A Voice from the Past
I have always thought that the mark of a good friendship was one that could just pick up where it left off many years earlier. When my roommate from my senior year in college called today, we talked forever about what has transpired in the 10 years since I last saw her, the only time since we graduated. It was just like old times. Caridad (Cary) is a petite 4'10" of Cuban descent. We were always like Mutt & Jeff. My memories of her include:
– Eating canned squid in its own ink with chopped onions and toast courtesy of her mother’s care packages.
– Watching her roll her hair on orange juice cans to straighten it.
– Her unique approach to hemming her pants which inevitably had to have several inches cut off: Scotch tape.
– Eating bags of Cheetos together in our room.
– The day she showed up with a small Honda motorcycle in our sorority house parking lot.
– Her sleeping an awful lot after her father died suddenly while we were in college.
– Her first car, a Pontiac Firebird, which was customized for her height.
She has lived in Miami ever since we graduated. Although she dotes on multiple nieces and nephews, she never married and has no children of her own.
We exchanged e-mail addresses and vowed to make good on our pledge to get together sometime during the coming year. I wonder if we can actually make this happen. It’s fun to sometimes be reminded of a time long ago when I was young and carefree and my life was still a mystery.
posted by Barbara at 9:16 PM
4 Comments:
I have a frew friends like that, ones with whom I can pick up where we left off as if no time has passed. I love that.
I used to roll my hair on OJ cans. My squid eating was always w/o the ink. College days were great.
I can easily relate to that as this past Saturday I went out with a friend that I haven't seen in years and it has been more than a decade since just the two of us went out.
There is a great comfort in being able to pick up to feel at ease with one another - although he seemed a bit uncertain at first, but this quickly vanished within a few minutes.
While it was good to get together and to talk again, I observed that in many ways nothing has really changed, the topics of conversation were (if not identical to previous topics) at least in a similar vein. Now, I do not expect drastic changes in persona, but sometimes it would be nice if there at least seemed to be new growth and refinement. The only new topic for discussion that evening was my bringing up the question of whether we have free will or not. He believes we do, so I argued the deterministic side of things.
In many ways, I also enjoy the new ideas and insights of the people I meet through blogging - while there is comfort in familiarity, there can also be boredom in familiarity..
I enjoy your posts about your Jewish preparations and activities, though I rarely comment. Sometimes I feel bad not commenting, but I generally have nothing more to say than, "I enjoyed that." Or maybe "thank you".
I loved my high school and university days and still have many friends with whom I can still relate. It is a rare thing. I just came back from a dinner with people I met at summer camp when we were 17. We still get together a few times a year.
For the most part, I find it easy to re-connect to people, but I can see that sometimes with some people, there is little to say. Guess the key is to try and stay connected.
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