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Childhood friends


Night Elf
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I lost touch.

 

One old friend found out my father died and sent a card via the funeral home.  I was really glad she did.  We don't live close enough to see each other but we have exchanged a few cards and letters in the mail.

 

I have never lived anywhere with a culture like what's often depicted in stories...people who've known each other their whole lives etc.  Our family tends to be close with someone and then life happens and we're not in touch but we're close to someone else.  Sometimes I'm fine with it and sometimes it makes me sad.

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I met my then-and-now best friend the first day of my freshman year in high school. We also ended up picking the same college, but that was because it was as fit for both of us. We chose not to room together during college, but we usually lived on the same hall in the dorm.  We talk with each other regularly and use Facebook chat almost daily. We are very close. 

 

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I've been besties with a childhood friend since she was 5 and I was almost five.

 

There were more from middle and high school, but I've been too embarrassed to stay in touch, except for one girlfriend, who ironically I detested in middle school because she was hanging with my best is. Then in high school it was reversed, and my best is detested her. Now that we are grownups, it's fine now. ;)

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I am still in very frequent contact with a guy I have been friends with since I was 12 or 13. I consider him to be my best friend.  We had the same hobby, the same religion and by coincidence our mother's were from the same city. I knew one of his grandmothers, his parents, his sisters, etc.  Am in very rare contact with 1 or 2 people from my high school class.

 

 

 

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Yes.  But with the exception of two girls I just kept corresponding with after we moved away, I lost touch with nearly everyone else from Middle School.  And I think one reason we stayed in touch was because my mom was friends with their parents so the parents kept in touch and so we kept in touch.  Military family so we moved tons.  It was challenging.  I had to make an active effort to contact them at least once a year.  Also, I stayed friends with a few buddies from High School, though we don't see each other hardly at all (3 times in 30 years?).  The internet and flying back to attend reunions helped with that.  Mainly I have stayed friends with certain college buddies although only one of my truly close friends from that era of my life.  We did mainly internet conversing for years.  Phone calls upon occasion.  I am actually closer to the female spouses of several old male college buddies than the buddies themselves in many instances now, though.  We just have more in common at this point.

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No. My best friends were male and their wives don't think ongoing friendships with females are appropriate.

 

I have become closer friends with some ladies that were in my larger circle but not close then. We've developed many things we have in common as we've become parents. I don't see them often as we've all moved away but we chat a lot on FB.

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We moved at the end of grade school.  I'm not in touch with any of those kids.

 

We moved at the end of middle school.  I found my best friend from middle school again on Facebook, and it's been fun to see what she's been up to.

 

We moved at the end of high school.  I always stayed in touch with one of my good friends from then.

 

 

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My childhood friends are mainly from public schools and most of my ex-classmates from 1st grade and up are on Facebook.  We are spread all over the globe though in almost every continent so calls would have to be via Skype. When anyone is near someone else from childhood, its always fun to have a mini local reunion.

 

The first time we make a priority to stay in touch was probably when our friends started getting married and wedding invitations were sent out.  So everyone started to make an effort to keep contact details current.  Then the 2nd wave was when kids entered elementary school, and friends just want some "hugs" for first day jitters.  Now it is more of everyone has some down time and are discussing plans for retirement. 

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Not in any meaningful way.

 

Well, except for my husband, of course. We've known each other since elementary school.

 

I moved around quite a lot in the years after I left high school. For a while, I kept in touch with my two closest friends, but one of them died when we were in our very early 20s, and the other one drifted away after that.

 

A few years ago, my husband and I made contact with four of the others who had been part of our group in junior high and high school. We're now friends with them on Facebook, and I chat with them online now and then. When anyone has reason to travel close to where any of the others are, we try to get together. It's nice, but we're not close.

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Definitely. Our pregnant mothers used to stroll us together. I do still live in my hometown, but they do not. Our friendship has evolved and gone up and down, but we are in a great place now. Both friendships are so strong and those girls are not just friends, they are sisters. Since I don't have any real sisters, their friendship is something I treasure. I can't express the history and comfort level I have with them. And I know they are there for me, we've been through SO much together. It really is a beautiful thing.

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I didn't really have any I kept even into high school. I HATED school and I am sure that affected my socializing there, or lack of it.

 

I'm still friends with my husband, who I met in high school. :)

 

And my BFF is the friend I met in 7th grade.

 

Other than that, no.

 

Dh is still friends with his high school besties and has some contact with them both still. And he stays in contact with those he went to high school with. Reunions and FB and surface, oh yeah soandso died kind of keeping contact. He went to a much smaller school in the burbs than me though and really, that's just his personality. He is a social butterfly. Manly butterfly of course.

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I keep up with some of them on Facebook. One of them I see every couple years. My best friend from my mid-teen years I definitely keep up with, we call each other every couple of months and talk for a few hours and when she comes out to visit her family here in CA (she lives in TN) we get together. She's the only one that I would still consider one of my best friends.

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I am still friends with my best childhood friend. We were in school together from 3rd through 10th grade.

We live on different continents and see each other once every few years, but when we do, it is as if we had not been apart. We keep in touch through faecebook and email mainly, sometimes skype. It was fabulous to see her this summer.

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My childhood friends were my 6 siblings and we are still all very much great friends.  I didn't have outside friends until 7th grade. I am facebook friends with that person and would be there if she needed me but we are not friends or close in anyway now .  My next oldest friend is from freshman year of college but that was only 10 years ago.  We are still best friends. She is my son's godmother and will always have a couch to sleep on in my house if she needs it.

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I moved after second grade (one town over) and after ninth grade (a few states), and live far from those places now. I married my prom date :) and keep up with just a few people from high school and college on FB. My college roommate and I also call each other once in a while (we also went to the same high school but didn't know each other well then).

 

I actually was a bit of an unsocialized public-schooler in the first place for family reasons :( . Maybe I would've kept up better if I'd made closer friendships to begin with. It's definitely easier to find people now with the internet.

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I am friends with my junior high/high school friends. We were a group of six, and we did everything together. One faded away shortly after graduation, but the rest of us are still good friends. We get together for a girls' weekend twice a year and I walk almost weekly with the ones who live locally.

 

Cat

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Facebook acquaintances - yes. (I have a FB friend from Kindergarten!)

Friends - nah, not really; a few from high school that I could hypothetically see us getting together with, but we don't (we all live in different states now).

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No, I'd lost contact with most people within a year of leaving high school. I'm not even close to the same person I was in high school. There wouldn't be much point in resurrecting old friendships. It's taken me a good 15 years to get comfortable with the idea, but I now accept that friendships are meant to be fluid - while they offer something to both parties they're a wonderful joy, but we don't need to cling to them like lifelines.

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Since some of you mentioned FB, I decided to look up my best friend from college. Her name is unique and she was very easy to find. I sent her a mesage but I'm nervous. It's been years since we talked. We'll see what happens.

 

I think this is great.  You might have a few chats and discover you have nothing in common anymore but you may have fun reliving old memories for a bit.  Or you might find you are still connected inside and rekindle a great lifetime friendship.  Either way, it could be great.

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One of my BFs is circa 1986, 1st grade. We talk weekly and hang out when I go home for visits.

 

The rest fell away. Dh and I are high school sweethearts and we still have a couple of friends from high school that we keep in touch with, but we moved away and so did they, so it's pretty much limited to FB and Christmas cards.

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Yes, but only due to years, lol. I have a group of late elementary/jr high friends that after all these years (30 plus) it seems sacrilegious not to conti ue a friendship with. One was just here visiting with her family, our oldest kids are a week apart but can't stand each other other, go figure. A couple are really obnoxiously weird these days, a couple are just very different, a couple are people I'd pick as friends now. But, years count, you know? I make the effort to continue the friendship despite distance and lifestyle differences because of this very long shared history, and it's worth it. I may think they are ridiculous in their current incarnation (or they, me) but I knew them "when" and I'd do anything for them due to that, period full stop.

 

At a certain age, I think shared history trumps compatibility, with friends and spouses.

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I moved to US from Taiwan after college. I found one of my high school buddy through Facebook now lives 20 mins from me.

I also have a friend that I knew since 3rd grade and we were in the same class in college that we still talk to each other. I also know his wife very well from college.

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I have a close friend from high school who lives not far away. We talk on the phone and try to get together. We became friends when I was in tenth grade.

 

I have another friend I met the summer after senior year, working at the same place.

 

I am fb friends with a girl who stayed summers with her father in my town. We met when I was 10. Lost contact at college. Reconnected a few years ago on fb. She lives on the west coast now--went out there right after college.

 

I live in the town in which I grew up. I didn't keep up with anyone else.

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Dh and I moved away from our childhood homes more than 20 years ago so we're not really friends with any of our childhood friends. Except Facebook- and the girls I was best friends with are just casual Facebook friends now. When we reconnected, we spent a few days messaging and getting caught up but since then, nah. 

 

My sister had a best friend when she was in junior high and her first two years of high school. Then our parents moved us far away and they didn't see each other for years though they mostly kept in touch.  Now both are widows and sis's friend has moved in with my sister. It's sweet that they have each other - and that's pretty cool to have such a longstanding friendship. 

 

Most of their neighbors think they are lesbians, though. 

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I grew up in a small town and there is a family that we went to church with who I've known since we were babies. Their parents were friends with my dad because of church, and their 3 kids were the same age as my siblings and I. We grew up together, were country neighbors, went to church together. We don't live near each other, but I consider them siblings more than friends and they will always be a part of my life. Most of my friends from school are friends on facebook but we don't get together very often or talk much on the phone. Those friendships have faded, for the most part. When I get together with one of them that I've known since 7th grade it feels like no time has passed at all though, so I treasure that one too. I am lucky that I made a friend a few years ago who has become my best friend and sister of the heart. I love her and her family fiercely, even without the shared history. 

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