DROPPING ‘E’ REUNITES MATES AFTER 60 YEARS

Les Boscombe and Joe Waghorn last saw each other on the beaches of Normandy back in 1944 when, pinned down by enemy gunfire, they pledged to remain friends forever.

Yet despite their best intentions, Les, 83, of Traubert’s Heath, and Joe, 84, from Carshalton, ended up losing touch as the years went by. And so it might have remained, had it not been for a mutual interest in creamy confections and a careless misprint in a magazine.

Last month, Joe, a widower of fifteen years, decided that he needed to broaden his horizons a little. So he placed a personal ad in the October issue of The Custard Fanciers’ Gazette, which read:

“Octogenarian, into caramel custard, blancmange and other oral delights, seeks similar for beating and whipping. Eggs and cream provided. Jo, Box 113.”

Now it so happened that Les, out of pure curiosity, bought a copy of the same magazine from the sub post office where he collects his pension. “I was browsing through the small ads,” said Les at his home in Boxwood Lane, “when my eye stopped on that one.

“It looked intriguing, so, just out of devilment, I answered it. Because there was no ‘e’ at the end of the name, I thought it was a woman I was writing to. I didn’t sign my name because I’d never done anything like that before and I was a bit embarrassed, to tell the truth.”

Joe promptly wrote back and the two agreed to meet, still thinking that it was to be a tryst between dessert lovers of the opposite sex.

“So there I was, standing under the clock on Waterloo station,” said Les, “with a carnation in my buttonhole, waiting for ‘Jo’ who was supposed to be wearing the same.

“Well, I noticed this bloke wearing a carnation in his buttonhole just like mine, but I never connected him with the ad. I just looked at him and thought ‘poor bugger, he’s been stood up’. And all along, he was probably thinking exactly the same about me!”

After an hour’s fruitless waiting and piqued by curiosity, the two finally struck up a conversation. It was then that they began to realise that some kind of mistake had been made.

So they repaired to a local pub, still unaware that they were in fact old mates from the Normandy landings.

“It was only when we were getting into our second pint that the penny dropped and we realised who each other really was,” chuckled Les. “When it dawned on me that this was Joe Waghorn, and that I hadn’t seen him since D-Day, well, I tell you, you could have knocked me down with an egg custard.”

Now that they’ve been reunited, the two old soldiers have vowed not to lose touch again. And they’ve also promised each other to check the small print in the personals very carefully from now on.