Make new friends ... and keep the old ...

If there are Brownies or Girl Scouts in your past, you probably sang many songs about friendship around the campfire ... but "Make new friends but keep the old" resonated me this week as one of my dear friends from my "coming of age" years in high school paid us an overnight visit. She and a friend had been to the Black Hills and were willing to drive back to Wisconsin via Nebraska if they could stop and see us. The answer was ... of course!! 

Rob has accused me on occasion of never letting go of any friends. So not true ... too many have been "forgotten" somewhere along the way. But no, I haven't parted with any of my true friends ... whether they were childhood, high school, work, young married/old married/first married/second married ... or couldn't-be-categorized but lovely friends!

This blog, however, is about old friends ... the ones that remind us of who we were and who, hopefully, see us as better than we were. I often wish, though, that I could step into the mind of an old friend who hasn't seen me in many a year. When I was in my early 40's, I saw an old friend from high school for the first time since graduation. When she came to my door, I thought ... why is Claudia's MOM coming to see me? (And remember ... we were in our 40's ... not 60's!) Ha. So I would imagine that my face has prompted a few of those comments, too. (Although I will include herewith a picture of my mom and me ... and I can tell the difference. But perhaps I need to find one of my mom in her 60's ... okay, you got me there!) 

Returning to the topic of hand ...  old friends. My friend Debby ... the center of many a high school fun-packed evening ... arrived at our house and within the welcoming hug and kiss, we were right back to where we started ... laughing at the silliest of things and sharing stories both past and present. For the sake of brevity (yeah, like that's every been a consideration), I will only share a couple of the best stories. But I would like to add ... that all of our evenings were like this ... plain good old-fashioned fun. We've added wine to our evenings now ... but we still had a ton'o'fun!

Here's to the memories of:

• Packing her VW Bug full of guys and driving around the K-Mart (now the Hy-Vee) parking lot, hoping to make the Guinness Book of Records. Without blogging or Facebook to help us memorialize such events, our best recollection is ... I was in the very back (not the back seat but the tiny little space behind the back seat) complete with two guys; then four more in the back seat; and, four in the front seat.  Plus a few wild and crazy guys who would get half of their body into the Bug once the car took off ... so best guess: 11 to 14. 
• Driving her VW Bug around town on a cold December day ... feeling like we had the world on a string. We would stand up while driving (yes, she had a sun roof) to sing along with Simon and Garfunkel's "I'm a Rock." 
• Thanks for all the great memories, Deb, Marsha, Connie, Georgia, Claudia, Mary, Cathie ... and thanks for being my friends for so long and for so well! 
• And here's to my mom ... whom my friends always adored even when I was in my eye-rolling, "Mother ... really" stage!