Friendships

People ask me how

I come up with something to write each week. Most of the time it’s what’s happening in my life. I have a cousin who writes a weekly column for the Hamilton County Reporter. Last week her column was about Long Friendships. It made me think about my own friendships and she was happy to let me copy her theme.

When we’re little our friendships could be our siblings, cousins, or neighbors. I was the “middle child” of three. My brother is three years older than me so he was always around and my sister is seven years younger so I had to wait awhile to play with her.

I didn’t have much contact with cousins growing up. I was a lot younger than most of my cousins on my dad’s side and we didn’t get together with cousins on my mom’s side. I really enjoy watching my grandchildren’s relationships with their cousins. They were born in different states; Indiana, Alaska, Colorado, and Tennessee and some of them have moved multiple times, but they still keep connected. We gather at Christmas time and for the past 9 years we’ve gathered for our family trip in February. We also get together as much as possible in between. The grandkids range in age from 22 to 7 and it’s fun to watch them interact.

The neighborhood I grew up in didn’t have any girls near my age until I was in junior high, so I spent a lot of time with the boys. There was one my brother’s age and one my age and the four of us played baseball, basketball and bike riding all summer long. Each of those guys had a little brother a few years younger and once in awhile I could talk the younger boys into playing house - if they got to be the dad and go off to work. Eventually another girl moved onto our dead-end street, so I had a female friend to share those junior high and high school years with. Sadly, moves and death have ended those friendships except for one. We visited Doug and his wife in Florida this year and it was fun sharing memories