[Closed] Meeting old school friends....and liking them

Were you Gripper Stebson?

Nah , he was Roly. 🙂

Where is Ronnie though....?

I know exactly what you mean wrightyson. The n that respond to, Facebook has worked a treat. I have been able to reconnect with people from my past, with a view to doing nothing offering them my best wishes and thanking them for not judging even while I was a judgemental bastard.

i delivered some lectures in London Ontario last autumn, and a girl with who I had gone to school from the age of 8 did a three hour drive to meet up with me. We had a wonderful lunch together, but I asked her why on Earth she would condescend to drive so far just to see me - a guy who, in high school, thought he was so much better than others - and she just said “why wouldn’t I? You were my friend.”

Wow. I am grateful to her for seeing whatever there was in me to like. I know that I certainly didn’t deserve it then!

Loyalty to old friends is a very good thing.

He couldn’t wait for you to stop talking so he could get out of there 😉😝

i misread the thread title as 'meeting old school friends....and killing them'

I have 2 very good friends I grew up with from the age of 4.

meet em a couple of times a year for beers. we have a good time.

Made me feel a bit sad at how I used to treat some of my “friends” from back in the day.

Freindship is a fickle thing.

They may not have liked you, or just played lip service back then.

Now they’re lonely and feeling slightly remorseful they’ll seek anyone out who will listen, or buy them a pint.

Me and some friends have started meeting up back at home for an activity and a beer or two twice a year now. It's great. One or two of us had kept in touch quite well, but all of us have had kids, a couple of us now live circa 200 miles away, so it's hard to make the effort.

Other people I have met up with and it's always been nice. I'm sure a full on class reunion would be different, but interesting lol.

Hope to meet up with an old school friend this weekend, have known him since Primary 6. He's not my oldest school friend I still see regularly though - that's from back in primary 2..

I think it helps that - with friend 1 and many others - they still have, or had, parents in the same town and so there was always a get-together. We get on very well, as I do with  a good number of my school friends, there's a certain acceptance of ow we were and are.

Although probably one of my very good friends - and others - are from work from a long time ago, a good deal of shared interests helps.

I had the opposite a few months back, an old friend got in touch and 4 or 5 of us went out for a beer and a curry and once we had covered the "what have you been doing since then" and "who do you still keep in contact with" I found we had little in common.

In fact, on the train home I was reminded why we had not kept in contact over the years.

I met up with an old classmate via Friends Reunited, we hadn't seen each other for almost 30 years - I married her.......

So I guess that counts as liking them 🙂

Two great friends from high school. We hung out together, went to concerts, went on holidays, one of them was my best man at my wedding. Thirty-four years of thinking these were the greatest guys in the world. Then, three years ago, when we were all away on a winter holiday together in Bulgaria, I had a bad accident the day before we were due to fly home and was hospitalised. Last I saw of my mates was as I was bundled into the back of an ambulance. It took the holiday insurance company to find me and tell my wife (back home), where I was and what had happened.

Several weeks later, (after a weeks intensive care in Bulgaria then flown home to the same at my local hospital), when I eventually saw my best mates again (one lives a 10 minute walk, the other a 10 minute drive from my house), they sat across from me and explained that I was 'just a mate' and that the cost of following me to the hospital and staying overnight would have been way more than anyone would expect to pay, as I was 'just a mate'. Of course, they also pointed out in the same breath that had I been someone they 'really cared about', then nothing would have stopped them getting in the ambulance and being there for me, but I was 'just a mate'.

I appreciate that in the past I have always been very naive and trusting with friends, maybe investing more friendship in them than I receive, but I'm much more careful now. How exactly are you supposed to trust anyone? I thought I knew those guys and would have quite frankly done anything for them. They seemed to have looked at me as an acquaintance.

Friends? I'm not so sure about friends anymore.

A couple of my friends have been really ill over the last few years.  About half their mates have scarpered and pretty much abandoned them.  Strangely enough a few of their not very close mates have stepped up and really helped.

People have come up with all sorts of excuses why they have scarpered, too busy, didnt know she was that ill etc.

Very similar happened to me Poolman. Lots of folk really stepped up, but I feel bad because I'm scared of investing in those friendships. I should stick with my cats, I know where I am with my cats. They loathe me and don't pretend otherwise.

i misread the thread title as ‘meeting old school friends….and killing them’

i misread the thread title as 'meeting old school friends... and licking them'.

Have a proper good bunch of mates I've known since my early teens, about a dozen or so.

Still meet up three or four times a year and it's always great, even though we talk about things other than motorbikes, music  and girls.

My parents were quite old when they had me and they (and their families) supported me whilst I  looked after them. Now it's now my turn to support them.

I know I'm incredibly lucky to have such a great bunch as proper mates.

an old friend got in touch and 4 or 5 of us went out for a beer and a curry and once we had covered the “what have you been doing since then” and “who do you still keep in contact with” I found we had little in common.

I had a 20yr reunion with my old housemates from uni a few weeks ago. Was a great weekend, nice to catch up after all this time but yeah, after all the "remember when..." and "what are you doing now?" conversations were over there wasn't a huge amount of common ground there.

All really nice people though, had a good time but none of us have rushed to stay chatting with the rest - the WhatsApp group chat thing that we set up to coordinate the weekend away has gone very quiet.

Still in regular contact with 4 friends from my school year, strangely have made friends afterwards with a few from the years above and below that I never bothered with while in school!  Haven't met up with any others since leaving as they never made an effort to keep in contact despite me trying, sad but not worth crying over.

The strange thing is all the 'friends' requests on facebook I get from people that were in my year but we never spoke or we hated each other!  Guess they must be lonely or trying to make up for past transgressions.

they sat across from me and explained that I was ‘just a mate’ and that the cost of following me to the hospital and staying overnight would have been way more than anyone would expect to pay, as I was ‘just a mate’. Of course, they also pointed out in the same breath that had I been someone they ‘really cared about’, then nothing would have stopped them getting in the ambulance and being there for me, but I was ‘just a mate’.

They're a pair of ****s!

You’ve just promoted me to delete 126 contacts off my phone !

👍😜

I bumped into an old school friend a couple of months back. She was hot at school and to be fair almost 30 years later is very lovely. Anyway over a coffee she told me how much she fancied me then and had hoped we could have made sweet, beautiful love. WTF. How was I to know ?!? Crushed. How did I miss that 😂

I trust you asked whether it was too late to have a go round the back of the cricket clubhouse?

No I’m happily married but ..... honestly, what else did I miss !!!

I’m still in touch with the lad from next door, when I was 4 years old, and 2 other friends from the street I grew up in. Also still in touch with a couple of school friends I’ve known since primary school.

Unfortunately I discovered that 3 bitchy girls from high school turned out to still be bitchy in their 30 years later when we got back in touch.