Old Friends

Well, over the last two years, I have reconnected with old friends and discovered family. Something must be in my karma lately as I recently reconnected from one of my oldest friends. Her name is Stephanie, aka Steff. We go way back. We've known each other since about 3rd or 4th grade. Went thru Jr High together and High School. We were kind of the odd ones in school as we came from homes where our parents were divorced and remarried. In the 60's that was so unheard of.

Even when I moved away (1963 to 1966) for a couple of years because my step-Dad was in the Army we still kept in touch by writing letters. Writing letters is probably old school to some but that is how everyone kept in touch at that time. We didn't always get a chance to talk on the phone because our letter writing was constant. We shared everything with each other in those letters, boyfriends, schools, etc. She would get my letters of being the new kid in school, being in a new location that I thought was so foreign. Today, I would call it a displaced Califorian living on a military base in Missouri and then Kansas. Stef was my savior to hear what was going on and what was "hip" in CA......

When we moved back to CA, she made fun of my new half-assed CA/Southern accent. I worked that whole summer to get rid of that accent. Even though I was gone for about 2 1/2 years it was like I had never left. Her Mom was still a character and Stef and I picked up our hanging out like it was yesterday.

Looking back on the things we did, boy we could tell some stories. However, we won't go into a lot of them.

I can share there is probably nothing worse than having a father watch over 2 teenage girls for the summer. Steff's Dad was the Harbor Master up at Lake Berryessa. This is where I learned how to ski. Looking back we probably gave him some more of his gray hairs than when we got there. But they were fun times.

We grew up, got married, had kids and then lost touch with each other. Over the years, I've wondered what she was up too and doing. As one of the last connections we had was my ex-husband, he had lost touch with them as well so I was not able to locate her. Well the internet defintely provides a way now for locating people and family. A couple of days ago, her name popped up on classmates.com finally. So I sent her an email and then also decided to check out facebook. Well, we have hooked up and I hope we are able to keep in touch.

Friends have history. It is also interesting to see how friends go through things that you don't necessarily go through with family. You also share things with friends that you probably don't with family.

I feel very happy to have reconnected with Stef and hope that we can regain our friendship again. Life is too short.......