10 Years - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Trakehner · #1 04-06-2008, 10:04 PM

There's a friend I haven't seen in 10 years. When we were 10 and 11 his family moved to Atlanta. We kept in touch by phone at first, then since 1999 it's been strictly emails every couple of months.

Has anyone here rekindled an old friendship?

Larry Delor · #2 04-06-2008, 10:31 PM

Yes, some from when I lived in Germany, and was about 6 or 7 years old.
I keep in touch with a high school friend, who is currently in Japan (via Vietnam for about a year) and happens to like it there a bit. He really likes it over there. Another high school friend comes down with her family about once a year - I get along great with the bunch of them.
An old college room mate of mine moved down to Fla a few years ago to get married. Once he corrected that mistake he moved a little further south, but we still yak every couple of months.

Jim B. · #3 04-06-2008, 11:25 PM

When I was about 13, in 1961, through the Finnish consulate in San Francisco, I began writing to a Finnish boy the same age.

I lost track of him in 1972 when I was in Law School.

About 1999 he tracked me down, trhough my brother's name on the internet and we begain corresponding again!!

And then, in 2001, my wife and I flew to Finland and met him (he had a wife and family!!). They arranged to have their vacations then, so we travelled all over Finland and had a marvelous time with them, sightseeing, taking sauna baths, they paid for us to go to Estonia with them, it was wonderful!!!

And to finally get to put the face to the name after 41 years!!!

Just wonderful!!! And Finland is wonderful, such a beautiful, clean place with friendly people everywhere.

Now it's been 47 years, so I would say he's my oldest friend.

They want to come to America to visit me when they retire, and I hope they do!!!

mgburg · #4 04-07-2008, 12:50 AM

This past fall I was able to locate an old friend that I had from Jr. High through college. Last time I saw him was at his wedding in '78, right after his commissioning into the Infantry (2nd Lt./Army ROTC). He retired as a Lt. Colonel a few years ago and is still in Germany as an advisor on M.E. Affairs to the military. He's re-married and has issued a standing invite should I get the chance to break loose from here and want to travel to Europe.

It's a bit strange talking about the gaps in your lives between the last time you've seen the person and the now...you find yourself wondering why you did certain things you did and what would be the situation now if you had done things differently...

In a way, it puts your life into perspective...are things better because you are who you are, or worse?

And, in the end, you are your own judge.

Trakehner · #5 04-08-2008, 10:20 AM

Finland must have been great. Did they beat you with birch bark after/before the sauna? I understand males and females use the sauna at the same time, both naked. The Finns used to make bread using a little sawdust in place of Flour, did you have that? You were so lucky! Nowadays I hear Finns go to Estonia to drink their favorite Finnish beers because in Estonia Finnish beer is cheaper than in Finland, taxes you know. Cheers, Tallina

Wow, when they come to America they're going to have a ball

SwampYankee · #6 04-08-2008, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trakehner

There's a friend I haven't seen in 10 years. When we were 10 and 11 his family moved to Atlanta. We kept in touch by phone at first, then since 1999 it's been strictly emails every couple of months.

Has anyone here rekindled an old friendship?

I had a friend since we were 6-7 who I remained good friends with through h.s. I went to college and he joined the Navy. 8 or so years later, after he got out of the Navy and got divorced, he moved back to CT in a different town. His mother still lived in my town and happened to run into me one day at the supermarket. Ironically he and his new wife had just had a daughter with Down syndrome (my 5yoS has Ds for anyone unaware) a year after my son #3 was born. We get together every few weeks now.

Kuan · #7 04-08-2008, 11:35 AM

Funny how good friends will stay with you for life. I had a friend, odd fellow, absolutely brilliant, dressed in a plain white T-shirt and black trousers, and shoes made out of natural materials because he never wanted to be out of touch with the earth, you know, your typical philosopher/beer drinker. He translated the Tao te Ching, learned Mandarin on his own, learned how to code, taught professors how to code, etc.

That was about 18 years ago. The other day I tried to look him up and found out that he had died of "unknown causes." Big bummer.

beevly · #8 04-08-2008, 12:06 PM

Sometimes it's not so easy. When you lose the things you had in common, you may find that conversation turns awkward. Sooner or later you run out of "remember when" stories, especially if you were only 10 or 11 at the time.

I'm not all that great a conversationalist anyway, YMMV.

Benzadmiral · #9 04-08-2008, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beevly

Sometimes it's not so easy. When you lose the things you had in common, you may find that conversation turns awkward. Sooner or later you run out of "remember when" stories, especially if you were only 10 or 11 at the time. . . . YMMV.

With the help of a forum member, I located the fellow who was my best friend from age 12 up into my 30s. He lives in Clearwater, FL, now, having bugged out from the Gulf Coast after Katrina. He and I double-dated, we went to movies, we got into "Star Trek" fandom together, we saw each other through our first marriages and then into his second (and me out of my second). But since then . . .

1) His wife doesn't like me, and I have nothing in common with her. She's pleasant enough, but --

2) She's gotten him into religion in a big way. In her e-mail, she says that the two of them sang and prayed while waiting for Katrina to hit the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, instead of jumping in the car and hightailing it out of there. I don't understand that mindset. And of course they have kids (college age now), which means they live in another universe from me anyhow.

I can call and chat, but I don't know how a visit would go. If his family still lives here, and they come to visit, I'll be glad to get together for a while. But there's no guarantee it won't be a disaster.
.

Jim B. · #10 04-08-2008, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trakehner

Finland must have been great. Did they beat you with birch bark after/before the sauna? I understand males and females use the sauna at the same time, both naked. The Finns used to make bread using a little sawdust in place of Flour, did you have that? You were so lucky! Nowadays I hear Finns go to Estonia to drink their favorite Finnish beers because in Estonia Finnish beer is cheaper than in Finland, taxes you know. Cheers, Tallina

Wow, when they come to America they're going to have a ball

How it worked was Peter would stoke the boiler with coals, and pour ladles of water on them as it got hot in there, and each time he did, huge clouds of steam rose in there.

Meantime, his wife went into the forest and stripped off birch branches off trees. She knows exactly where the cloudberries grow in the forest and could find them.

Then we all went in there for 20-30 minutes and took the sauna and flayed ourselves with birch branches. You could be nude if you want, but we were co ed (with our wives in there) so we all wore bathing suits

Then we all ran out of there down the pier and jumped into the cold lake and swam around until we got tired, then got out.

It is FANTASTIC and invigorating. Unbelievable.

The Finns are TOTALLY into them, and my friend told me he would get rid of his CAR!!!!!! before he got rid of his sauna.

He even had one in his house. It was upstairs in a HUGE bathroom, with some kind of radiant heat system in or under the tiles, I never worked out what it was.

He lived north of Helsinki in a town called Hyvinkaa. I got some euro side blinkers at the Mercedes dealer there!!!!

The Estonians know well the tourists who are Finns who come there all the time for shopping trips.

They call them the "Vodka Tourists", and it is true, things are cheaper there for shoppers. You can get there in a couple of hours on a tourist ferry, a boat full of slot machines. Or by Helicopter in about 20 minutes.

Tallinn is a medieval looking city (The old town especially!)

You should see the Russian whores walking on the cobbled streets of Tallinn in their spike heels and low cut sleeveless minidresses. How they managed that I never figured out.

They are drop dead gorgeous.

I really got my knuckles rapped by you-know-who for looking at them.

Larry Delor · #11 04-08-2008, 09:05 PM

In another year and some months, I will have known some of you for 10 years.