Old Friends Come to Call

I got a call while working and he said, "Can you come out and play?" For a second, I had to remember who he was...

Two old friends of mine visited me after work. They showed up on motorcycles. They're old friends from childhood. Friends that I knew once...their faces and voices so familiar. Two boys all grown up and now men with families. And me, sitting in a pink dress, laughing at our banter and liking it. When I was young, I hated pink and I hated dresses. Now I love both.

We sat on the granite steps at my sister's house. Set back from the main road, one commented that you 'really can't hear the traffic noise from back here.' We talked of cars, car repairs, family members, things we like, things we don't like, and about the ill health of one of our other old friends. It is our friend's deteriorating health that brought us together this time. In the past, we have spent a few hours together each five years during class reunions.

We talked of other old friends who'd drifted away. We wondered why out of a group of 32 friends, only a handful keep in touch. I interjected that some friends are meant to come into your life for only a short time, serve their purpose, and then depart. Others stay friends for life. Regardless of the length of time you are friends or amount of time you spend in each other's company, some touch your lives in a special way and stay in your heart forever.

For we three, our relationships began in kindergarten. We also went to elementary and high school together. When we were kids in school we played together, ate together, learned together, and worked together. Being from the same neighborhood we rode the school bus together, too. A handful of class photos and yearbooks show our progression from six-year-olds to eighteen-year-olds. Through those years we grew and perhaps our influences on each other helped to make the people we are today.

In our innocent ways we all interacted together, though for my part, I have come to realize, I did not confide my feelings to anyone. No one knew my angst...no one knew the real me...no one had a key in which to unlock my heart. It took my kind, patient husband to unlock me and heal me. If I had opened up earlier I probably would've taken a different path in life. Because I did not tell my feelings does that mean I failed as a friend?

I wonder if I can say things now that I never said when I was a child? Is it appropriate to tell inner secrets to old friends, or must I keep those old feelings elusive and share them only with my spouse? Do old friends --who become new friends-- give you a little latitude and overlook a growing silence on the phone while you decide what you can reveal and what you must keep secret? Are these old friends wondering the same things I am wondering?

Two old friends of mine visited me after work on their motorcycles and made me laugh. I liked that!

Can you revisit friendships with persons of the opposite sex that you probably had a crush on at least once in your lifetime? Is there a certain protocol you must follow?

Comments welcome!