Old Friends Are The Best Friends

Ah, old friends. There's nothing like them. They're the ones that know you best. They knew you when. They've been through it all with you. I was lucky enough to reunite with one of my best old friends yesterday.

I met K way back in 1975...(go ahead and say that in an old lady voice in your head). She was out from Wisconsin visiting her big sister (my neighbor) for a month. We became fast friends and spent a lot of time together during her stay. She was 14, I was 11. When she left we became pen pals.

Pen pals was much more popular back then. Long distance calling was only for very special occasions, and of course this was looooooong before email! We were very devoted pen pals. We wrote on a regular basis, probably at least once or twice a month, and never forgot to send a birthday or Christmas card.

I had 2 other friends that I also wrote to. I remember sitting down some days and writing out 3 letters, one to each friend, similar in content, but personalized to them. I can't even imagine my kids doing that. My girls have a friend that moved to Oklahoma about a year ago and I have to really encourage them to sit down and write and then to write more than a few sentences. I think it may be a lost art. Sigh...

So, doing the math, K and I have been friends for 35 years! Imagine that! (Dang! I'm getting old!) We've seen each other a total of 3 days during those 35 years. The first time was in 1996, when she was again visiting her sister (who was now in San Francisco), then 2 years ago, and again, yesterday.

For some reason we have a really strong bond, and we don't feel awkward when we see each other. It's like seeing a friend I just saw last week. Strange but really cool at the same time. It's never a feeling of "I need to get to know her again", we just start right in chatting and catching up on each other's lives (because we don't write as often as we should anymore!)

It was a beautiful day in the city yesterday, and we had a great time window shopping and visiting the beach. It was fantastic.

Funny when I arrived, her sister commented on how similarly we were dressed.

Hoodies, jeans and black boots. Yep, there's some sort of wacky bond going on with us for sure! What a blessing old friends are!