Peter Gaston
A remark during a chance meeting on Thursday has led to a reunion after 42 years for former Napier cafe rivals Tina Verhoeven and Pia Meyer.
Tina, a recent immigrant from Holland, worked at Napier Cafeteria in Hastings Street while Pia, from Finland, worked about 25m away at the Contessa
Coffee Shop.
Mrs Meyer, who runs a clothing shop in Anchorage, has visited Napier five times on the way to Norsewood to buy more Norsewear products, particularly socks because they were prized by dog mushers and fishermen.
On each trip she meets her old cafe boss, Justine Cook, who managed the Contessa while owner Frank Walker was visiting family in Britain.
But she had not seen Tina again until she popped into the Whales Tale antique shop in Ahuriri on Thursday. Tina, trying to make polite conversation, asked Pia ,"You're European?", the answer to which was, "I'm Finnish but now live in Alaska".
Tina: "I knew a Finnish girl who worked in a coffee bar in Napier 40 years ago. (Pia was suddenly alert). Her name was Pirkko Meyer".
Pia: "I stood there dumbfounded for a moment. That's me. I knew it was my friend Tina because she pronounced my name correctly. I'm known as Pia now because no one could say Pirkko".
Yesterday, the two women and Justine met for coffee at Thorpe's, across the road from site of the old Napier Cafe and Tina's old work place.
But their conversation was not about the big event in Napier this weekend.
They were deep in their past, recalling the difficulty they had finding the right English words when they first arrived in Napier.
"I would say it in Dutch, Pia in Finnish. Then we somehow worked it out," said Tina.
Pia admitted that despite all the years she always admired the blue handbag Tina had at the time. "I'd loved to have had it".
Gals in their flapper frocks and guys in their bracers and boaters went by, as Tina and Pia continued to reminisce, unnoticed.
