Do you stay in touch with any of your grade school friends?
 

I met Jane in the 2nd grade. She lived down the street from the house we moved into. We played together every day and went on to attend junior high and high school together.

We've been "best friends" ever since the day we met, even though we both moved away. We get together whenever our paths get close enough and have sent each other birthday, anniversary and Christmas cards every year!

She's not even on Facebook - however, I know a lot of people have reunited with "old friends" on there - I know I have.

Only two... one from elementary school and the other was one of my best friends in high school.

I was excited to graduate and I wanted to be on the list "can't locate" for class reunions... haha. But in the end my class ('94) has only had one class reunion and that was at the 5 year mark... I guess no one wants to see each other, haha.

I have a sweet friend that I met in 4th grade. She was my maid of honor in my wedding and we keep in touch via text. We also meet up once a year if we can during Christmas. She is one of those friends that I can go a year and nothing but when we do get together it is like it was yesterday. I love her like a sister. She isn't on social media either. I have a several friends that are acquaintances that we keep in touch with over facebook. One guy I went to church with as a middle schooler...he is coming to San Antonio in September with his wife to watch his step son graduate Air Force school. We are planning on meeting up for dinner...I haven't seen him since middle school probably. I grew up in a tiny town of 40, 000 people one city high school and a few county high schools...everyone knows everyone in town practically.

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Hahaha - I was ON the "can't locate list" - I had moved out of state and I guess the committee didn't look for me too hard. Hahaha Yes, the 5 year isn't a biggie, usually.

To be honest, I barely keep in touch with my extended family, so no, I don't keep in touch with anyone from school. It's not that I don't have fond memories of many of them or would mind talking to them, I am just not good at keeping in touch with anyone, except the people in my immediate sphere.

Thanks for sharing this beautiful layout! You and your 4th grade friend REALLY did stay in each other's life! I have re-united with several "old friends" via FB as well and it's pretty fun. Most of us moved away and lost touch over the years.

That's wonderful that you're having another meetup!

Oh, I must add that like you and your friend - Jane and I can go for years and when we get together it's like it was yesterday!! That's SO wonderful!

I love hearing about people who have continued to keep connections for so long!

I was morbidly shy in grade school, so I was friends with everyone, but not super close to many kids. I moved away for middle school, so I had a completely different group of friends. I do keep in touch with middle/high school friends. My childhood BFF and I would not have much in common now (every once in a while I look to see if she's on social media, but she's not). I ran into her before I had kids. She didn't recognize me and we were at very different places. My husband still does stuff with his school buddies (they were in grade school through HS together). I think if there was social media when I was younger, it may have been a different outcome.

When I get home I try to see my best friend from childhood. We've known each other basically since birth. We went all through school together and I think we probably still chat on the phone a couple times a year. I just saw her this past summer and her sister who is a year younger. It's like no time has passed, I grew up as an extra sibling to them I think. She has a twin brother and a brother that is a year older, so we were all pretty close. This past summer when I walked in to see her, one of her brothers was there and he said "Vanessa, hey, what are you doing here?" like we just saw each other and I think it had been 20 years since I'd seen him.

I still have several elementary friends I'm in touch with on Facebook and saw a handful of them at our 20 year class reunion in 2019.

And my other best friend, we met in 7th grade, we talk on the phone a few times a year and I try to see her any time I get back to Florida, I had dinner with her & the family when we were home this past summer.

I'm sure if I still lived there, I'd still be hanging out with all of them.

I see so many of my friends kids dating each other now in high school. It's bizarre! LOL!

I still live in the town where I went to 12 years of school. A few of those friends still live here as well. Do we hang out? No. Their lives are much different than mine. They have all married, have children and grandchildren. I don't. But we are always cordial when we do see each other. The friend that I've known the longest (her parents and my parents were friends as well), is still here but our lives just don't sync much these. The 2 couples would get together quite often and we were always invited to the family parties of the other couple. Since my parents are both deceased and her parents are both around 90, those things don't happen anymore.

In 2019, 3 (one of which is the friend above) of my friends and I got together for a lunch with 2 of them coming from over an hour away. And, last summer, 3 other friends (went on a trip to FL together in 1974) got together at my house. 2 of them live here in town, the other lives about 30 minutes away. Both times it was like being back in school with them.

I still consider them friends, just not the "hang out or talk all the time" friends. Although the one girl and I did talk about doing some traveling together post COVID since we're both single with no kids.

I really don't other than on Facebook! I have seen a few in person when they come here to the city.

There are two people I am still friends with that I've known since Kindergarten, the rest are friends from high school. Helps that a good majority of them still live in our hometown, only a few of us left the area (we grew up in a university town so it's a great place).

I would love to visit my Kindergarten friend who now lives in Hong Kong but I don't think that's going to be happening any time soon. Perhaps someday!

I moved back to my hometown and am part of a youth ministry program as an adult that I participated in as a teenager so there are many people that I'm aware of but we don't spend time together. I am attempting to organize a reunion for the kids I worked with at a local mini-golf place in HS & college but I haven't seen most of those people in 20 years.

There's only one friend from HS that I regularly text & see in-person, and that's fine by me. I have changed so much since then that I'm not sure the friends I had then would even recognize me or want to be my friend now.

Like Sheri, I moved after elementary school, so I didn't keep in touch with those friends once I made new friends.

I try to spend time with my bff from high school whenever I'm home, but since I live overseas, I find it harder to maintain friendships with people who've grown out of my life.

Yes, two of my best friends I met in High School. I scrapped about it last year during the PGAD 2021. The photo was from 2015, so it's been 27 years now!!

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:D

I've enjoyed hearing about them, too. When you move at a young age, I can see why you would lose touch. I basically went to school with the same kids, at least in Jr. and Sr. High. After that, a lot of us moved.

That's fun that you still talk on the phone a few times a year. That's keeping in touch - I'm not sure I have that much in common with my BFF from 2nd grade now, but it's still fun to hear from her a few times a year.

That must be bizarre to see your friends kids dating. LOL

That's fun that you still see some of them once in awhile. I went to a couple of reunions, then stopped going. None of my "friends" were going, so I just didn't go.

It's just fun to reconnect every once in awhile. I probably wouldn't have anything in common with any of them either - to hang out together.

Facebook definitely counts! I've reconnected with a few of the kids I knew back in school. We all live all over the country now, so that's the extent of it.

Not elementary, but middle and high school. In reality most are only social media friends at this point, but my best friend from high school and I talk on the phone (for hours and hours!) once a year. We always swear to be better about keeping in touch, but it hasn't happened yet. She lives 15 minutes from a school that my son was seriously considering so I thought maybe we'd start to see each other more, but in the end he decided on a different school. There's still a chance--the college he'll start in the fall is only 2.5 hours from her, so it's better than the 5 hours apart we are now.

Oh wow - how fun to go visit your friend in Hong Kong! That's cool that you're still friends with a kindergarten friend!

That's probably true about a lot of us. How cool that you've moved back to your hometown and are part of a youth ministry!!

Yes, like I said, when you move you lose touch with so many people. After I left the state where i grew up, I got very busy and had kids at home and that became my new life. Then we moved to another state. It's hard to keep in contact when you move.

Isn't it funny that we do that - talk for hours and then swear to talk more frequently and then don't. I do the same thing. :D

Facebook re-united me to my best friend from high school. But she never makes the effort to get together when in SA, so I have given up trying to meet up this side of the ocean.
One good friend from Varsity and I meet up every six months or so and it's like we have never been apart.

I had gone to every reunion until our 45th in 2019. The 3 girls I really wanted to see weren't going and I wasn't even able to eat the dinner so decided it wasn't worth my time to go. But the 4 of us had our mini reunion a week later!

I doubt I'll go to the 50th in 2024 either. I haven't enjoyed the last few that much. It's hard to contribute to conversations when all you hear is a jumble of words (I have tinnitus and slight hearing loss). And, I don't have grandkids to talk about :D

I enjoy seeing my classmates when I run into them in town. More enjoyable in small groups or one to one.

I have one childhood friend (former neighbor) that I see about once a year. Our families are friends and we get updates on everyone often either when our dads run into each other at farm auctions or via FB. I have 3 elementary friends I keep in touch with on facebook as well as many classmates from elementary through high school. It's fun to see what everyone is up to and how many people are still in the general area where we grew up.
My high school best friend and I had some issues in college and grew apart but got back in touch recently on FB. We ran into each other in the grocery store recently and spent an hour chatting in the produce section. We're hoping to get together soon as we now only live about 4 miles apart.
I also have 2 friends from middle school that I try to get together with around Christmas when the one is home from NY to see his family. The other lives in town and we used to get together often but COVID has kind of thrown a wrench in that.

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Not really. Only 1 friend from Elementary/Middle/High School, but we also went to the same College. Only friends on Facebook. I haven't seen her since College.

I am still friends (on Facebook, but would be in person if we lived closer) with friends from Church growing up.

I've reconnected with some old school friends via Facebook, but we don't see each other, which I'm fine with. The one exception is one old highschool friend who actually used to work where I work. He's since moved on but we remain in contact via social media.

That's kind of weird but I've had the same experience. :)

Yes, I agree with you - if the people you want to see aren't going, then why go?

What a great layout!! I love seeing these layouts of friends!!

Same as me - that one friend from 2nd grade. Facebook is better than nothing, isn't it???

That's the "good" about FB and other social media. I've reconnected with of my "old" friends and also recently reconnected with a 2nd cousin who I haven't seen for years.

The only reason I got on FB 14 years ago was to see if I could reconnect with a college friend. I had been in her wedding in 1979 and we wrote letters for a few years but when her DH was stationed overseas (Army), we lost touch. I found her within 24 hours of joining FB. Eventually her DH also joined and I became FB friends with him as well. The 3 of us were in the same classes in college as we had the same major. It was one of those where classes were only offered once a year so you spent all 3 quarters (at that time) with the same people.

Sadly, she passed away a couple days before her 64th birthday following her second bout of breast cancer. Because of jobs, we were never able to physically meet up and that makes me sad. Her DH actually messaged me to let me know the day after she died. He and I still keep in touch.

I'm in a different province and have a different last name (married) so I don't think my old school friends would find me on facebook. I've not found any of the girls I used to hang with back in school. Sometimes I wonder how they are doing.

yes and no would be my answer. I do keep in regular contact and see two friends but outside of that only superficially on facebook these days. In three years it will be my 20 year high school reunion (god I feel old typing that!) so if something ever happens for that then I might reconnect but who knows really.

:D Kimberly, I laughed when you described your 40,000 strong hometown as tiny. My hometown only had about 4,500 - 5,000.

I joined the army straight from school. That's a whole different life, so I lost contact with all my old school friends. When our 10 year high school reunion came around I was too shy to go by myself. My Dad (who was still a teacher there) said my friends asked after me. I had good friends through primary school and high school, but didn't feel the need to keep contact once I moved away. I only keep touch with a few Army friends now too.

I have a few neighborhood friends that we follow each other on the socials and comment every now and again but we don't speak outside of that. It's fun to see their families grow, and their lives change over the years, but we lost touch way before adulthood so...

I still keep in touch with two of my neighborhood friends. Louise lived next door and I have known her all my life. She married the brother of my first cousin's wife, so I have seen her at family events. But pretty much now we keep in touch via Xmas cards.

My other friend is Cindy. She doesn't do social media, so we email each other. Her family moved into the neighborhood, across the street from us, when I was five. We would stare at each other, too little to be crossing the street by ourselves to make a proper introduction. When we started first grade, we found out that we were in the same class, and we were best friends since then. Cindy and her boyfriend Ed were at our wedding, DH and I were at their wedding. We socialized up until they had a little girl and then life got too busy.

Everyone has moved from our neighborhood, so we don't see each other IRL...

While I grew up in Chicago, I still think 40,000 is big. Currently I live outside of a small but growing town, population was just about 1500 when we moved here. My closest neighbors are birds and squirrels and chipmunks.

Yeah, 40,000 is not a small town. My town is around 9,000. Heck, my county only has 45,000 people (in 402 square miles)!

Perception can definitely be different based on personal experiences.

I can barely remember grade school let alone keep in contact with anyone. LOL I have some extended family that still live in my hometown and I'm thankful every time we visit that it's a large city so I can avoid all the fake conversations that happen with people I haven't talked to in over 30 years.

I guess it seems small since we now live in a city of a couple million. :) They just got a huge new shopping center in 2019 with a Target, Old Navy, Dicks, Pet Smart and Hobby Lobby....The one mall is declining but holding on. JCPenny left, Sears left...It is quiet and quaint. A lot of places still prefer CASH no credit cards. The movie theater didn't take credit cards till just a few years ago. It is a sweet little town but happy I left...not much growth. :)

I'm Facebook friends with several but none that I have contact with outside of FB. I grew up in a town of about 10,000 so we went to school from elementary school through high school together. (There were five elementary schools but one middle school, junior high and high school for the entire town.) I went to our 10 year reunion and really enjoyed it. I wanted to go to our twenty year reunion but it wasn't an option. By our 30 year reunion, I realized that my views on life are so different from my childhood friends that I did not want to go.

My sister is the exact opposite. She has a friend from elementary school that they visit each other regularly, they live about 8 hours apart, have done some vacations together and are active parts of each others lives more than 40 years later. I think it's awesome.

Sadly, I haven't stayed in touch with any of my grade school friends that aren't family. I was thinking about some of my friends from high school the other day and hope I can find them on social media. It would be fun to see them again.

It's interesting how we all have such different perceptions of what is considered big/small.

My zip code has about 50K people in a 3 mile radius. I went to HS in a rural area with a fraction of that density (only 2,350 people) while living in a town of only 200. Many of my HS friends are still super close knit because they all still live in a quaint community and have known each other since they were babies. In comparison, there are people that live down the block from me that I will never ever cross paths with ... all that is to say, I definitely think circumstances play a big role.

With my kids, there are very few friends that have attended the same elementary, middle and high schools -- and the public high schools all have over 2K students, so many of them don't know each other.

I'm sorry you lost your friend, but thankfully, you did reconnect. That's nice that you still keep in touch with her husband, too.

It makes things more difficult when you move.

:D:D you made me laugh re: feeling old.