NEVER-ENDING FRIENDSHIPS
Are They Possible?
When I was a Girl Scout many years ago, we used to sit around the campfire singing the song “Make New Friends.” Each group of us would try to sing the loudest as we joined in at different intervals. Choruses of “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold” reverberated through the pine trees late every night.
I hadn’t really thought about that song again until the other evening when I attended a recognition service for my longtime friend — Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Andra Bell. (Along with her amazing statistics, this link includes her Hall of Fame acceptance speech.)
During many of the 34 years while Andra was building an outstanding girls’ basketball program at Upper Sandusky High School, we celebrated the Lady Ram success with her.
Division III 1995-1996 State Runners-Up 27-1
Some of us also had a lot of fun during the off-season too playing Trivia Pursuit, singing karaoke, and cheering on our other Ram teams. I remember the time we went on a reconnaissance trip during football season to retrieve our school’s spirit flag that someone had stolen. Another one of our coaches told us he saw it hanging in a pool hall window in Shelby when he drove by — so the four of us set out to rescue it…
After searching for several hours, however, we couldn’t find the flag anywhere in Shelby. We didn’t want to abort our mission and return empty handed so we decided to scout out Tiffin for some other form of motivation.
Somehow our quest to be heroes clouded our judgment when we spotted a blue & yellow flag. Not used to a four-speed, the driver just kept driving around the block without stopping until we captured the loot. I was a little disappointed when we discovered our heist was a Cross Country flag made of a bedsheet, but like valiant victors we hoisted it to the top of our school’s flag pole when we got home.
As we stood under the empty flag pole early the next morning thinking we’d be hailed as heroes, we found out someone had actually witnessed our flag raising in the middle of the night and mistook us for the enemy. They had taken down our captured flag, sprayed painted it with cuss words and returned it to a flag pole in Tiffin. Ha!
Today we’d probably be on the news: “Teachers Invade Opponent’s Personal Space.”
Those were the best of times.
Even though I’m retired now and only see some of my friends a couple times a year, I found out that songwriter was definitely right: “Make new friends, but keep the old. Some are silver and others gold.” Sing it out!
It’ll Be Ok.
~~~
“If you die, I’ll get your cellphone and delete all incriminating messages and pictures before I do anything else.” ~eCards
COMMENT: DO YOU HAVE ANY LIFELONG FRIENDS?
Oh the antics my red hatters and i use to have and i can still hear the laughter! But then slowly we just stopped and then I moved 300 miles away. Yes i still have several friends that have been in my life for 40+ years! i may not see them often but when i do, we can pick up where we left off! I am blessed indeed!!
Blessings to you!!
Life has given me good friends, some of them I have kept since I was a child and I consider them part of my family. When I met my husband Cesar, his mother told me something that I still remember: that friends were the insurance for old age. My mother-in-law was widowed very young and today at 92 years old, I see her full of life and happy with her friends.