Old Friends

On Sunday we had the good fortune to meet up with an old high school friend of mine, John McCarthy, and his family.  He was in town for a long weekend. Funny how small the world is now that we have social networking.  He knew we were in Paris because of Facebook, sent me a message, we exchanged phone numbers and, viola, we are meeting under the Eiffel Tower.  We got to visit for 30-45 minutes and split ways again.  It's probably been 7-10 years since we last saw each other.  I hope it doesn't take that long for the next meeting.  

I can't remember if I wrote about it or if Jill did, but we had a similar encounter with Kevin Kenyon and his wife.  Kevin and I played baseball and worked at McDonalds together.  We haven't seen each other since 1979 or 1980.  The funny thing was that Kevin grew up in the same neighborhood as Jill's cousins, so they were able to reminisce about cousins, friends, aunts and uncles.  Dad, not sure if you're reading this, but Kevin played first base for the Yankees (Babe Ruth league, not the real deal).  He remembered you and Milt Brown as coaches, remembered that you smoked cigars.  We had a couple of dinners together.  It was great fun to share stories from "back in the day".

While I'm on the subject of Facebook, I had another exciting connection occur.  One day I received a friend request from an individual who I could not place.  I racked my brain for a few days and finally remembered it was the sister (we called her Pid) of my Navy buddy, Earnie.  When Jill and I were first married Earnie, JM (and Lori) and Tom all hung out together.  Earnie helped us setup our first Christmas tree (Jill has a whole story on that).  We haven't seen nor heard from him since 1986 when I left the George Washington Carver.  We often wondered about him.  Any way, I "friended" Pid and got his phone number.  I decided to call him and we had a 10-15 minute chat, just like old times.  Of course I was excited to have talked to him, so I called JM, but he was golfing.  However I did have a nice visit with Lori.

And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention my regular Skype chats with my lifelong buddy, Larry.  Technology can be amazing...

Which brings me to my point for this entry, reconnecting with old friends is richly rewarding.  Just a reminder to all who read this, we are getting older.  Take the time to find an old friend and give them a call or arrange a short get together for coffee or a beer.  You'll be glad you did.  You never know, maybe it will bring you to Paris.

I highly recommend it.