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My last best friend died last September. Naval Academy, Marine Colonel, my neighbor across the street. I have no one to talk to about him. Forgive me for posting about him.
We were having cocktails, and Delbert McClinton's When Rita Leaves came on. This big guy teared up. I wanted to ask him about it. However, I thought discussing it would not be helpful, and I let it lie.
It came on iTunes this morning, and I teared up.
So sorry for your loss.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stevie. With all my health issues, it's ironic that I am the last man standing. After a certain age, you don't make new friends.
DeleteI just visited an old friend yesterday who is in Hospice. We spent time talking over old times and where we have been and what we have done. It reminded me of something a friend said to me years ago. The hardest thing about getting old is losing your best friends. There are things between us that are impossible to relate to others. I'm sorry for your loss.
ReplyDeleteThanks. He was an outstanding person. After he retired from the Marines, he was the head of HR for one of the largest utilities in the SE. Off the street to head of HR. How many men can manage that? An ice storm brought two trees down, blocking our street. I find 70-year-old Frank is taking care of it. I liked his story of getting back on the Naval Academy grounds. The walls were whitewashed, but if you could pole vault over the walls, your pants would not give you away.
DeleteSo sorry for your loss; it is hard to loose friends who share your history and experiences for sure. I think we can and do make new friends, but it is not the same… on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your sentiments.
DeleteAt some age, the ability to make new friends decreases, simply because you are not joining new groups. I joined the Vietnam Veterans two years back. No social. People came to the meeting and left when it was over.
OK the Redhead got my attention but the story of your best friends passing got to me more.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for you loss but I can empathize with you. In recent months I’ve lost two long time friends and just thus morning I heard of another now in his final days in hospice.
My only regrets are not having kept in better touch with all of them. Family life, work and in all cases distance kept us apart. It’s sad when you only see each other at another’s funeral.
I never had that many close friends and these days the chances of new ones are exceptionally slim.
Don’t feel you’re alone my friend. You’ve got your friends here.
I never paid any attention to redheads, except for one, long ago, who had elfin features and hair colored much like today's opener. Now, when I see one, I think of your strong interest in them.
DeleteYou are so right about keeping up with friends while they are alive. Moving and leaving Frank was a tough choice. I thought we would park our RV in his driveway and visit, but my health issues limited that.
Thank you for being a supportive cyber friend.
Another Frank story. He did this every day. I sometimes rode with. As the banks opened, he made stops at three of them. He had considerable wealth, and I think one reason he used three banks and had the statements mailed to a POB was to keep his wife off the scent. Another reason was to flirt with the girls in the bank. They seemed to enjoy his attention.
After banking, it was time to find dinner. If he was in the mood for fish, off we went to a fish market to see if they had anything that interested him.
Fish or beef procured, he headed home and started prep. He did prep in spurts all afternoon. At 5:00 sharp, he poured a whiskey glass full of Vodka and added a splash of grapefruit juice. A second and third followed. At 7, he started dinner. It might be just for him, or maybe his wife would join, or maybe it would be a small dinner party.
He was a marvelous cook, and I learned several dishes from him.
At age 84, my longtime friends are getting fewer. My high school sent me a disc with the phone numbers of classmates and I was surprised how many were still around. Since Covid, I have been nervice about calling. I do have one best friend from high school that we talk every month and he is in an assisted living home. The person I believed was my best frien here, dumped me because I voted for Trump, you just never know about prople.
ReplyDeleteAs for the wonderful pictures, I did not know there was a spanking machine. From what I see of her, it should be easy to get someone to do it, I sure would like to do it.
Spanking machines have been around for quite a while. One fellow brought one to a spanking party. The girls literally lined up to try it.
DeleteKnow what you mean about making new friends. Personally, I think that it is because we do not get to meet enough new acquaintances, some of whom might become friends. We don't go to shops and other places so much now, nor seek out face to face advice. Most of the things that we used to do, where we might meet new people, we now do sitting alone, at a computer. Sorry to hear about your buddy. There are starting to be more and more crossed out names in my address book, too.
ReplyDeletePrefectdt
In school, we all met hundreds of people. Parents meet other parents. The workplace is rife with new people. Plus civic, professional, and religious situations. When we moved cities after we retired, we both did volunteer work for the PD. I joined a Vietnam Vets group.
DeleteSorry to hear about your lose. Good friends are hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, they are. If one of you moves, there is some distance that determines if you will remain friends.
DeleteIt was in Diamonds are Forever, one of the early 'Bond' movies that when confronted by Jill St. John having changed from blond to brunette, asked which he preferred, Sean Connery said something like '.. Providing the collars and cuffs match'. I feel like that with redheads, only the real thing works. It is a challenge to make new friends as one grows older, but worth the effort. Friendship in old age is not like friendship in youth, it is being on a common journey. Everyone (except my late sister apparently) neglects the friendships of youth, but did those former friends try to keep it going, probably not. At an age a good part of one's social life is attending funerals, sad but an opportunity to retouch with old friends and neglected family.
ReplyDeleteI never cared that the collars and cuffs matched. I dated too many "blondes" to give a damn.
DeleteI never had more than three friends at a time. I lost four at middle age. Two to alcohol. Fucking depressing to see them kill themselves. Alcohol is no different than heroin; it just takes longer. I lost another friend to suicide. He moved to an adjacent state. I had no idea of his condition. He hid it well enough that I never suspected.