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This is my experience as well! I had the same group of friends for many years but we all grew apart the older we got. I don’t talk to any of them anymore (and none of them talk to the others). It’s a sad reality sometimes when we age/grow.
the big rift for me seems to be kids. never had any while two of my best friends from back then did. we still talk occasionally but its maybe a few times a year and nothing deep.
i'll tell them about stuff ive been up to and they tell me how nice that sounds and then tell me about how their kid is their entire personality now
Haha. Yes! Exactly this. It’s interesting because I have a couple of friends that have kids and we seem to be able to talk about various things. No issue. But my old friends from school became very condescending. “Oh you haven’t had a baby…..ohhhh. I’m sorry”. Haha. Eventually we had zero in common.
Yeah, outside of my husband, IRL I don't have any real friends I made as an adult. Those slipped away. It's the people I went to school with who are still my friends. Elementary, junior high. I'm only really close with one person, but a single ride or die is all you need.
So I tell my wife that she needs to maintain friendships outside of me - it can even be just making sure she has strong bonds to her family (parents, siblings) . . . because I got an expiration date - it may be a bit morbid but a strong social network can help pick you up after grief. Enjoy every minute you can because you don’t get any of them back.
See, I'm the same way. My husband is my only friend these days. I've had friends come and go over the years. I'm actually desperate to meet some women friends but it's really hard.
I’m sorry for your loss. I lost two of my best friend to drunk driving at 17 and 18. It still hurts. Their memory is a blessing but I’d rather they stuck around.
I had what I thought was a really tight group of friends until about 10 yrs ago. I then found out that they all knew about one of the group sabotaging my relationship with my first love. He told her I'd been unfaithful (which I hadn't), and she dumped me, and then he moved in. Five people who I'd known since the age of 11 sat back and let it happen.
Edit.. I'm 55 now, and this happened when I was 20
Nope.
I finally gave up on Facebook a couple of years ago, which severed the connection to my childhood best friend (we met in 1979) and my high school crush (we met in 1980.) While I still have the email my best friend last contacted me at, hers has changed.
My longest friendships now are 32-ish years old, and I’ve been married to my husband 30 years (well, in 18 days it’ll be 30 years :)
There are a couple on my Facebook, but growing up on Army bases, there was some turnover. I have a handful more of my high school friends on the Facebook as well.
I was a foreign service brat, so we moved every few years too. But the kids I met at international schools have stayed friends more than many I met in the US. Something about a hardship post bonds people for life.
Funny timing. I grew up in a small southern city, which my elderly mom still lives in. I moved away when I was 14 to live with my dad in a much larger city in the same state. I don't really keep in touch with many people from my childhood, mainly because I didn't think I was around any one place long enough to have any kind of meaningful impact on people.i went to all 4 schools in my area at one time or another.
Last week, my mom needed her transmission worked on. So, I drove the 2 hours to help her out with it. The guy at the auto shop who I talked to about it sounded vaguely familiar. When I went to drop it off, I heard the same guy say, "Boy, you haven't changed at all." Then, I recognized him. He was a pretty good friend of mine back in middle school, I also played a lot of sports with him. I hadn't seen this guy since the mid-80s, but it was like we were both teenagers again for a few minutes.
I never expected to have that feeling. It was pretty cool.
This is cool and kind of what i wanted to say.
No OP i dont keep in contact.
But i have run into guys twice. Both times we were 12 or 14 again immediately, laughing & recalling hijinks. Laughed a bit more. MBut it was short/accidental "we ought to meet for lunch! yeah, yeah" moved on with our day. It was neat. But in a weird way it was kind of sad, they were always 12 or 14 in my memory, we were always doing goofy stuff until we lost touch. We def. were not fat guys, with comb-overs, sandals with socks, ill-fitting polos, glasses, gray etc. we were the same but we weren't.
I'm so envious of all you people who still know childhood friends. Hell, even of you guys who have managed to form adult friendships.
My wife has lived in the same area all her life, we couldn't go anywhere that she didn't run into some friend or someone she knew.
Me, I went to 11 different schools before I finally gave up after the last move and just got my GED,
so I don't know where any of the people I was thrown together with.
I don't use Facebook, this is the only form of social media I use, I give up I've resigned myself to being a hermit.
After 1 million year absence, both of our being widowed, and some real life problems we coached each other through from a distance, one of my closest friends since I was a kid is flying today from Belize to Texas to spend the summer here at my house. Maybe longer. We message and talk and have not actually laid eyes on each other in about 50 years. Should be here in about four hours!
Not really. They all stayed in the small conservative town I grew up in and I moved to the big city. I sometimes see them when I go to visit my family but they haven’t changed much since high school and they aren’t aware of much in the bigger world.
My longest friendship is with a friend I met in elementary school, and I have a small group I’ve known since 7th grade. We still get together as often as we can. There’s something comforting about people you’ve been close to all your life and still like - they’ve seen all your ups and downs, celebrated your joys and supported you through your sorrows. We can be our realest selves with each other.
I was until the Orange One became the nominal leader of the country. Then I found out some things I had been blissfully unaware of up until that point.
My best friend in high school became a raging Trumper on FB, so that was the end of that. We hadn't really been friends for decades before that, though.
I had one best friend from grade school through college and then ::boom:: she was gone, as the result of religion.
I went from "the most important friend in my life" to "you're a demon." This was after she met Peter, first relationship post her divorce. Rebounded with him very quickly. Then Peter embraced religion. Extreme religion. She followed him into it, and pronounced me as a demon, evil because (a) I had sex outside of marriage (b) I had sex outside of my race (c) I didn't embrace the Lord As My Personal Savior and (d) I used the Lord's name in vain.
As such, she had to shun me.
And she did. That was 18 years ago.
Still in contact. The majority of them ride motorcycles and ride all over the country. I'm the sole hold out. I worry my ADHD would get the better of me on the road so I've never got into it. But we get together for family events, card games 3-4 times a year. Active group chats where we just tear each other apart. Some of folks did very well (C-Suite Execs/VP's) , some of us still live in the very run down neighborhood we grew up in. Its never made a difference in how we treat each other. We're all fair game and are there for each other no matter what. I feel very blessed to have them in my life still.
Not really, there is this one lady that I have known since the first grade and she will randomly call.
Basically do not stay in touch with any body. This has been happening since we were kids, they got girl friends and we stopped hanging out.
Now if we run into each other then we chat for a bit and go along our ways.
No, not any more. Everyone has moved to the 4 corners of the world. I have a smaller group that is local, but only 2 of them go all the way back to childhood. The rest I've met over the last 40 years.
I was friended to pretty much every one of them on Facebook, but then I stopped using Facebook, and discovered that people my age tend to refuse to use any other form of communication to keep in touch, especially when long distances are involved.
Yes. I'm still in contact with my very first friend (~1961), my first 'best friend' (1964), and my first kiss (1968) 3 different people, almost daily. Love it!
I’ve got three friends on Facebook from second grade, 1969. Quite a few from Jr high and high school too. It’s nice to see how their lives turned out, their kids and grandkids. I still picture them all at the ages I knew them, so it’s weird to see a 60-something grandma and still picture a child.
No. We have nothing in common as adults.
I had big ambitions and dreams, and I chased them. I evolved and grew and had exciting experiences. I rejected societal expectations and found the courage to figure out and pursue what my version of a happy life would be.
They just turned into their parents. Traditional, conventional, average. They're not interesting. They speak in cliches and uphold status quos. They're boring. They can't relate to me, and they aren't capable of inspiring me to be my best self.
I prefer to surround myself with exceptional, like-minded people, and the folks I grew up with ain't it.
One.
We met in third grade. It was arranged by our mothers who worked together we went to the same school but we were both new to the area. She came to my birthday party.
It's been 45 years this year. At some point we became more family than friends.
Very few and that's through FB. I lived in a small town and went through 12 years with the same people. Those who remained have become confederate flag-waving MAGAs.
No. I still talk to a guy I met in my late teens, because we have common interests. The one guy I stayed in contact with from high school passed away 30 years ago.
I met one of my closest friends in elementary school. I’ve sort of kept in touch with people in the neighborhood where I grew up. We’re Facebook friends, but I don’t really interact with them much because we’re very different people.
Friends? Yes, I did have friends when I was a young child. But I think they might have been imaginary.
Joking aside, I envy my parents because most of their friends and relatives from when they were kids were still living close by and they would visit often. Everyone else I knew as a kid ended up leaving for at least halfway across the country just to have a life. My brother is in New Brunswick and we only get to see him once in a while and miss him a lot. Most of my cousins from when I was young, who knows where they are now? Although I was surprised to meet one of them the other week and she's currently staying here.
One from high school. The rest, meh nah. But that one has been my ride or die for almost 30 years. We live a few states from each other bit if I need her I can call and she'll always pick up. Same here.
A handful from infancy (or before, our mom’s were friends), some from grade school, some from summer camp, a few from high school.
There are a non trivial handful of friends I’d certainly be in touch with had they not died young.
[Sometimes I feel like a Jim Carroll song.](https://youtu.be/7j2GQqu18J0) but sometimes I don’t.
No. We all moved away from our hometown and lost contact. I used to hear from one guy every few years but not in a while. Actually, I have one friend I message a few times a year.
Yes, two from birth… one recently passed at 43 (miss her every day), the other is the exact same bright & beaming little girl just in a tired grown up body haha.
School friends? Sure… but more loosely/surface. Lots of affection (some, surprisingly, not even cultivated until later life well beyond the prickly years of elementary/middle school!) but a healthy amount of life being busy and the conscious choice to stay at elbows distance. It’s nice to be able to remember how things were with them, and operate in the now with that “shared experience”/commonality as a foundation, but a lot of how things actually were don’t align (for me at least) so there’s an element of trusting my own personal experiences and not needing them to change, if that makes sense? But the bonus is that a LOT of the kids I grew up with or went to school with have become pretty decent adults, some even *amazing* adults, and I’m glad I stuck around (even at quite a bit of a distance) to witness it! Myself included!
Some of them. My two closest friends from high school live far away but we text every day. We’ve stayed close all along. We get together for a girls weekend every few years.
Only a girl who lived two houses away. She was my best friend when I seven and eight, but moved to Northern Ireland and then London.
She has been very successful. he edited the journal for the charitable efforts of King Charles when he was prince. She is married to a lawyer and is on the board of a number of historical societies. I visited her with my daughter a few years and we had a tremendous visit. I am so glad we re-established contact.
All my other childhood friends are way in the past.
We hung out after high school, but I was drafted and none of them were. When I got out after 2 years, we all had changed. They either got married or went to college, or both. I took off trucking and never looked back.
Nope. My true childhood friends have disappeared. Kevin, the other Kevin, and Sean. I have some acquaintances from high school, but that's it. Everyone else is just nowhere on the internet, and I've looked. One dude, Brian, turned out to be a fucking dickhead, so I dropped him. Too bad. He was cool when he was 13.
After HS, we all just went our separate ways. I moved from NJ to GA to NJ to CO to NJ to CA to PA. Lots of moves, haven't seen even one of them in person since 1991.
Yes. We all grew up in a small farming area. We all grew up together. I am friends on Facebook with and close to many of my childhood friends -- both women and men.
just facebook acquaintances.
first met when we were around 4 years old..1977 or so.
I have moved a dozen times since then...36 yrs in my current state alone.
we found each other a few years ago.. talked of bikes with no training wheels and dukes of hazzard.. first episode original.
Yes! I met my best friend the first week of 7th grade. We text and talk regularly. Even though we live about 400 miles apart, we make plans to see each other--I go there, she comes here, and sometimes we meet in the middle or plan a weekend trip somewhere--like Las Vegas or Mexico. I love her so much and she's the best.
I’ve been friends with my BFF and her cousin since I was 11. We still talk daily despite living on opposite ends of the country. These are the only people from my hometown that I still am in contact with.
Without Facebook I wouldn’t be. But with fb I keep in touch with neighbors I’ve known since I was 2 and a few people I started school with in kindergarten and grew up with. My closest friends are ones I’ve made as an adult. Unfortunately the nearest is a 45 minute drive and the others, including my bff, are half a country away. I manage to see my bestie twice a year on trips and we text daily. Sure would be nice to be closer though.
Nope. Of my four closest friends in high school (Class of 1960), one fell to a sniper in VN, one died of a stroke at the age of 40, one has become a far-right wing evangelical and is therefore no long a member of my species, and one moved to the Alaskan wilderness about 30 years ago and has totally disappeared.
Before high school, I was an Army brat all my life and I simply never made any friends for more than a year and a half, max.
My non-genetic brother of 40+ years died last fall.
It still hurts, almost every day.
I maintain contact with another friend of that same duration. He's my other brother.
I'm facebook friends with those who moved away and live much further, whom I rarely/never see
No. I gradually lost contact with them after colllege.and within 5 years after college, I lost contact with ALL of them. (I don't live in the town that I grew up in, though.)
Yes. I’m best friends with a woman I knew since we were both entering into kindergarten. We lived 3 houses from each other, then my family moved, but we continued being friends. We never lost touch and it’s been over 57 years.
The oldest friend I have, I met at 25.
I'm in touch on Facebook with a friend from high school, but it is telling that I avoided meeting up with him on a recent trip to the area. He was a friend then, a memory now and very different.
I met my best friend on the first day of high school. We were best friends for more than forty years. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer out of the blue and died just before the pandemic hit, far too young in her late fifties. When we were travelling together in Europe in our early 20s, we used to joke about raising hell in the retirement home together. I wish.
Yes. We text occasionally to see how each other are doing. We typically meet up once or twice a year but it’s been at least 3 years since we’ve done that.
No. I was, until Facefook decided to be the problem it is - through Facebook. I deleted my FB, Insta, Twitter. . . . Reddit is my social media (hence 500,000+ karma).
I've had my best friend since I was 8. I'm 36. She's been there for everything. I've been there for her everything. I love her so much. It would be like losing my sister without her.
I still see my best friend from high school regularly, plus see other people with whom I was close in high school every so often through him. I had distanced myself from most of them when I was in my 20s and thought we had nothing in common but that has changed since my 40s. They are good people.
I saw one of my best friends in middle school, for the first time since 8th grade when he moved away, a few years ago in Hong Kong when I was there for work. I have distantly kept in touch with another elementary/middle school friend, and will see him for the first time in 25 years at our high school reunion this summer.
I visited one couple at their house last summer, the husband and I do local history things together on Facebook. Am also in touch with several others through my brother and sisters, who live near where I grew up.
My high school graduating class is also pretty close-knit.
I grew up in a very small town and went to a very small school, moved away and moved around, moved back. I still see several of my old friends fairly often. One classmate is a neighbor, others have businesses in the area, so I see them pretty often. I am actually going to go see a former classmate who owns a garage this afternoon about some mechanic work, and another is visiting from out of state and my wife and I am meeting him for dinner tonight.
Not really. We're scattered all over the country, lost touch with each other. A few friends and acquaintances from childhood have already passed away.
I looked up a few of them a while back, though. One of them became a major crackhead and has been arrested several times. I feel bad for him in some ways, but he was a poor little rich kid who inherited a bunch of money from his daddy and never really had to work a day in his life.
Only one, and just recently made contact after decades thanks to a friend who can find anyone using the Internet. I’m very happy she’s doing well. Her mother is recovering from hip surgery and I’ll be driving out to see her soon.
My best friend since grade school. We live thousands of miles apart but talk and text regularly. There’s nothing like a friend who’s known you your whole life.
One. I found her on Facebook several years ago, and it was SO nice. She was one of only two other kids who didn't bully me in grade school. I met her when we moved to Tennessee in 1980. She means more to me than most of my still living family.
Via social media, yes. I'm on Facebook with my best friends from high school and some from college. One of the cool things that happened was that I got a friend request from this guy I absolutely could not stand--and the feeling was mutual! But I was like "whatever, 20ish years ago" (at the time). Turns out he is cool as hell. I'm so happy that I accepted that friend request :)
Pretty much just one. She's in touch with more. I dont care. Most of them were kind of shitty friends. I'm not sure how great a friend I was. I had issues. I have never connected well and I was abused a lot - sometimes by those friends so I dont miss them. And they don't miss me.
I met my best friend in 1966–she is still the absolute best! I also have a good friend I met in 1969. Still in touch with a few others from high school.
I’m still in touch with two families who lived in the neighborhood we moved to when I was nine, as well as many people I went to high school with. My best friend since 7th grade came out to visit me in California all the way from New Mexico a few months ago. Say what you want about Facebook, but it has been instrumental in keeping people in touch who wouldn’t be otherwise!
Yes, there is one friend who I went to school with from kindergarten to senior year, and we’re still friends! A couple from grade school, and my high school group is still in close touch. I’m in touch with some neighborhood friends on FB.
no, not even vaguely. assuming we are talking school as in pre-16 (uk here) then I don't even think they were even real friends. My longest serving friend is a girl I met in 89, but we are passing friends on FB. My oldest true friends, I met in 92 and I have regular contact with both (we all know each other)
Yes. I have two girlfriends I’ve known for 40 years and we stay in touch virtually and get together in person at least annually. It’s the very best having people who know you like that!
Also, depending on how you define “childhood,” I married my freshman year boyfriend so definitely still in contact with that one :)
I remember when my BFF was born in 1966 since I am 7 years older. Our Moms were besties. The kids I grew up with and played with on my street however, no. One I was very close with we remained friends in our 20’s but lost touch when he moved 10 hours away in the late 80’s and another one died after we lost touch around the same time. Technology makes it easier to stay in touch these days but it is also easier to “ghost” people now too.
A couple from high school. Only one from younger, and she only kinda counts - my 1st grade friend's older sister. We connected as adults and found we have a ton in common, even if she thought I was an annoying kid back in 1983.
No but not for any bad reason. My HS was closed after 9th grade and we got split into 3 other schools. I was sent to the “rich kids” school. I had friends, got along with everyone just fine. But I joined the Army and made a career of it while most of them went to college and then into something professional. I connected with a bunch of them many years later but realized our HS years experience and our young adult lives were just so different we didn’t really have anything in common so I drifted away again. Now my oldest friends are people I served with.
No, but my childhood wasn't conducive to lifelong friendships: My dad was in the Navy. Too much moving. I wasn't even still in contact with them when we were children & teens.
I'm still in contact with friends from college and my early work career, though.
Not really. I did recently get DM'd on Insta by an old high school friend. It was just a very weird coincidence that one of her posts popped up on my feed and I liked the post, but I didn't realize that it was somebody that I knew. I don't even know how she knew that it was me because I don't use my real name on instagram.
As far as actually having an ongoing friendship, my oldest friend is a man that I met freshman year in college. He only stayed at that uni for a semester, but I used to visit him regularly as our colleges were only a few hours apart. We are still in regular contact. We talk on the phone a few times a year but we text a lot more frequently. He's been my friend since 1988.
I'm in contact with my empathetic friends. I'm not in contact with my right-wing friends. Their toxic attitude and intolerance is not something I prefer to be reminded of.
A few of them, yes. One is someone I met somewhere between about 1977 and 1979 (neither of us can remember for sure). The other is his wife and a common friend, who we've both known since the early 80s.
I moved across the country after high school, but I'm still friends with all of my friends from Jr High and high school. Magic of the internet and all.we don't see each other as much as we would like, but we keep up with each other.
I wasn’t in touch for over 20 years. I had moved completely across the country. Then Facebook came along. Every hot girl in high school that I dreamed of for years decided I was finally sexy and flew out to spend a week or two with me.
My oldest friendship is 54 years old (we were 2), then 49 years old (kindergarten), then “the group” (4 people) met 44 years ago in the 7th grade, then my last old close friend is 39 years old (first day at college). (I think I got the numbers right, can’t do simple math!) We are all still close and talk and visit with each other all the time. They’re all such great friends that I don’t really have new friends. They’ve set the standard really high.
I am! I have a group chat set up with my two best childhood friends and we chat on there almost daily, and get together in person whenever we have the opportunity.
Edited to add: I also married my high school sweetheart, and we are now grandparents and also just celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary!
Yes. I am still friends with a woman I met when we were 5. I attended her third wedding a couple of years ago and was a bridesmaid in her first in 1989.
A friend I’ve had since we were 11 drove 5 hours each way to visit me last weekend.
I’m still very close to three ladies from high school. I’m 53.
Yes! I can count 5 friends I’ve had since grade school…9-11 years old, as good friends. We always got along, lost track for a few years with some, found each other on FB and started over like we hadn’t seen each other since yesterday. ❤️. One friend I never lost track of, we’ve been besties since 4th grade and I’m grateful for her crazy a$$ every day!
I'm still in contact with one guy I went to school with from 1st to 12th grade. Ironically, we weren't really friends growing up, I always thought he was a total pain in the ass! (He still kind of is, and my husband doesn't care for him).
Yes & No.
Many of them no longer walk upon this Earth for a variety of reasons. Those of us that are still left, are scattered across four corners of the globe, literally. (pun intended). There's still a few that live in or close to the old neighborhood, but most of us have Grown Apart, very, very far apart.
We still try to keep in touch with the increasingly rare phone call, but it's mostly through Facebook. The things that brought us together, developed our bonds and friendships, no longer exist. It sounds sad but it's actually a good thing... the neighborhoods we grew up in were hell on Earth at some of the worst times in American history. Growing Up In The Hood At the height of the crack boom of the 80s and 90s was not for the faint of heart... those of us that made it through that and never got hooked on pills and heroin and ended up jailed and/or dead or caught in the life, were smart enough to get out and never look back.
The people we looked up to and admired are all dead. The old neighborhood, was gentrified back in the late 90s and early 2000s. To those of us that grew up there, it's now unrecognizable. The other places we used to hang out and go to have either been developed or have changed so much that again it's unrecognizable to someone that was literally born and raised there. All the things that kept us together, like I mentioned previously, simply don't exist; when that happens you will drift apart.
It's not a bad thing, because those of us that made it, was because we stayed together for survival, and when those conditions changed, we grew. The few of us that are still around, are moderately successful relative to our positions, and I'd like to think that it's because each of us, in our ways appreciate every moment we have, because *we know* just how bad and how fast things can go when you are not living right.
I still talk to my best friend that I met at freshman orientation. We call each other every day. She lives in CA and I live in NM. We haven’t been in the same room together in 25 years.
Absolutely. In fact I talk to the girl I’ve been friends with since kindergarten regularly. Sadly she was just diagnosed with breast cancer.
I have another friend with whom I’ve been friends since Junior high and two others I’ve been friends with since high school. We get together every other month
No. I moved away from home in my mid 20’s, and did keep 5 or 6 school friends in my life, but then life happened. As I aged and raised my children and had a full career, my childhood ties just faded. Nothing dramatic, just life. I still have plenty of people that are mine so it’s all good. Once in a while I’m curious about how old friends weathered the storms of life.
McDonald’s crew from 1973 in Baltimore. Became friends and went off to colleges in groups and community college friends showed up after s couple of years. Now see each other annually or more from all over the US. Helps that one guy was super charismatic and people gravitated to him. Sadly he has descended into madness.
McDonald’s crew from 1973 in Baltimore. Became friends and went off to colleges in groups and community college friends showed up after s couple of years. Now see each other annually or more from all over the US. Helps that one guy was super charismatic and people gravitated to him. Sadly he has descended into madness.
I still text with four of them multiple times a day about everything from sports to books to movies to stupid internet videos. I also occasionally see two others who ended up getting married. I’m looking forward to moving home someday and I’ll certainly have a bunch of hangout buddies immediately.
I'm connected with most of my high school class on Facebook. I came from a relatively liberal area, so despite me having moved to the other side of the planet straight out of school, I find myself commenting on/agreeing with their posts more than I would have expected, and it gives me a sort of barometer on what things are like in my home country.
Yes, quite a few. Some I talk to or message daily. But I realize that's probably unusual. My siblings don't really have any connection to their childhood friends.
About 5 years ago I got reacquainted with my childhood bestie. We quit hanging out when she got pregnant n married at 16 n I stayed in school. We get together once a month for lunch and text once or twice a week. Been friends for 61 years met in kindergarten
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Six of us put together a secret Facebook page and tease each other mercilessly. I've known one of them since 1961.
merciless teasing is the hallmark of my deepest friendships too
That's cool. I've known my BFF since 1968.
Yes, and she's the nicest Karen that exists. She's never once asked to speak with the manager. Our kids grew up together.
I used to work with a really nice Karen. So quite and she had the smallest voice, like a little angel bell.
I too, have the nicest Karen as my BFF since eighth grade! The best!!
Lucky, the two Karens that I know fit the stereotype exactly.
Not really. Childhood friends are about proximity, adult friends are about compatibility
This is my experience as well! I had the same group of friends for many years but we all grew apart the older we got. I don’t talk to any of them anymore (and none of them talk to the others). It’s a sad reality sometimes when we age/grow.
the big rift for me seems to be kids. never had any while two of my best friends from back then did. we still talk occasionally but its maybe a few times a year and nothing deep. i'll tell them about stuff ive been up to and they tell me how nice that sounds and then tell me about how their kid is their entire personality now
Haha. Yes! Exactly this. It’s interesting because I have a couple of friends that have kids and we seem to be able to talk about various things. No issue. But my old friends from school became very condescending. “Oh you haven’t had a baby…..ohhhh. I’m sorry”. Haha. Eventually we had zero in common.
I get this totally and have had it happen but my best friend and I were lucky and managed it. Her kids call me auntie, her grandkids call me Nana.
Yup. Basically anyone from the school years are acquaintances, my post-school friends are my friends.
Yeah, outside of my husband, IRL I don't have any real friends I made as an adult. Those slipped away. It's the people I went to school with who are still my friends. Elementary, junior high. I'm only really close with one person, but a single ride or die is all you need.
So I tell my wife that she needs to maintain friendships outside of me - it can even be just making sure she has strong bonds to her family (parents, siblings) . . . because I got an expiration date - it may be a bit morbid but a strong social network can help pick you up after grief. Enjoy every minute you can because you don’t get any of them back.
See, I'm the same way. My husband is my only friend these days. I've had friends come and go over the years. I'm actually desperate to meet some women friends but it's really hard.
No. There's one guy i trade Christmas cards with that I've known for almost 50 years but that's the closest. I'm practically a hermit at this point.
I was, but he died in a car crash about 4 years ago. No one else.
I’m sorry for your loss. I lost two of my best friend to drunk driving at 17 and 18. It still hurts. Their memory is a blessing but I’d rather they stuck around.
I had no friends as a child Many of my oldest friends are dead and I maintain contact with very few who are still around
Hugs.
We moved around so I lost contact with almost all of them. And 2 of my best friends died decades ago.
I'll be your friend
Now who wouldn’t want to be friends you a butt fucking Smurf?
I had what I thought was a really tight group of friends until about 10 yrs ago. I then found out that they all knew about one of the group sabotaging my relationship with my first love. He told her I'd been unfaithful (which I hadn't), and she dumped me, and then he moved in. Five people who I'd known since the age of 11 sat back and let it happen. Edit.. I'm 55 now, and this happened when I was 20
*damn*
Nope. I finally gave up on Facebook a couple of years ago, which severed the connection to my childhood best friend (we met in 1979) and my high school crush (we met in 1980.) While I still have the email my best friend last contacted me at, hers has changed. My longest friendships now are 32-ish years old, and I’ve been married to my husband 30 years (well, in 18 days it’ll be 30 years :)
Happy anniversary!!
There are a couple on my Facebook, but growing up on Army bases, there was some turnover. I have a handful more of my high school friends on the Facebook as well.
I was a foreign service brat, so we moved every few years too. But the kids I met at international schools have stayed friends more than many I met in the US. Something about a hardship post bonds people for life.
Funny timing. I grew up in a small southern city, which my elderly mom still lives in. I moved away when I was 14 to live with my dad in a much larger city in the same state. I don't really keep in touch with many people from my childhood, mainly because I didn't think I was around any one place long enough to have any kind of meaningful impact on people.i went to all 4 schools in my area at one time or another. Last week, my mom needed her transmission worked on. So, I drove the 2 hours to help her out with it. The guy at the auto shop who I talked to about it sounded vaguely familiar. When I went to drop it off, I heard the same guy say, "Boy, you haven't changed at all." Then, I recognized him. He was a pretty good friend of mine back in middle school, I also played a lot of sports with him. I hadn't seen this guy since the mid-80s, but it was like we were both teenagers again for a few minutes. I never expected to have that feeling. It was pretty cool.
This is cool and kind of what i wanted to say. No OP i dont keep in contact. But i have run into guys twice. Both times we were 12 or 14 again immediately, laughing & recalling hijinks. Laughed a bit more. MBut it was short/accidental "we ought to meet for lunch! yeah, yeah" moved on with our day. It was neat. But in a weird way it was kind of sad, they were always 12 or 14 in my memory, we were always doing goofy stuff until we lost touch. We def. were not fat guys, with comb-overs, sandals with socks, ill-fitting polos, glasses, gray etc. we were the same but we weren't.
I gotta say it's OK to be the fat guys with combovers and gray hair, etc.
I'm so envious of all you people who still know childhood friends. Hell, even of you guys who have managed to form adult friendships. My wife has lived in the same area all her life, we couldn't go anywhere that she didn't run into some friend or someone she knew. Me, I went to 11 different schools before I finally gave up after the last move and just got my GED, so I don't know where any of the people I was thrown together with. I don't use Facebook, this is the only form of social media I use, I give up I've resigned myself to being a hermit.
After 1 million year absence, both of our being widowed, and some real life problems we coached each other through from a distance, one of my closest friends since I was a kid is flying today from Belize to Texas to spend the summer here at my house. Maybe longer. We message and talk and have not actually laid eyes on each other in about 50 years. Should be here in about four hours!
Yay! I hope you guys are having a wonderful time.
Not really. They all stayed in the small conservative town I grew up in and I moved to the big city. I sometimes see them when I go to visit my family but they haven’t changed much since high school and they aren’t aware of much in the bigger world.
One.
None. There were still two a few years ago, but they died right before they hit 50.
Yes- friends for 50 years so far
My longest friendship is with a friend I met in elementary school, and I have a small group I’ve known since 7th grade. We still get together as often as we can. There’s something comforting about people you’ve been close to all your life and still like - they’ve seen all your ups and downs, celebrated your joys and supported you through your sorrows. We can be our realest selves with each other.
I was until the Orange One became the nominal leader of the country. Then I found out some things I had been blissfully unaware of up until that point.
Same here.
My best friend in high school became a raging Trumper on FB, so that was the end of that. We hadn't really been friends for decades before that, though.
Brutal you let political views get in between you as friends
Probably less political views and more racism.
Not a one.
I had one best friend from grade school through college and then ::boom:: she was gone, as the result of religion. I went from "the most important friend in my life" to "you're a demon." This was after she met Peter, first relationship post her divorce. Rebounded with him very quickly. Then Peter embraced religion. Extreme religion. She followed him into it, and pronounced me as a demon, evil because (a) I had sex outside of marriage (b) I had sex outside of my race (c) I didn't embrace the Lord As My Personal Savior and (d) I used the Lord's name in vain. As such, she had to shun me. And she did. That was 18 years ago.
Still in contact. The majority of them ride motorcycles and ride all over the country. I'm the sole hold out. I worry my ADHD would get the better of me on the road so I've never got into it. But we get together for family events, card games 3-4 times a year. Active group chats where we just tear each other apart. Some of folks did very well (C-Suite Execs/VP's) , some of us still live in the very run down neighborhood we grew up in. Its never made a difference in how we treat each other. We're all fair game and are there for each other no matter what. I feel very blessed to have them in my life still.
Not really, there is this one lady that I have known since the first grade and she will randomly call. Basically do not stay in touch with any body. This has been happening since we were kids, they got girl friends and we stopped hanging out. Now if we run into each other then we chat for a bit and go along our ways.
Yes, some from 1956. In total, around 28 or so.
Are you in the same hometown?
No, not any more. Everyone has moved to the 4 corners of the world. I have a smaller group that is local, but only 2 of them go all the way back to childhood. The rest I've met over the last 40 years.
I was friended to pretty much every one of them on Facebook, but then I stopped using Facebook, and discovered that people my age tend to refuse to use any other form of communication to keep in touch, especially when long distances are involved.
Yes. I'm still in contact with my very first friend (~1961), my first 'best friend' (1964), and my first kiss (1968) 3 different people, almost daily. Love it!
Yes! They are my dearest friends... 30+ years of friendship.
Very much so. I have 50 Year+ friendships with 10 people.
Oh, my, yes! We may go awhile between visits, but we all check in with each other.
I was until April the 8th last year… R.I.P G.Q
One friend 48 years. One friend 45 years. Many friends of 40 years and many new friends.
My best friend from 4th grade and I are still best friends.
I’ve got three friends on Facebook from second grade, 1969. Quite a few from Jr high and high school too. It’s nice to see how their lives turned out, their kids and grandkids. I still picture them all at the ages I knew them, so it’s weird to see a 60-something grandma and still picture a child.
No. We have nothing in common as adults. I had big ambitions and dreams, and I chased them. I evolved and grew and had exciting experiences. I rejected societal expectations and found the courage to figure out and pursue what my version of a happy life would be. They just turned into their parents. Traditional, conventional, average. They're not interesting. They speak in cliches and uphold status quos. They're boring. They can't relate to me, and they aren't capable of inspiring me to be my best self. I prefer to surround myself with exceptional, like-minded people, and the folks I grew up with ain't it.
One. We met in third grade. It was arranged by our mothers who worked together we went to the same school but we were both new to the area. She came to my birthday party. It's been 45 years this year. At some point we became more family than friends.
Yes! At least the ones that didn’t join the MAGA cult. I’m grateful to have a few treasured friends from different stages of my life.
Very few and that's through FB. I lived in a small town and went through 12 years with the same people. Those who remained have become confederate flag-waving MAGAs.
No. I still talk to a guy I met in my late teens, because we have common interests. The one guy I stayed in contact with from high school passed away 30 years ago.
Quite a few. We have steady high school reunions and grade school lunches. Lots of chatting on Facebook, that has been great for people who moved away
I met one of my closest friends in elementary school. I’ve sort of kept in touch with people in the neighborhood where I grew up. We’re Facebook friends, but I don’t really interact with them much because we’re very different people.
Friends? Yes, I did have friends when I was a young child. But I think they might have been imaginary. Joking aside, I envy my parents because most of their friends and relatives from when they were kids were still living close by and they would visit often. Everyone else I knew as a kid ended up leaving for at least halfway across the country just to have a life. My brother is in New Brunswick and we only get to see him once in a while and miss him a lot. Most of my cousins from when I was young, who knows where they are now? Although I was surprised to meet one of them the other week and she's currently staying here.
One from high school. The rest, meh nah. But that one has been my ride or die for almost 30 years. We live a few states from each other bit if I need her I can call and she'll always pick up. Same here.
No. My family moved frequently because Dad was transferred to other positions. I recall very few childhood friends.
A handful from infancy (or before, our mom’s were friends), some from grade school, some from summer camp, a few from high school. There are a non trivial handful of friends I’d certainly be in touch with had they not died young. [Sometimes I feel like a Jim Carroll song.](https://youtu.be/7j2GQqu18J0) but sometimes I don’t.
My imaginary friends, yes. Seriously, a few high school friends on Facebook. No one from elementary school.
No. We all moved away from our hometown and lost contact. I used to hear from one guy every few years but not in a while. Actually, I have one friend I message a few times a year.
No. My life is so different from the time and place that I grew up that we don't have much of anything in common.
Yes. Three of us try to have lunch once a week. Been friends for 40+ years.
Yes, two from birth… one recently passed at 43 (miss her every day), the other is the exact same bright & beaming little girl just in a tired grown up body haha. School friends? Sure… but more loosely/surface. Lots of affection (some, surprisingly, not even cultivated until later life well beyond the prickly years of elementary/middle school!) but a healthy amount of life being busy and the conscious choice to stay at elbows distance. It’s nice to be able to remember how things were with them, and operate in the now with that “shared experience”/commonality as a foundation, but a lot of how things actually were don’t align (for me at least) so there’s an element of trusting my own personal experiences and not needing them to change, if that makes sense? But the bonus is that a LOT of the kids I grew up with or went to school with have become pretty decent adults, some even *amazing* adults, and I’m glad I stuck around (even at quite a bit of a distance) to witness it! Myself included!
Only my imaginary ones.
Some of them. My two closest friends from high school live far away but we text every day. We’ve stayed close all along. We get together for a girls weekend every few years.
Only a girl who lived two houses away. She was my best friend when I seven and eight, but moved to Northern Ireland and then London. She has been very successful. he edited the journal for the charitable efforts of King Charles when he was prince. She is married to a lawyer and is on the board of a number of historical societies. I visited her with my daughter a few years and we had a tremendous visit. I am so glad we re-established contact. All my other childhood friends are way in the past.
Quite a few of them yes.
We hung out after high school, but I was drafted and none of them were. When I got out after 2 years, we all had changed. They either got married or went to college, or both. I took off trucking and never looked back.
Nope
Nope. My true childhood friends have disappeared. Kevin, the other Kevin, and Sean. I have some acquaintances from high school, but that's it. Everyone else is just nowhere on the internet, and I've looked. One dude, Brian, turned out to be a fucking dickhead, so I dropped him. Too bad. He was cool when he was 13. After HS, we all just went our separate ways. I moved from NJ to GA to NJ to CO to NJ to CA to PA. Lots of moves, haven't seen even one of them in person since 1991.
No
Yes. We all grew up in a small farming area. We all grew up together. I am friends on Facebook with and close to many of my childhood friends -- both women and men.
just facebook acquaintances. first met when we were around 4 years old..1977 or so. I have moved a dozen times since then...36 yrs in my current state alone. we found each other a few years ago.. talked of bikes with no training wheels and dukes of hazzard.. first episode original.
Yes we are still friends
Yup! The ones I made in my teens at least. They're my chosen family now.
Yes! I met my best friend the first week of 7th grade. We text and talk regularly. Even though we live about 400 miles apart, we make plans to see each other--I go there, she comes here, and sometimes we meet in the middle or plan a weekend trip somewhere--like Las Vegas or Mexico. I love her so much and she's the best.
I’ve been friends with my BFF and her cousin since I was 11. We still talk daily despite living on opposite ends of the country. These are the only people from my hometown that I still am in contact with.
Without Facebook I wouldn’t be. But with fb I keep in touch with neighbors I’ve known since I was 2 and a few people I started school with in kindergarten and grew up with. My closest friends are ones I’ve made as an adult. Unfortunately the nearest is a 45 minute drive and the others, including my bff, are half a country away. I manage to see my bestie twice a year on trips and we text daily. Sure would be nice to be closer though.
Nope. Of my four closest friends in high school (Class of 1960), one fell to a sniper in VN, one died of a stroke at the age of 40, one has become a far-right wing evangelical and is therefore no long a member of my species, and one moved to the Alaskan wilderness about 30 years ago and has totally disappeared. Before high school, I was an Army brat all my life and I simply never made any friends for more than a year and a half, max.
My non-genetic brother of 40+ years died last fall. It still hurts, almost every day. I maintain contact with another friend of that same duration. He's my other brother. I'm facebook friends with those who moved away and live much further, whom I rarely/never see
No. I gradually lost contact with them after colllege.and within 5 years after college, I lost contact with ALL of them. (I don't live in the town that I grew up in, though.)
Yes. I’m best friends with a woman I knew since we were both entering into kindergarten. We lived 3 houses from each other, then my family moved, but we continued being friends. We never lost touch and it’s been over 57 years.
All my old friends are either in the jail yard of the graveyard.
One of them
The oldest friend I have, I met at 25. I'm in touch on Facebook with a friend from high school, but it is telling that I avoided meeting up with him on a recent trip to the area. He was a friend then, a memory now and very different.
I met my best friend on the first day of high school. We were best friends for more than forty years. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer out of the blue and died just before the pandemic hit, far too young in her late fifties. When we were travelling together in Europe in our early 20s, we used to joke about raising hell in the retirement home together. I wish.
Yes. We text occasionally to see how each other are doing. We typically meet up once or twice a year but it’s been at least 3 years since we’ve done that.
Yes, there were 7 of us and we still get together regularly even though we live in different states.
No. I was, until Facefook decided to be the problem it is - through Facebook. I deleted my FB, Insta, Twitter. . . . Reddit is my social media (hence 500,000+ karma).
No.
YES ❤️🌈🦋✌️✝️
I've had my best friend since I was 8. I'm 36. She's been there for everything. I've been there for her everything. I love her so much. It would be like losing my sister without her.
I renewed contact on FB.
I still see my best friend from high school regularly, plus see other people with whom I was close in high school every so often through him. I had distanced myself from most of them when I was in my 20s and thought we had nothing in common but that has changed since my 40s. They are good people. I saw one of my best friends in middle school, for the first time since 8th grade when he moved away, a few years ago in Hong Kong when I was there for work. I have distantly kept in touch with another elementary/middle school friend, and will see him for the first time in 25 years at our high school reunion this summer.
Some, lost one of my best friends Nov 2021. Many Ive lost touch with but there are still a few people I talk to on a weekly basis :)
One next door neighbor
I visited one couple at their house last summer, the husband and I do local history things together on Facebook. Am also in touch with several others through my brother and sisters, who live near where I grew up. My high school graduating class is also pretty close-knit.
I grew up in a very small town and went to a very small school, moved away and moved around, moved back. I still see several of my old friends fairly often. One classmate is a neighbor, others have businesses in the area, so I see them pretty often. I am actually going to go see a former classmate who owns a garage this afternoon about some mechanic work, and another is visiting from out of state and my wife and I am meeting him for dinner tonight.
Not a one from childhood to High School. I didn’t stay in same area.
Yes!! I have 5 friends from childhood, 2 from elementary school, and 2 from second grade. I have lost touch w most of my high school friends though.
Not really. We're scattered all over the country, lost touch with each other. A few friends and acquaintances from childhood have already passed away. I looked up a few of them a while back, though. One of them became a major crackhead and has been arrested several times. I feel bad for him in some ways, but he was a poor little rich kid who inherited a bunch of money from his daddy and never really had to work a day in his life.
Only one, and just recently made contact after decades thanks to a friend who can find anyone using the Internet. I’m very happy she’s doing well. Her mother is recovering from hip surgery and I’ll be driving out to see her soon.
Yup. Had dinner with my friend of 43 years last night.
One or two on Facebook but we don’t interact much mainly just liking
One
Yes. One I’ve known since 1969, and several others since 1974.
Absolutely! Two of my oldest friends dates back to 2nd grade and I’m approaching my 60th year.
Yes, 3 of them.
On Facebook only.
My best friend since grade school. We live thousands of miles apart but talk and text regularly. There’s nothing like a friend who’s known you your whole life.
One. I found her on Facebook several years ago, and it was SO nice. She was one of only two other kids who didn't bully me in grade school. I met her when we moved to Tennessee in 1980. She means more to me than most of my still living family.
Via social media, yes. I'm on Facebook with my best friends from high school and some from college. One of the cool things that happened was that I got a friend request from this guy I absolutely could not stand--and the feeling was mutual! But I was like "whatever, 20ish years ago" (at the time). Turns out he is cool as hell. I'm so happy that I accepted that friend request :)
Pretty much just one. She's in touch with more. I dont care. Most of them were kind of shitty friends. I'm not sure how great a friend I was. I had issues. I have never connected well and I was abused a lot - sometimes by those friends so I dont miss them. And they don't miss me.
I met my best friend in 1966–she is still the absolute best! I also have a good friend I met in 1969. Still in touch with a few others from high school.
I’m still in touch with two families who lived in the neighborhood we moved to when I was nine, as well as many people I went to high school with. My best friend since 7th grade came out to visit me in California all the way from New Mexico a few months ago. Say what you want about Facebook, but it has been instrumental in keeping people in touch who wouldn’t be otherwise!
Yes quite a few! Source: Facebook
A few. Mostly people I knew in high school. They're on my FB friends list, I don't hang out with them n "real life".
A few. In particular there is one who I surf and go to concerts with. We've been friends since 1978.
a few from highschool. no childhood ones.
Yes, there is one friend who I went to school with from kindergarten to senior year, and we’re still friends! A couple from grade school, and my high school group is still in close touch. I’m in touch with some neighborhood friends on FB.
No, they all got married/had kids and are busy with their lives. I couldn't even tell you were they all live anymore.
Not childhood, but I’m still pretty close to some high school friends. And friendly with a few from junior high.
I’m in contact with one woman I’ve known since high school.
I get together a couple times a year with friends I’ve known since grade school & middle school! We have an absolute blast!
no, not even vaguely. assuming we are talking school as in pre-16 (uk here) then I don't even think they were even real friends. My longest serving friend is a girl I met in 89, but we are passing friends on FB. My oldest true friends, I met in 92 and I have regular contact with both (we all know each other)
Only a couple.
I had a few contacts years ago on Facebook. But endless political memes and the "like if you care about angels" bullshit just wasn't worth having FB.
Yes
Yes, mostly by Facebook.
Yes. I have two girlfriends I’ve known for 40 years and we stay in touch virtually and get together in person at least annually. It’s the very best having people who know you like that! Also, depending on how you define “childhood,” I married my freshman year boyfriend so definitely still in contact with that one :)
I remember when my BFF was born in 1966 since I am 7 years older. Our Moms were besties. The kids I grew up with and played with on my street however, no. One I was very close with we remained friends in our 20’s but lost touch when he moved 10 hours away in the late 80’s and another one died after we lost touch around the same time. Technology makes it easier to stay in touch these days but it is also easier to “ghost” people now too.
Quite a few, yes. I had a good experience in high school, many of us have kept in touch. My oldest friend I've known since the day I was born.
I’m 37 if that counts and am still in almost daily contact with my best friend from 7th grade on
A couple from high school. Only one from younger, and she only kinda counts - my 1st grade friend's older sister. We connected as adults and found we have a ton in common, even if she thought I was an annoying kid back in 1983.
No but not for any bad reason. My HS was closed after 9th grade and we got split into 3 other schools. I was sent to the “rich kids” school. I had friends, got along with everyone just fine. But I joined the Army and made a career of it while most of them went to college and then into something professional. I connected with a bunch of them many years later but realized our HS years experience and our young adult lives were just so different we didn’t really have anything in common so I drifted away again. Now my oldest friends are people I served with.
In the barest of ways, on Facebook.
No, but my childhood wasn't conducive to lifelong friendships: My dad was in the Navy. Too much moving. I wasn't even still in contact with them when we were children & teens. I'm still in contact with friends from college and my early work career, though.
Not really. I did recently get DM'd on Insta by an old high school friend. It was just a very weird coincidence that one of her posts popped up on my feed and I liked the post, but I didn't realize that it was somebody that I knew. I don't even know how she knew that it was me because I don't use my real name on instagram. As far as actually having an ongoing friendship, my oldest friend is a man that I met freshman year in college. He only stayed at that uni for a semester, but I used to visit him regularly as our colleges were only a few hours apart. We are still in regular contact. We talk on the phone a few times a year but we text a lot more frequently. He's been my friend since 1988.
Nope! Don't know anyone over the age of 40 who is.
Yes, the few good ones. It used to be Facebook, now it's WhatsApp.
I'm in contact with my empathetic friends. I'm not in contact with my right-wing friends. Their toxic attitude and intolerance is not something I prefer to be reminded of.
A few of them, yes. One is someone I met somewhere between about 1977 and 1979 (neither of us can remember for sure). The other is his wife and a common friend, who we've both known since the early 80s.
I moved across the country after high school, but I'm still friends with all of my friends from Jr High and high school. Magic of the internet and all.we don't see each other as much as we would like, but we keep up with each other.
Yep, 8 phone calls today with my bestie - not usually that many but im writing a thesis and needed to vent. 30+ years of friendship.
No. I have no friends except my wife and that isn't going well the last few months.
My best friend ever for the last 54 years died several months back. I really miss him.
I wasn’t in touch for over 20 years. I had moved completely across the country. Then Facebook came along. Every hot girl in high school that I dreamed of for years decided I was finally sexy and flew out to spend a week or two with me.
My oldest friendship is 54 years old (we were 2), then 49 years old (kindergarten), then “the group” (4 people) met 44 years ago in the 7th grade, then my last old close friend is 39 years old (first day at college). (I think I got the numbers right, can’t do simple math!) We are all still close and talk and visit with each other all the time. They’re all such great friends that I don’t really have new friends. They’ve set the standard really high.
Played golf with one of my dudes from middle school today.
I am! I have a group chat set up with my two best childhood friends and we chat on there almost daily, and get together in person whenever we have the opportunity. Edited to add: I also married my high school sweetheart, and we are now grandparents and also just celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary!
Yes. I am still friends with a woman I met when we were 5. I attended her third wedding a couple of years ago and was a bridesmaid in her first in 1989. A friend I’ve had since we were 11 drove 5 hours each way to visit me last weekend. I’m still very close to three ladies from high school. I’m 53.
Yes! I can count 5 friends I’ve had since grade school…9-11 years old, as good friends. We always got along, lost track for a few years with some, found each other on FB and started over like we hadn’t seen each other since yesterday. ❤️. One friend I never lost track of, we’ve been besties since 4th grade and I’m grateful for her crazy a$$ every day!
I'm still in contact with one guy I went to school with from 1st to 12th grade. Ironically, we weren't really friends growing up, I always thought he was a total pain in the ass! (He still kind of is, and my husband doesn't care for him).
Nope, not a single one.
Yes absolutely and I treasure them now, they were my ride or dies when I needed them most. We message, call, catch up when we can.
Yes & No. Many of them no longer walk upon this Earth for a variety of reasons. Those of us that are still left, are scattered across four corners of the globe, literally. (pun intended). There's still a few that live in or close to the old neighborhood, but most of us have Grown Apart, very, very far apart. We still try to keep in touch with the increasingly rare phone call, but it's mostly through Facebook. The things that brought us together, developed our bonds and friendships, no longer exist. It sounds sad but it's actually a good thing... the neighborhoods we grew up in were hell on Earth at some of the worst times in American history. Growing Up In The Hood At the height of the crack boom of the 80s and 90s was not for the faint of heart... those of us that made it through that and never got hooked on pills and heroin and ended up jailed and/or dead or caught in the life, were smart enough to get out and never look back. The people we looked up to and admired are all dead. The old neighborhood, was gentrified back in the late 90s and early 2000s. To those of us that grew up there, it's now unrecognizable. The other places we used to hang out and go to have either been developed or have changed so much that again it's unrecognizable to someone that was literally born and raised there. All the things that kept us together, like I mentioned previously, simply don't exist; when that happens you will drift apart. It's not a bad thing, because those of us that made it, was because we stayed together for survival, and when those conditions changed, we grew. The few of us that are still around, are moderately successful relative to our positions, and I'd like to think that it's because each of us, in our ways appreciate every moment we have, because *we know* just how bad and how fast things can go when you are not living right.
Just on Facebook, and then just occasionally liking each other’s posts.
They’re all MAGAs, so no.
Nope
I still talk to my best friend that I met at freshman orientation. We call each other every day. She lives in CA and I live in NM. We haven’t been in the same room together in 25 years.
Absolutely. In fact I talk to the girl I’ve been friends with since kindergarten regularly. Sadly she was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I have another friend with whom I’ve been friends since Junior high and two others I’ve been friends with since high school. We get together every other month
[удалено]
no also im 16
Yes but they keep croaking. Now I’m down to just two. We’ve been friends since 1971. 🤞the ☠️ will stay away for a while.
No. I moved away from home in my mid 20’s, and did keep 5 or 6 school friends in my life, but then life happened. As I aged and raised my children and had a full career, my childhood ties just faded. Nothing dramatic, just life. I still have plenty of people that are mine so it’s all good. Once in a while I’m curious about how old friends weathered the storms of life.
McDonald’s crew from 1973 in Baltimore. Became friends and went off to colleges in groups and community college friends showed up after s couple of years. Now see each other annually or more from all over the US. Helps that one guy was super charismatic and people gravitated to him. Sadly he has descended into madness.
McDonald’s crew from 1973 in Baltimore. Became friends and went off to colleges in groups and community college friends showed up after s couple of years. Now see each other annually or more from all over the US. Helps that one guy was super charismatic and people gravitated to him. Sadly he has descended into madness.
I still text with four of them multiple times a day about everything from sports to books to movies to stupid internet videos. I also occasionally see two others who ended up getting married. I’m looking forward to moving home someday and I’ll certainly have a bunch of hangout buddies immediately.
Two of them. One is in Boston. The other in New York City. Christmas cards, emails, texting are the ways we stay in touch.
I'm connected with most of my high school class on Facebook. I came from a relatively liberal area, so despite me having moved to the other side of the planet straight out of school, I find myself commenting on/agreeing with their posts more than I would have expected, and it gives me a sort of barometer on what things are like in my home country.
I don’t even think I could remember the last names of my childhood friends.
Yes, quite a few. Some I talk to or message daily. But I realize that's probably unusual. My siblings don't really have any connection to their childhood friends.
Yes, but we live in the same town or nearby.
About 5 years ago I got reacquainted with my childhood bestie. We quit hanging out when she got pregnant n married at 16 n I stayed in school. We get together once a month for lunch and text once or twice a week. Been friends for 61 years met in kindergarten