Charles meets "homeless" schoolmate

LONDON, DEC 5: On a visit with the down-and-out, Prince Charles was taken aback on Thursday to encounter a homeless man who told him that he and the would-be king attended the same exclusive prep school when they were boys.“It just shows you, doesn’t it?” the Prince mused after the encounter with Clive Harold at the office of the Big Issue, a magazine sold by the homeless.Charles was sitting with some of the vendors as part of a tour of the magazine’s offices when harold casually asked him: Do you realize we were at school together?”

“No” the Prince replied in wonder. When told it was London’s Hill House School 40 years ago, Charles leaned toward Harold and, smiling broadly, reminisced about the mint sweets the headmistress used to dole out there.“The Prince did not remember me, but I remember him because we both had big ears and he was obviously well-known there,” said Harold. Both he and Charles were 8 at the time. Harold said his father had been a millionaire financier and he himself went on to become a successful author and show business correspondent. But then his second marriage fell apart 10 years ago and he turned to alcohol, he said. Before leaving, the prince told his friend, “As long as you’re all right, that’s the main thing.”