Speaking of High School

How many of you had to move -- either in high school or shortly before -- and kept in touch with old friends back home?

I have such a friend and it amazes me how long we've known each other! I met Denise in second grade -- which for me was in 1975! We were BABIES when we met!

We wrote to each other often because back then "long distance" was REALLY expensive. Talking on the phone for hours at a time back then would not have been the same as doing so now in the age of free long distance. Honestly, even before we moved, we still didn't get to talk on the phone much! I lived in Orange County and she lived in Los Angeles County where we went to a parochial school together. So, the long distance thing was still a problem the day I met her.

During high school, I wrote her a ton of letters. Guess what? She saved them!!! A long time ago, she mentioned it and I said I'd love to see them again. She was going to scan them for me, but eventually gave in to the "I-don't-have-time-for-that-shit" monster and sent them to me.

Holy crap!!!! What an eye opener!

I had forgotten some of the things I wrote about and it was actually kind of depressing to see my first-hand descriptions of some of the things I said and did.

I know I need to get them back to Denise someday. They are hers. But I'm not sure if I want to scan them for myself for later.

What possible reason would I have to do that? I don't know. And would I want to get depressed again?

As a parent, would I want my daughter to find them someday? Probably not!

Yet somehow, I am compelled to keep copies of them.

Subject matter of the letters aside, it was vindicating to see that I DID write coherently at that age, even in an informal letter to a friend. My brief stint teaching in the middle school made me REALLY wonder if I just THOUGHT things were different back then.