A Friend in Need?

Oh, I know that Letty, I'm just saying I would have a hard time choosing.

I'ts kinda like the men are from mars hoopla. Some men are more like girlfriends and some women are just one of the boys. For the record, I have two best friends, (for what it's worth) a male & female and they share many of the same traits. But the guy is my musical partner and we share a special bond and have our own unique way of relating, mostly due to music. We understand each other on another level that very few people can touch.

The mention of the word "music" was magic, Ceili. I have had so many male friends with whom I sat up all night playing and listening to music. Sometimes we argued over it, sometimes we just listened quietly. I laughed at my girl friend one night. She loved Amazing Grace. Her husband was talking about some of the charts that he had written and played, and she turned to him and said:

Well, anyone who can do that can surely play Amazing Grace on the piano. Heh heh!..but she hated listening to his jazz stuff. I, on the other hand, loved both. Guess it's cause I could play Amazing Grace on the piano.

and speaking of "friends", the oakman has been the only male on this thread, and he set us all straight. Love it!

My best friends ,I went to high school with, years ago though we are separated now on many continents....There is something irreplaceable for me, about this history .... Beyond my spouse, and apart from a couple of exceptions, my closest friends are women.........

I have had a number of best friends (hmmm, serial best friends?) over the years, and most of them still are good friends. But people move, change occupations, find new interests, get involved with their spouses' and children's interests, and new friends enter the picture. When I moved after divorce about five years ago I made a concerted effort to write honestly to some old close friends with whom I had gotten into a once a year/card routine, or had lost touch with, and these were spread out by then to some far away places. The response was amazing, if a little slow, in that a number of people wrote me back long thoughtful letters and/or called or both. Now we're keeping in touch a little more often. Of that group, hmmm, I'd say two thirds are female.

I guess I have found it harder to keep in touch with some men who were friends, in that their spouses might resent it somewhat - it has been easier to keep up friendship with gay men.

Osso and shepaints, I have almost totally lost touch with my college friends...high school friends? Yes, I need to call them. In high school we had a mixed crew that we ran with. and we were all friends, nothing more.

My best friends have always been my siblings. They are always there (whether you want them to be or not), they are caring, and they don't just hang around because they want something. I suppose that my true best friends have always been people that I have truly loved.

I am in contact with a grade school friend in Tennessee, but still have as "best friends" two women from college, one who I had always kept contact with and another who the post divorce search helped reconnect with. She and her husband, who I also knew then but not as well, are now well back in my life.