Friends Continued

Well, I blogged about high school friends, work friends and new friends.

Now, I am on to friends who you meet, live by move away and they and/or you continue to stay in touch.

One particular couple Jo and Roy, we met when we lived in Atlanta for 9 years. We met them when we were looking at some property in a suburb outside of Atlanta, Alpahretta back in 1991. They were also checking out property. We saw their station wagon, saw their license plates (NY) and thought "oh boy, they are like us, transplants"!!!! Their kids (Allison and Bryan) were in the back of the car waiting and ready to go. We stopped and for those of you who know Ron, the conversation was not a short one.

Turned out they were moving down from NY, cold turkey, meaning they decided to transplant themselves. Not like us, being relocated because that is what your company decided to do. Back in the 90's the economy was in the droll drums (although not like today).

As soon as I met Jo, knew I would like her. We both started building our houses at the same time and so we shared a lot of fun, pain and frustration together. I'll never forget the time, Jo told me she was going to paint their entry way inside a bright red. Coming from CA you just didn't see those type of bold colors being used. So I was thinking, okay let's see what this looks like when it is done. It was beautiful and the reddish red you can imaging.

Over the years we spent a lot of time together. We joined them for many Thanksgiving when we were not coming back out to CA to see the family. Jo is from a large Italian family and after they moved down a couple of her cousins and Roy's brother moved down as well. Heck we got Jo to join us in the Hot Tub a couple of times. Guess New Yorker's think us Californian's are kind of all new age stuff. Ha-ha

We watched the kids grow up and both are great young adults. In fact, Roy and Jo are soon to become grandparents for the first time. Allison and her hubby are having their first baby in a couple more months.

You wonder why I am blogging about them today, well, I talked with Roy today for quite a while. Then later on while I was doing some stuff around the house, listening to Talking Heads (Speaking in Tongues) and every time I hear this particular CD I think of them, especially Roy. One year when a bunch of us were houseboating out on Lake Lanier, we played Talking Heads all weekend long. On the way home, the 2 guys (Roy and Bill) decided to moon each other on the way back from where we were at on the Lake. Allison and Bryan just shook their head at their Dad. Bill, the wild man what do you say. Bill was always mooning someone. You just never knew when it would happen.

We will keep in touch and consider them family. I am sure it is the same with them as we continue to get family invites, but we can't always make the trip back there. We did go back for Roy's 50th and Allison's wedding and had a good time, even though I broke my wrist (that is another story for another time). They have been out here and we are working on them to come back out.

Friends, you don't have to always see all the time, there is just a special bond there that doesn't go away.