Old Friends

How long do we keep friends for? My longest tenured friend is Irwin, who I met when I moved from Spring Valley, NY to Long Island around 1974 (That's him on the left, I'm in the middle). I recently found his cell number, and left a message, and last night he called me back.

He claimed the message was staticy, and couldn't understand it until he listened several times. We hadn't talked for over 5 years, so I thought it was time. Hopefully we'll make lunch plans for next week. 

My other long tenured friend is Danny, who I met sometime in the 1980's when we worked for the same company. My wife and I became good friends with him and his wife, and we always went out together. (That's Danny on the right)

The three of us guys also went out to lunch, and our favorite place was Pizza & Pasta in Westbury, NY which no longer exists. They had $5 personal pizza's and pasta bowls, so it was a great value.

Danny and his wife moved to North Carolina several years ago, and though we talk on the phone, it's simply not the same as being together. He recently got hurt at work, and is home for awhile, so I gave him some advice on hiring a lawyer to handle is Workers Compensation case, and applying for Social Security Disability. Neither of those should be done without a lawyer.

Finally, there's my friend Steve who lives in Florida. We knew each other in high school, even though we went to different schools. We became friends because we both had CB radios when it was a thing in the 1970's. One of the good things about Steve was he was the manager of movie theatre. I have no idea how many movies I got to see for free, but it was quite a few. After high school, we lost touch.

Let's fast forward to around 2002 when MySpace was thing. I was sitting at work, looking around the site when I see a picture and name. The name looked right, but this guy was bald, with a full beard and mustache. The guy I knew had a full head of hair and no facial hair. So I moved on and didn't think much of it.

Lo and behold, the next day, Steve sends me a friend request! It was the same guy, and we've been in touch ever since. He is a private detective, and I occasionally ask him to find other old friends for me.

Just today, I asked him to find a guy I knew when I lived in Poughkeepsie, NY in the early 1970's, Jack Greenblatt. I remember so much about him, such as his family and even his dog. He had two younger brothers, Harold and Gary, and an older sister, Diane. I don't remember the dog's name, but she had some sort of kidney issue that had her smelling like urine all the time.

As we were on the phone, he messaged me some information he found. Unfortunately, none of them were good leads, except for MAYBE one for his sister. I left a message, and maybe I'll get lucky.

If I'm lucky, I get to keep friends for a long time. Recently, I wrote about the people we met on our recent cruise, Dorothy and Mark and hopefully they will be life long friends because we get along so well, and Dorothy says Mark and I were separated at birth because we have so much in common. I agree with that!

Remember, good friends are like a well built house. You'll have them forever.