Out of the blue, as the saying goes, on a Friday night last winter, our phone rings and the caller ID lady announces the caller is Mike, a friend from our high school days – one we haven’t seen for 30+ years. As we often do, and since we were stunned that we would be hearing from Mike, we didn’t answer the phone. Immediately, however, we listened to the voice mail he left; and, once we were convinced it really was the person we knew, we called him back right away.
The upshot is, we had a wonderful 4-way conversation that evening, catching up with Mike and Cindy, his wife. Cindy, by the way, was also a high school friend. As I mentioned above, except for a couple of visits early in our married life, and an occasional Christmas card since, we had not communicated with this couple for a long time. They had relocated out of state many years ago.
During the course of our conversation, we discovered we share a love of gardening…especially, now that we are retired and have the luxury of more time to spend outdoors in summer. As our conversation came to an end, Mike extended an invitation to us to visit Cindy and him in Ohio in the summer to see their garden when it is at its best.
Now, Mike may have extended that invite rather off-handedly, never suspecting we would actually take him up on the offer. But, as we reflected on how we enjoyed the phone conversation we had with them, RC and I decided it would be great fun to spend some time with our friends from long ago; so, we proposed to them, via text, we would combine a driving trip with some work-related travel RC had in Michigan, and travel to Ohio for a long weekend visit. Probably feeling like they had no choice but to let us come, Cindy replied that the 4th of July weekend would work out for our visit.
In the weeks leading up to our trip, I stewed about how things might go spending time with a couple we had not seen for so long. I worried that we didn’t know what they currently liked to do, liked to eat, liked to drink – if they enjoyed a glass (or two or three) of wine as we do. Do they support Donald Trump in the upcoming election – thankfully, no they don’t! I worried that Cindy would be anticipating hosting us with worry about the same things I was pondering. RC kept telling me things would be just fine – all would be well.
RC was right!
(He will love that admission on my part.)
All was well and we enjoyed a fabulous visit with Mike and Cindy. (Hopefully, they felt the same way.) Yes, we had lots to talk about; we enjoyed some fun activities in areas near their home; we shared some wonderful meals; we enjoyed many glasses of some great wine; we argued politics (but in a congenial way); and enjoyed sitting on their terrace in their most lovely gardens and discussing various types of plants. Thinking of our time spent together, as I have several times in the weeks since, always brings a smile to my face.
There is something special about re-connecting with friends from our youth. In our case, it was easy to pick up where we left off and the ensuing years just melted away. Part of that, of course, was re-hashing and remembering events we shared those many years ago. We did spend time with Mike and Cindy reminiscing about our high school days.
My take-away suggestion for you from this post is to not fear contacting and getting together with friends from your past – perhaps ones with which you have lost track in the shuffle somewhere, but who you considered close friends once upon a time. You might find, as we did, that you will still have much in common and can enjoy one another’s company.
What have you got to lose?
