Last week Jonas and Berry were in town for Jonas’ birthday.
We joined them at a baseball game in Baltimore [White Sox vs. Orioles] and then spent most of the next day together. We went downtown and saw part the Air & Space Museum, the Smithsonian Castle, and the Jim Henson/Muppet’s exhibit. Which my wife went nuts over. Grabbed some lunch at a fast food joint and then for dinner headed out to a Greek restaurant [a tradition in our friendship].
Jonas and I have now been friends longer than half our lives, in fact, August next year will be 20 years. Neither of us feel that we’re old enough for us to have been friends that long. Most people don’t think much about how long they have been friends because they grow up and spend their lives in the same place. The reason this is different is because both our father’s served in the US Army [thanks Dad]. We both came from different parts of the US and we didn’t know what would happen when that sitting president started closing military bases.
We decided to keep in touch with letters, phone calls, eMail, and then visiting each other when time and money allowed. We attended each others weddings, traveled just to visit, I crashed in his apartment on the way to another wedding, and we have started a ‘family tradition’. Every other summer we are vacationing together at their favorite beach, which we also love. The only people I know better than Jonas are my own siblings and parents.
My life has been enriched by our friendship and truly we have shared a peck or two of salt.
