2015 ... the year of Friends

In 2015 I will be 75 years old. It is hard for me to believe but true.  The best thing I have done in those seventy five years is make friends.  Obviously, I have Facebook Friends and on the other hand I have some very dear old friends and family who would not dream of being on Facebook.  Other friends who are on FB do not spend the time that I, a little old lady without tv in a tiny town where I know almost no one, do.

This year I am going to make a conscious effort to see more of my friends.  Additionally, it has occurred to me that some of my friends would enjoy being friends with other of my friends and have more in common with each other than they do with me.  Now I don't know how that will be accomplished.  Back "in the day" one had a Tupperware Party or a tea or a baby shower and your friends got to meet each other.

The last few weeks I have seen some amazing cases of "small world" in this big ever-transient world.  None will beat our drive to the Double M Ranch for the swinging Christmas party there.  The Double M's are my new great grandson Cayden's maternal great grandparents.  On our way to the Hill Country setting my daughter Laura pointed to a house on Krueger Canyon Road in Comal County and said "Scott's aunt lived there."  Scott was her highschool boyfriend, fellow Ascension church mate and they did lots of family events so she had been to that house and knew the family. After we have been at the huge Christmas party for a couple of hours Laura comes up to me with Courtney's (daughter-in-law, granddaughter of party givers) brother's wife, Shelby.  Shelby had taken Laura over to meet her mother.  Shelby's mother is one of the daughters of the woman whose house she had pointed out to me!  To say they had a rip roaring good time discussing the olden days, beach trips, and the like is an understatement.

One of the things I've always wanted to do is visit towns wherein reside some of my FB friends and have lunch with a bunch.  Oddly enough, if I went to Nashville and did that most of the friends there already know each other.  In Phoenix, not so much.  Also in Phoenix is one of my oldest and dearest friends who refuses to get on FB.  In South Texas, similarly, old friends who do not know each other and my college roommate who along with her husband decided upon retirement from teaching highschool that they would never get on a computer again!  Won't that be some party.

I am especially glad that on a couple of occasions some years ago I attended Stephenson family reunions in Clark Lake Michigan because now those FB friends (family) are actually familiar and not just names of some people I met when I was a kid.

Many of my FB friends are from all those dear old "radio" days.  I include advertising, Astros broadcast and my Timmers/Monument years in those days.  It is a large numbers of friends in that group and there is much overlap.  I often look at my friends' friends and am amazed at who we all know!  I have FB friends whom I introduced and now they are both rich and famous!  (See Steve Tyrell and Dene Hofheinz).

Many more of my friends come from my long Texas life as an Episcopalian in the Diocese of Texas.  For instance, one of Kathy's pals from Happening, Fr. Patrick Miller, who was a Canon at the Cathedral when I was a communicant there, is now the Rector at St. Marks in Houston where I was confirmed over fifty years ago.  And, his sister lives in Brenham!  Shared friends in that world is exponentially wild.

Oh, and then there are all these places to which I have "retired" and kept working; Brenham, Navasota, Tyler and Edom.  I have "friends" there too.  In fact, I think I keep in closer touch with what's happening in Rattler-ville ... ie. Navasota, than I did when I lived there.  Good friends make that possible.

Now I need to figure out how to go about these fine reunions, and where to find the money for the travel.  Maybe I can just introduce friends to others I think they will like ... and find out they do not !

The fact of the matter is that on Facebook, in addition to keeping up with my friends, it is a fabulous way to keep up with my family.  When you consider that I have four children, eleven grandchildren (many with significant others) and now two great grands, I could never "see and hear" as much without Facebook.

I have friends who get on me for "playing on FB" which I guess they mean sharing too many photos of food, Bingo Bash daily, political uproar that makes me miserable, etc.  What I'm really doing is maintaining my connections to my family, friends, church and the world.

I hope to be able to keep internet for the rest of my life be that this year or many years.  If we are old friends or very new friends, I am grateful to have you in my "life" and hope we can stay in touch and maybe even share a piece of pie and a cuppa something.