MAKING FRIENDS

I have been thinking about friendships and making friends. I have noticed that one way to strike up conversations with strangers is by having Rufus with me. I met several people in Florida last week when he was with me. But for some reason, I don’t have the knack to lead the conversation into deeper territory and make friends.

My sister MA has that ability. She will be on the beach and meet someone, start talking to them, and before you know it, she and her husband are being invited to dinner at the people’s house. She’s made many friends this way and kept the friendships too.

And my father was that way, too (that must be where she gets it). Daddy was raised in rural Mississippi and never knew a stranger. I can remember many times we would be sitting on my grandfather’s front porch and way down the road you could see a trail of dust coming. That immediately got everyone’s attention and we would start guessing who it could be. When the car or truck came into view, it was almost always recognized. Then the speculating would begin as to where the man was going and what he was doing (I can’t ever remember any females driving a car, so it was always a male). That night at church my father would approach the man and in a very friendly manner find out what his mission was that day. And no one was offended!!

Daddy had a way about him that just drew people to him, especially women. I’m not suggesting in any way that he ever wandered, but women liked being around him because he was friendly and made them laugh. My mother, who took it all in stride, used to say, “Those women at his church are just waiting for me to die so they can go after him.” And I’m pretty sure she was right! The problem is that Daddy went first, and the women had to find someone else. Over 500 people, many of them women, attended his funeral. And there were not many dry eyes in the house (or church).

Well, church is a great place to meet people and make friends. and I’m grateful that we have done that at ours. There’s just one problem though: at our age about the time we make some good friends, one of them gets sick or has to have knee surgery or some other misfortune occurs due to the aging process and we have to do without them for a while.

That’s another problem with growing old!!