Chums and Buddies

We had an interesting visit on Christmas from a family and friends who we have either known for 30 years or just met and known for 30 years.

Two of the females went back as chums for - well - a far piece and clearly have stuck by one another like glue. Good hearts tend to do that.

School brought them together and it got us all to talking about persons who are our oldest friends or generally who we have known the longest.  It is a fair topic for the season as Hanukkah and Christmas are all about tradition and intermixed into traditions are the friends one shares them with.
We concluded that school was just a circumstance, like a pup-tent in the backyard, an alley to play kick the can, or in the case of some recent granddaughter visits, a corner area off the front room where they could play with the new dolls and generally imagine who knows what.  What we concluded that it wasn't the friend so much as the event and we remember people by what links them to our memory.

One at the table, while growing up, had a "friend" of sorts named Lee - met some 60 years ago - and he lived 2 doors down the block. He turned up on a social network site and to our mutual amazement, remembered each other only by name or location. We remembered his house, is front room, his back yard and a high fence that kept errant basketballs out from the "hoop" in the alley. All crystal clear. All of it. We  couldn't  remember for the life of us what he looked like, what he liked - nothing but we remember the place. We could draw it.

It occurred to all that friends are just another chain link fence. The gaps between the links are "the rest" and the twists that make up the mesh are times and places - up to the point when you replace places with real "friend" associations. All the rest is air.

We noted that the links were powerfully strong and that coincided with our vision of memory, chums and buddies.  At that we concluded and after a long day of really wonderful links, we retired for the evening.