A lifetime of special deliveries;
Friends have exchanged same card since 1956
Paul Wilson
The Hamilton Spectator

Life long buddies, Jo Nicholl and Joyce Croucher, Have exchanged a 15-cent Beaucraft birthday card since 1956

Today Jo Nicholl turns 64 and a card just arrived in the mail from her friend Joyce Croucher. It was kind of ratty, but Jo took no offence. That old birthday greeting with the red orchid on its front is the most precious piece of mail she gets.

It was made in Canada by Beaucraft and it cost 15 cents. That was money well spent, because that card has been bouncing back and forth since 1956.

Six months from now, it will be Jo's turn to sign the card. On Jan. 16, Joyce will be 64, too. Jo is always glad when her friend catches up.

Jo, short for Josephine, grew up in the east end, on Allandale Street between Holy Family Church and the Homeside Hotel. Her father worked for Frost Steel & Wire. Jo went to Queen Mary school. Her last name then was MacEachern, a good Scottish one that nobody pronounced right.

Joyce grew up on Newlands Avenue, near Barton and Kenilworth, and her brother is still in the family home. Her father was in the tile business. The last name was Moro and Joyce's parents came from Italy.

Joyce went to Fairfield school until Grade 5. Then it was time to switch and most of her friends were to start at W. H. Ballard. But Joyce was on the wrong side of Cope Street and got sent off to Queen Mary.

Good fortune and the fact that both their last names started with M put Jo and Joyce together, in a Grade 6 class taught by Miss Truman, a grey-haired woman with lovely chipmunk cheeks who actually seemed to like kids.

Jo and Joyce both wore glasses, so that was an instant bond.

Jo remembers Joyce as the girl who did not smile.

When Joyce was a young girl, she got pushed to the ice and it caused one of her front teeth to only grow in halfway. It wasn't until high school that she got her tooth fixed and her smile back.

Jo had been a pudgy girl. In Grade 6 she stretched out, but there was still a pesky little pot belly.
"So we had a code," Joyce says. "I'd say to Jo, 'PS.' That meant, "Pull in your stomach.'"

They liked school. "Without being braggy," Jo says, "Joyce and I were the smartest in the class."
Jo was best at English and history.

Joyce's strengths were math and science.

Out of the classroom, the two loved getting on a city bus and heading to some little carnival, anywhere they could go on rides.

There was the raw excitement of lipstick. Jo went first, then Joyce's mother finally gave in. The colour of the day: deep ruby red.

At Delta High, the girls were in different classes. But they both joined the Glee Club and can still do You'll Never Walk Alone in perfect harmony.

Both started office work straight out of high school. Jo was mail girl at Robertson-Irwin building products; Joyce was a secretary in purchasing at Stelco.

And it was then, the summer that Jo turned 18, that Joyce walked into a drugstore and bought that birthday card.

She liked it because it had a paper wheel that let you dial in the date.

Joyce spun it around so that July 18 showed in the little window. She wrote Happy Birthday Jo, Love Joyce, 1956 along the top of the inside page.

The rest is history.

The two have married. They have moved. They've had children. They've had losses. In 1989, one of Jo's sons died in a fire. Seven years ago, Joyce's husband died of a heart attack.

Good friends help each other through the pain.

And through the years, not once has that birthday card failed to make the trip.

There was a scare last year.

Jo sent the card to Joyce, who goes to Florida for the winter. Jo mailed it early and put on extra postage.
Joyce's birthday came and went, but no sign of the card. A week passed. And another. The card was gone.
A dark cloud settled in.

Then, a month after her birthday, Joyce went to the mail, then dashed to the phone. "Jo, thank God, it's here."

They decided to never again send the card across the border.

Now Jo hands the card to Joyce on New Year's Eve, just before that annual trip to Florida.
"I'm close to my sisters," Joyce says, "but there's something special about a friend. I can tell Jo anything."
Jo nods. "You have to keep your friends. They know all your secrets."

StreetBeat appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Contact Paul Wilson at pwilson@hamiltonspectator.com or phone 905-526-3391.