What Makes Friday Evening so Special? (The Non-Religious Reasons)

Having not been at work for 4 weeks, the magical weekly moment that is *Friday evening* seems to have taken on a different ambience, and this variance has got me thinking about my experience of Friday evenings through the OOK epoch…….

If you Google “why is friday special”, every return has a religious connotation, but I think there is a more secular rationale as to why we say “Thank God its Friday” and as you know I feel that personal experience is the best way to explain a point.

Although not actually an evening my first memory of Friday is that it was when we had Teddy Bear Pudding for lunch at my primary school, but it was still special in a 7 year old kind of way……

Moving on, a very special memory is of Mum’s Friday night rehearsal for a production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel when she was with The Lowestoft Players ( http://www.lowestoftplayers.co.uk/pastproductions/pastcomplete.html), but she went there on her own, so why so special for me? Well, it meant I got Dad to myself! We simply used to go to a chip shop, buy a bag of chips and go “window shopping” Remember? When shops all closed at 5.30? I used to enjoy that time so bloody much………Dad died later that year.

Then theres M.A.S.H. in the mid 70’s Friday 9.00 p.m. BBC2 It made you laugh, it made you cry, it made you think about the futility of war. An enlightening moment in my adolescence. Oh BTW I got to see Sue as well! ( see .csv Version of My Life So Far. Part 2a The Life of OOK-The Youth Cult Years for details)

Then there’s starting work in the late 70’s and being able to afford Beer and a Chinese Takeaway (eaten from the tank of my Yamaha FS1E in the car park of course)

Then theres more late 70’s/early 80’s Punk and New Romantic Posing, now the former took little preparation but the latter….thats where my lovely Mum comes in again as an advisor on my eye liner/eye shadow/blusher etc. application.

Then theres marraige in the mid 80’s, Lovejoy and Auf Weidersein Pet I so loved those shows and truly wanted to become an anique dealer with a side line of building ! Now homemade wine was also a big feature of my 80’s Friday evening experience, Mrs OOK and myself were so hard up I made my own and we would toast Lovejoy and Friday evenings with a glass of cheeky Spiced Beetroot Shiraz from the OOK Appellation.

Then theres the 90’s, children and back at Uni as a mature part timer. Friday evening was late opening at the Library…so we all used to go there to change our books and it was free…….

Then theres the 00’s, Kayaks and Pool feature bigtime as a promise to Miss and Master OOK to make me leave work in good time on Friday to spend quality time with them. The rationale being if I promise them and don’t turn up I’m letting both them and myself down. We would paddle a few miles and then go to the local for pool and a drink, initially they would have softies, in fact Miss OOK still does, but now as a hardened student when he’s home Master OOK joins me with a real ale….

Then theres the 10’s and that now seems to consist of a couple of beers at my local the awesome Butchers Arms ( www.mypub.org.uk ) with Mrs OOK, and then home for a relaxing supper and to do #FF’s for all my lovely Twitter followers.

This started as a reflective exercise, but has ended up being an example of my own personal Zeitgeist and about how, as that Zeitgeist has moved on, so my choice of activity has changed and adapted to correspond to my circumstances.

So what makes your Friday evening special?