My girlfriend took French in high school, she had a pen-pal from France.
I wanted one too, sounded fun, so she gave me a name and address.
I still remember his name…..Jean Pierre Brassac.
He was my age.
He sent me pictures……………..I liked the Riverview boys better!
But he was still fun to write back and forth with.
I think the end of that story was when he sent me a proposal letter.
Serious!
Really!
He suggested I come to France and marry him.
That was too bizarre for me.
But on today’s TV, they have programs like that where people marry each other they don’t even know or have only known for less than 90 days.
Strange.

Probably like everybody else, most of the friends I have, I either met in school, my neighborhoods or at work.

I still have contact with my first Kindergarden girlfriend.
One of the reasons her friendship was special to me was because she had a family; a mom, a dad, a younger sister and brother, a baby sister and even a grandma.
I loved the feel of being in her house with her family.
I loved having dinner with them and spending the night.
Everyone sat around a big dining room table and we talked to each other, that was foreign to me.
I was a little bit shy but her parents were so nice and always made me feel like I counted as a human.
I felt a bond with her dad because he didn’t like mashed potatoes and neither did I.
I couldn’t help but wonder what in the world it would feel like to have him for a dad, such a nice man.

It was always fun to spend the night there.
Her bedroom was at the top of the back stairs.
We’d lie on her small bed for hours listening to WXYZ on the radio and a program called “Make It Or Break It” with Mickey Shorr playing new songs.
We loved to listen and then vote.
And we talked and we talked and we talked…..oh, and we laughed lots.

Her house had an attic on the 3rd floor, the kind you see in stories on TV; all wood, a pitched roof, small ornate little windows, lots of old furniture and trunks.
The trunks were full of clothing from probably her grandma’s time.
We had so much fun playing up there on rainy days; dressing up and pretending!

I had lots of fun girlfriends in grade school, mostly all in our neighborhood but a few that lived far enough that we couldn’t get there on bike. So we had to have our mom’s drive us back and forth.

There were neighborhood kids that went to public school.
I played baseball (horribly) with them and all the other games kids used to play in the summer ‘til they got called in for the night.

We moved to a neighboring town when I was entering 8th grade.
It was the first time I’d experienced being “the new girl in school,” it was fun.
I missed my old friends but my new friends were so easy to get to know.
Quickly I made some great girlfriends and kinda noticed boys for the first time.

Before long, I was wearing make-up and going to weekly Teen Club dances, and had fallen deeply in love with a high-school boy.

I had the greatest high-school best friend.
We were together all the time, shared lots of secrets and loads of laughs.
It wouldn’t have been near as much fun without her.
I cherish the memories.

I graduated and began working and made new friends.

Then came marriage and so many Navy friends as we traveled from Coast to Coast.

My first new military friend knocked on my Connecticut door one morning and introduced herself.
I think we were nineteen years old.
There was an immediate bond and it’s grown over all these years.
We’ve never exchanged one negative word with each other and she owns a part of my heart.
We’ve gone from young girls to “mature” women and still the friendship grows.

Eventually done with the Navy, we settled into a great family neighborhood and before long everyone knew everyone.
It was a perfect place for kids to grow up.

One house down lived a young woman whom I had no idea at the time would become a girlfriend I couldn’t live without.
Our bonding was slow, we planted our roots deep and I mean it, I couldn’t live without her.
Over the past 40+ years, we’ve marveled at all the parallels of our lives.
So much of the same things have happened to both of us at the same time.
Happy times, sad times, crazy times, frustrating times, money problems, medical problems, tragedies, divorces, re-marriages, empty nests, grandchildren, GREAT grandchildren (ugh!), the aging process and deaths.
We’ve shared it all.
We smoked our first joint together and we laughed ourselves silly.
We’ve cried together when it seemed all dark and rejoiced when we could see the light at the end of that tunnel.
She’s still the first one I run to when I need to talk.
Those roots we planted long ago are so entwined now that we have no idea where one ends and the other begins and we like it that way.
I love you, girlfriend!

I guess there are FRIENDS and there are ACQUAINTANCES.
Some friends are for the moment, they arrive right when we need them and then they go.
Some friends stay with us for the entire ride.
Sometimes our family members can also be our friends…..sometimes!
And of course, our furry, four-legged pets have gone from being just family pets to some of the most devoted friends we’ll ever have.

I think of all the different ways we meet people and how friendships are grown.

I’ve watched little children play with each other, they seem to have no measuring sticks.
What makes them choose the friends they choose, paying no mind to the way someone looks?
I guess the prejudices and attitudes haven’t been infused into them yet.

Sometimes I think our eyes choose our friends and sometimes I think we’d be better off making friends if we couldn’t see.

That’s how I met my French pen pal. We were strangers but we wrote back and forth and before long we were friends.
Granted, he took it a bit too far but, hey maybe I screwed up.
Maybe I should have accepted his proposal and today I might be living in a Chateau on the French Riviera with a French Maid saying “oui Madame” at my every whim.

I have a love/hate relationship with my computer…..it’s not my friend but, it has brought many old friends back into my life whom I’m sure I never would have found otherwise and for that I’m grateful.

I correspond back and forth with people I’ve never met, my eyes brought them to me but not for how they look …..for what they’ve written on Facebook pages.
Something might attract me to what someone has written and I comment, they comment back, we go back and forth, we start doing private messages and the next thing I know…..I have a new friend, one I’ve never seen.
So, before my eyes had a chance to judge if I liked the looks of a person or not, our thoughts and feelings reached out to each other and made us friends.

We’ve spent three glorious years living up on a hill, in a little condo overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Every day has been like being awake in an awesome dream yet we’re leaving.

We’re leaving because as wonderful as it’s been we miss our many Sacramento friends and our three very best friends Julie, Missy & Kris who happen to be our daughters.

The best part about all the new friends I’ve made on my computer is, they’ll come with me.
I’m not leaving them behind.
I’ll unplug this thing one day in San Diego and when I plug it back in Sacto…..there they’ll be, right there with me.

I wonder if other people ever stop and give a bit of deep thought to their FRIENDS.
The ones we’ve gabbed with, cried with and bitched with.
The ones who’ve always got our backs.
Where would we be without our friends?

I had a very strange friend once. I’ll write about him soon.
He always signed his notes to me, “Affectionately Art,” so I called him “A.A.”
IF you’ve read my book, “A.A.” and “ACM” are two different men, both VERY strange but still different.

A.A. lived in a small house on the edge of a cliff along The Big Sur.
He told me he was a recluse by choice and explained he’d loved once and lost.
His heart had broken and he never wanted that to happen again so he stayed away from people.

It took me quite a while to break through his protective shield and become friends.
I thought often about what A.A. said and well I guess he was right, but a very lonely right.

I’ve felt the hurt of betrayal and experienced the ending of friendships.
But, would I give up all the good memories and laughter to not have felt the sting?
I’d have to think hard about that one.

Today as I sit writing this little story to you, I think of my friends.
It makes me wonder how often others think of us with smiles on their faces yet we never know.
It’s almost a shame not to let someone know how much they’ve meant to us.
Why would we keep that inside?
It may be the just the boost someone needs.
Think of all the times friends have come to our side, did we tell them how much we needed them…..how much that helped pull us through?

This little story of mine was inspired by a friendship I’ve made with a woman I may never lay eyes on but she’s my friend just the same.
We’ve shared our stories and have the ability to compassionately understand each others feelings.
We offer encouragement at times, and send hugs back and forth.
We are what friends should be…..there for each other.
We didn’t have our eyes to judge, so we trusted our hearts.
There’s no jealousy, no nasty remarks, and we don’t care who voted for who.
There’s a RESPECT for each other’s feelings and a KINDNESS that we extend.
Our words flow from our machines, back and forth IN THE AIR from California to Arizona.
Thank you and I appreciate you, Sue Long Speakmon!

I love all the icons, funny and serious that people post for everyone to see but wouldn’t it be nice to hear from friends now and then, just from them to you?
Just a quick little note?
A hi?
An I’m thinking of you?
A how are you?
Wouldn’t that be so easy and mean so much to someone?
We don’t have to sit down with paper and pen, we don’t have to address an envelope, find a stamp and get to a mailbox.
All we have to do is let our fingertips talk.
Maybe just our quick little note is all someone may need.
Pick a fun memory, ask them if they remember.
Tell them something that meant so much to you, maybe they had no idea.
Let’s put a little more sugar in this bitter coffee we’ve been drinkin’ lately.
Let’s see what it can do.

Friends play a very important role in our lives and every single one we make is a treasure.

I do have a very best friend.
I met him in high school and in our senior year we steady dated.
Everything we did together was fun.
We thought we’d be together forever but life had other plans.
However 23+ years later and 3,000 miles from where we said good-bye, we found each other again.
It’s been 30+ years of spending every day with the most kind, decent, giving, fun, crazy man I could ever have dreamed of spending my life with.
He’s everything I could hope for in a true friend and I adore him
BUT…………………..
that’s another story!!!!!

Peace to all of you, my FRIENDS!