Loosing touch with good friends.

[Darth-Baiter]

Two things. 1st  I used to be into cars.  Older Porsche 911’s to be exact.  A small circle of dudes;  we got close.  Wrenching on each others cars. One guy got into real racing and we worked relentlessly on his car.  He got good!  
 

2nd;  the group members started having kids.  I love all the kids, but this splintered the group.  People with kids stick together.  It’s a natural thing.  
 

I sold my car, and pretty much stopped all weekend shade tree mechanic stuff, further distancing myself. 
 

then people moved to get into better school districts.   We are scattered. We still talk and when we do get together we immediately fall back into the same comfortable groove.   Nobody fishes. 
 

we all retire around the same time and we vowed to celebrate together.    Strange how life marches on, huh?   Cherish friends. 

[gim]

51 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

the group members started having kids.

I have experienced this with former “friends” too. Once you have kids, they eat up your free time and you don’t have as much to see people you used to hang with.

 

53 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

then people moved to get into better school districts

This is part of the reason I moved just over a year ago. The one I used to live in wasn’t very good, even though I liked living there and the house was newer. The neighborhood I live in now is nicer, but the house is a little older. The public schools are significantly better.

[GRiver]

I have a friend, for almost 40 years. We don’t always hang out together, but we’ve always been there for each other.

Girlfriends, marriage, divorces and death and I was the one banging on the glass on the nursery to have him hold up his son to the window. 
We went from muscle cars to motorcycles and now boats and fishing, but he’s saltwater, me freshwater. 
Our  circle of other friends have changed, they have come and gone.

But we have always stayed in touch, even when I lived in Central America for a while. We get together when we can. We live almost 5 hrs apart now. 
You  are so right @Darth-Baiter cherish your friendships

[Woody B]

I used to drag race all over the Eastern US (as far west as Texas)  I made a bunch of racing friends I haven't seen since I quit racing in 1999.  One thing (maybe the only thing) I like about social media is catching up with old friends who live hours away.    I live a mile or so off Interstate 85.  I have lunch or dinner occasionally with an old racing friend when they're passing through.   

[TnRiver46]

I try to keep all my friends around, still hang out with many of them I knew in kindergarten. Always making new friends as well, to me sharing life with others is what it’s all about. Alone time is not really for me 

[ironbjorn]

I've honestly only made one friend in my adult life who has "stuck." The rest of the "friends" I have made as an adult have all faded away for one reason or another. I have 3 best friends from childhood. We have been friends for going on 3 decades. Then my friend I made as an adult who has stuck, we have been friends for 6 years, and there's no signs of that stopping even when life gets busy and we go a couple of months without communication. However, I'm traveling 200 miles next week just to fish with him for a day.

 

I had one other friend I made as an adult, about 10 years ago. I hadn't seen him in a long time. We went to stay at his house for the weekend a couple of weeks ago. He ended up hammered drunk, started busting beer bottles against his house and snapped my Expride clean on half while throwing a tantrum that I, my fiance, his girlfriend, and his neighbor made him feel left out because we were all having a good time having a conversation that he was more than welcome to join. 5 years ago I would have busted his face clean open. These days, as a now divorced dad, and with my illness, and being older, I knew that a.) I can't have anything to do with violence if I expect to maintain my weekend rights with my kids, b.) Somehow I would be to blame due to mental illness, and c.) I just have no interest in confrontations like that. Life goes on. We packed up and left without a word to him and blocked him on everything. Unfortunately I couldn't replace the 6'10" MH/F Expride and he absolutely wouldn't have so no point in trying, so I took a rod and reel I wasn't using and traded it in for $150 credit at ALF, got a 10% discount from the nice employee, and paid the $55 total difference after taxes and all to get a 6'10" MH/F Zodias as a replacement.

[padlin]

Going in the service and never moving back to where I grew up took care of all my childhood friends. Quitting booze took care of all my drinking buddies, leaving me with just 2. One of them died and the 2nd is now connected to oxygen. Good friends are hard to come by and harder to keep. It would be pretty lonely if we didn’t have kids and grandkids.

[Captain Phil]

Most of my old friends are dead or sick.   I restored and raced muscle cars most of my life, but I had to give that up a few years ago and sold all my cars.  I did keep my old torque wrench.  It still has the label on it that I made for my son when he was a teenager. It says "Don't use to change tires!"   ?

[DaubsNU1]

#Truth!

 

My family is very close...I talk with my Dad, older sister and younger brother often. We enjoy hunting and fishing together, and hanging out at my sister's cabin. 

 

I'm still very close with my lottery-pick college roommate. I was from the city, played HS sports, hunted and fished...he was from small town, raced motocross and worked at Cabela's...never hunted a day in his life. I have pictures of his first duck hunt...his "team Honda" jacket, 80's rock-band mullet. Hilarious! He went on to a 35+ year career with Cabela's working his way up the corporate ladder.

 

Amazing how he quickly became the expert at fishing and hunting. We have a core group of friends from those days in college...we still gather 2-3 times a year to chase fish, shoot at waterfowl, etc.

 

A man can do well in his life with God, Family, and Friends!  

[steve carpenter]

Life can get in the way of  many things. Lost all my child hood friends during Viet Nam. Ended up in Texas and am blessed?

[Bird]

I've had the same best friend my entire life and from the same small town my entire life.

Married my 1st girlfriend that I've been with for 40 years....... guess I don't like change. 

[deaknh03]

Losing

[Darth-Baiter]

Reading glasses = missing. 

[DitchPanda]

In my teens and 20s I had alot of friends...no good ones. Now days I've got a handful of people I see and fish with a few times a year. A few buddies I still talk with often but we rarely see each other. I've had the same best friend for 17 years...we talk all the time and hang out weekly, sometimes several times a week.

[Wildbillb]

Found me a local bass club years ago.  Give me a reason to fish about 6 weekends a year on top of my normal fishing.  Good crew.  Fish for fun with some of them thought out the year.  All my friends have kids now.  They are busy.  We make plans for for a few guys weekends a year.  

 

I have always been the one to keep in contact with everyone.   Starting to drag on me.  

 

So time to upgrade the tin ship to a real bass boat and get the adventures going. I'm just going to start making plans and throwing invites out to the crew.  I'm going this is when I'm leaving.  Show up and jump in the adventure wagon.

[Susky River Rat]

I still have a couple friends who I am in contact with from when I raced motocross. We all got into boats but, I am the only one who fishes. They got into pleasure boats and going out in the Chesapeake. Also s gentlemen who I met fishing. He fishes for catfish and we try to get out with eachother once a year. Even though he moved about two hours away and sold his river boat. We will alternate between cats and bass/musky.  He wants to get into trolling for stripers. I told him I will gladly give him all my trolling info I learned while musky fishing. It’s the same tool different species.