Long-time friends

Have you ever had someone in your life who just seems to fit? Someone around whom you can be comfy in your jammies and share a cup of tea and visit about anything under the sun?

I had the luxury of spending some time with a couple of very long, long-time friends over the weekend. Technically, they were my folks' friends first. And their sons are about the same age as my sister and me - so some might think there's a generation gap. And 20 years ago, I would have noticed it, but not so much today.

Wayne-o once spanked me for a childhood antic that resulted in several bags of grass seed being soaked in the garage - long before he'd planned to use it. (I wasn't the only one spanked that day.) And Viv once held me on her lap and tried to convince me that spilled grapejuice would not kill my beanbag dog. She gently washed the stain out and everything turned out fine. But today we can chat about religion and raising kids and how funny mine are. We can discuss business and news and life more as peers.

These folks are the kind of people you'd want to leave your kids to if you die. Kind and generous, down to Earth, a little corny in a cute way, and just true, good people. No wonder my folks have kept this friendship so long over all the miles. I've only spent one vacation with them, but like this past weekend, it was too comfortable to describe.

We stayed up late on Saturday night and visited into Sunday afternoon. All in comfy clothes and without fanfare. What a lovely time. Why aren't there more old friendships in the world like this?