When Childhood Flies

Today's ear worm is courtesy of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, circa 1970.  If you want to make me cry, just play this song.

I hope the day will be a lighter highway

For friends are found on every road

Can you ever think of any better way

For the lost and weary travellers to go

Making friends for the world to see

Let the people know you got what you need

With a friend at hand you will see the light

If your friends are there then everything's all right

It seems to me a crime that we should age

These fragile times should never slip us by

A time you never can or shall erase

As friends together watch their childhood fly

With all my finger-flapping about food, food shopping, cooking food, food strategies, food failures, and more of the same, I haven't had the chance to write about how absolutely lovely my weekend was, especially Friday night.  I got to meet up with some old friends, from a time long ago and far away.

(Forget the dude in the middle, he is totally irrelevant to this story.)  

Clockwise from the dude is Barbara, then Kathy, me and Lynn.  

We were babies - this was New Paltz, 1971.  

I was 18 years old and that is my real hair color.

Not sure if Mark wasn't in the picture because he was taking the picture, but that is highly likely.

Sandy and me, 1975.  Oh dear God, weren't we young???

Steve and me, 1972.  Still haven't been able to meet up in person 

but we managed to Skype a few times, and we play Words for Friends.

Talk about young! You can see that Vicki is wearing Dan's fraternity pin.

Does anyone even do that anymore?

We still have not been able to gather all of us together at the same time, but some of us have gotten together in various shortened permutations.

My grandmother told me time and again that the best friends you will ever have are the ones you make when you are young.  This was one of those few times I could not argue with her, because looking back across those 50 or so years that whooshed by much too fast,  I still have a number of friends from my teen years.  That is not to say that I have not made and kept close "new" friends but even my new friends are getting up toward the 20 year mark.

The majority of my "old" friends date back to my time at SUNY New Paltz.  Some, like Kathy, Mark, and Vicki have been constants, while others, like Barbara, Lynn, and Steve, were "found" through the miracle of the internet and Facebook.  

It is wonderful to meet up after 30 or 40 years to find that the bond of youth still exists.  So on Friday evening, we had a lovely, funny time, eating good food at the Ale House, drinking $2 margaritas, and enjoying each other's company, although we were nowhere near as raucous as we were last year when Mark, Sandy, Barbara and I got together, with a couple of patient spouses, at Toojays. We even managed to Skype Lynn into the party.  The waitstaff was delighted, as were Barbara and I, because getting New York-style deli is next to impossible in Central Florida, so we all got to share really good food with really good friends, a perfect combination.

I am thankful for my friends, old, new, and renewed.