied pretty badly, and I'm ashamed to say I joined in.

One day she disappeared from school and never came back. The headteacher came into the room and talked to the teacher and I was eavesdropping and heard them talking about Paula. She had been taken to a children's home and the head was talking about how well she was doing, how her injuries have healed and she was filling out because she was being fed properly.

Every so often I think about her and hope she had a happy ending.

My best friend from primary.
She was only there for a couple of years.
She moved and I kept in touch and went to stay with her and he family.
I was 12 ISH and it was v V obvious their was domestic violence going on.
We lost touch but I tracked her down on friends reunited years ago but then lost touch again.
I cannot find her on social media

Boy in my primary year who was completely ostracised. He also behaved horribly but it's difficult to know how much one thing led to the other.

I looked him up a few years ago because he had a fairly uncommon name and he had a small internet presence, and a fairly unremarkable life except that he was listed to be up in court.

I looked again just now because this thread reminded me and his internet presence has been completely erased.

I made friends with a new girl in infants school. I know she started later than September when I was year 1. She did year 2 I remember having 7th birthday party at home. I did invite her but she never came. She moved up to junior school with us. But after about a week we never saw her again. We did ask our teacher but she just said she's gone to a new school. Often wonder what happened to her.

Yes .. they was a boy called Jake who lived with his mum ( they were squatters very Bohemian across the road from me ..) really clever , one summer he got me to join him doing the library bookworm challenge.. I honestly believe without his input at that young age I wouldn't have been able to read the way I can ... as I.m dyslexic .. after that summer his mum had a little girl ) and the council evicted them... always think what happened to him

There was an unkempt strange girl in my primary school. She told lies all the time. She was bullied a lot. I was a quiet awkward girl myself and didn’t join in but I certainly didn’t befriend or defend her. The playground whispers were that her mum was a prostitute.

I do greatly regret my behaviour towards her one time though. She would always tell ludicrous unbelievable lies that couldn’t possibly be true- millionaire father, luxury hotels etc.

She came back to school after a long weekend and said she had been to Disneyland. Now, we were in the far north of Australia and no-one is travelling to Disneyland and back in a weekend, let alone this strange dirty girl. I was an impeccably honest child and this enraged me and I called her out and made her feel small. I was the quiet type of girl that people listen to when fired up, as it’s so unusual. The class joined in mocking her and I felt the glow of righteous indignation.

Years later I found out that her mum had been arrested for pimping her younger sister out. It suddenly became crystal clear to me what type of awful life this girl had experienced. I am sure it would have happened to her too. She made the mistake of letting her fantasy world leak out to the class that day after the long weekend and I, middle class girl with parents who loved her, tore her to shreds. I will always regret this.

Roger used to pop in for a coffee, he was always on his own but had a wife & 4 children.

then he disappeared, asked my dad and he apparently emigrated to Australia with his family to try and make his marriage work, fresh start and all.

hus wife had been having an affair

so did it work out for him, did they stay in Australia?

An discussion argument with ex mil about what age young people realise their sexuality led to me looking up a boy I went to primary school with who was very flamboyant, stylish and just generally fabulous. He now owns an erotic cake shop in Las Vegas and has many celebrity clients. The about me section says he opened the shop with his husband of over 20 years. I was so pleased to see him doing well.

There was a family I remember and I’d see the mum walking up the hill near to me, holding hands with her children and smiling, like a really beaming smile. They also had long, flowing hair and just added to the wholesomeness for me 😊

Loads! A guy I spent a night and morning chatting to while my friend was with his friend in another room. We watched a nature documentary and did voice overs to the animals (drunk) and he told me all about how he dressed up in Victorian outfits when he was in his hometown up North. He wrote to me once with a poem and even selotaped a bug onto the paper that had the audacity to wander across it as he was writing. I used to wonder what my life would have been like if I had had the guts to join him in his Victoriana obsession and be brave enough to dress up too.

Boy called Barnaby from another local primary school. We used to go to the same afterschool group (latchkey) and he was one of a few smelly kids who used to be a cross between super brave and stoic and very unstable. He got his finger trapped in a caravan door (there was one on the playground we used to all play house in) when someone stormed out and I seem to remember it was badly hurt.

A friend I gave a keyring to - was resin and had shells in it - when I came back from Florida in the last week before moving to a posh girls school. It was one of those points when you knew your life was on a different course to whatever had been set out for you before. I remember thinking that none of the kids I was close with would probably remember me, despite us sitting for what seemed like hours on a log and cutting our hair into the wind with green crocodile scissors!

Paula. We were loosely friends. She was a strange girl, very old fashioned and quaint in her manners. Things like wearing old ladies white gloves at 11. She came to my house once or twice. I went to her house once. I don't remember a mum but her dad was there and it was a weird atmosphere. I remember a friend telling me that Paula had said she or the dog (don't remember which) were hit by the vacuum cleaner. Looking back, i think her home life might have been abusive. Sad. I wonder where she is now...

Laura Claydon. Girl in my class moved away circa 1975-1977. Not sure how it came about but my mother agreed with her mother that I could have her hamster. Hammy.

I don't recall writing to Laura after she moved but Hammy had a great life for a couple of years.

Laura was very distinctive as she had very thick black or dark brown hair that was past her waist. She would be around 58 now.

There’s a couple really…

Boy in my class (British) when we lived in the Far East years ago. I was about 7. We hung out together, and even starred as Mary and Joseph in the Nativity play. I have photos, and when I look at them I wonder what happened to him after I came back to England shortly afterwards. I have tried looking him up on social media, but he’s got a fairly normal name and there are too many of the same name around.

Another is a girl called Sharon who was in my class at a different school. We were friends for a short while until she told me that she couldn’t be friends any more because the other girls thought I was ‘weird’ (I suppose I was a bit!), but anyway she didn’t want to be associated with me after that. I left the school shortly afterwards anyway, when my parents divorced. Maybe she wonders why I left so suddenly?!

I think about people I went to school/uni with from time to time or people I used to work with many moons ago. I got on really well with some of them & wonder what they are doing now, if they’ve got kids etc. I don’t have Facebook so can’t have a nosy😆

A little girl called Michelle that I used to play with. Her mum was friends with my mum, they met at playgroup. Then one day they were just gone and my mum wouldn’t tell me why. She told me years later that the husband had been up to all kinds of dodgy stuff, and she thinks they did a moonlight flit as they couldn’t pay the rent. No phones or Internet in these days, so my mum totally lost touch with her friend too 🤷‍♀️

i Might have been one of those children who people wonder about - I moved a lot as a child (had 7 primary schools! Shortest was for about a month). In fact I’ve seen something on here that might have been me as a child, but I’ve a fairly common name so no one could Google me easily. Nothing dodgy in my case, just a parent who moved a lot for their job.

i feel for some of these stories though - I know a few kids I meat as a child who would be considered ‘at risk’ these days but were just shrugged at as being ‘oh those dirty kids from the Jones family - yes they are all like that’ and no further action taken!

I googled her and found her! Lives 5 minute walk from me! By all accounts she's living a happy, successful and full life. I'm really pleased.

I'm so glad you started this thread, I sometimes dream about kids I went to school with and think of people and wonder where they are, a boy called Toby i once kissed at a disco, sadly I cannot remember his surname..I wonder why people we meet at such a young age remain in our minds as adults, I'm love some psychologist to come along and tell us.

Some of these are so sad

I was one of those who disappeared into thin air, in the first couple of weeks of secondary school. I’d had a nervous breakdown and was very poorly, and ended up being admitted to hospital for a long time and never returned to my family home. I’ve occasionally wondered if anybody thought about me, especially considering my parents stayed in the same house but without me there. Maybe they thought I’d died I changed my name when I was 16 and had no online presence before then (internet wasn’t such a thing) so was/am untraceable.

As for people I wonder about… when I was 8 or so I was diagnosed with a heart condition and had to spend a couple of weeks on a ward with other children, all teenagers, with a massive holter attached. I was so scared. This lovely lad of about 14 who I think also had a heart problem took me under his wing and introduced me to the others. We all played cards and board games together, and stole wheelchairs to race around in when the nurses weren’t looking. I had a great time and didn’t want to leave. I really hope they’re ok.