The Joys of Old Friendships

 A very good morning to you on a cool early morning, when the forecast is for a "reasonably" hot day.  I will take my blessings however they are doled.  I love these cool, dewy morning hours and try to accomplish as much as possible before I get red-faced, irritable, and tired.

Well, that is probably too much information.  Suffice it to say, I am happy that someone invented air conditioning.

My real subject for the day is the blessing of old friends.  Good Guy and I got to spend Saturday evening with a wonderful couple from the town where he used to teach school.  He has known them for many more years than I, since I only came on the scene 24 years ago.  (See, I told you we were old!)  So they qualify as old friends, and their younger kids, all married now, were just starting school when I first knew them.

So we caught up on the town obits, the news of the children and grandchildren, what they are reading, where we've been traveling, and how good it is to get together again.

Tomorrow I'll see my "back to my youth" old friends when my nursing class has a reunion.  I always have to laugh at my reaction, because (to me) my classmates all look the same as ever, but their husbands are really aging.

Our planning has focused on how many of us can get together at one time, plus what to bring to the potluck.  Program consists of finding something for the husbands to do, while the wives gather in small enough groups to visit and catch up.

We are fairly unique, I think, in that we have a round robin letter that circulates among eleven of us so we get news of each others several times a year.  It makes its circuit about once per season, but I certainly wouldn't get individual letters from each of them that often.  Nobody writes that many letters anymore, do they?

These get-togethers are cause to reflect on the ways we are the same people we were when we were 18-21 year olds in nurses' training, even though so much time has passed and we have experienced so much of life.  It reassures me somehow, that even though most of us have grown wiser and have weathered some stormy times, there is still some mischief to be seen.  The people who were always full of fun are still laughing, and the smartest are still smart.  The stylish are still looking fine, and we are all staying out of the obituary column.

 Nobody smokes anymore, though many took it up when they first left home.  (I thought I was the voice of reason, telling everyone it was dumb to start.  They thought I was a big nag, and I probably was.)


My only distinction in the group was as the class wit, so you must understand that it was a very small class indeed.  (Cue in the laugh track.)


Well, you will have to excuse me now so I can get to work on my contribution to the potluck.  In true Weight Watcher fashion, I should have signed up to bring a veggie tray.  Alas, I am going to bring porketta, simmered to tenderness, and buns.  The husbands have to be fed---and some of them still eat meat....and maybe it isn't too late to be more than the class wit.