Remembering old friendships

I made myself a root beer float today and started having memories of a friend from my school days. There's a bit of story to this memory, not real long, but more than I can think how to sum up in one sentence. My friend was from a rather strict Catholic home and her parents had decided that she could not stay overnight at a friend's house until she was 16. We were about 12 or 13 at the time. I am a bit hazy on how or why her parents ended up at my house so they could meet my parents. I do remember that I cringed when parents who were having their usual cocktails before dinner, offered her parents drinks. I thought for sure that her parents would decide that I was a bad influence. But to my surprise they actually accepted the offer. I guess I don't really know what it means to be Catholic very well.

I don't know exactly what kind of impression my parents and I made on her parents. But, eventually her parents decided that they would allow me to stay overnight at their house. And her mom, wanting to make the visit special, made root beer floats. It worked, I still think of her whenever I think about that tasty concoction.

After reflecting on that memory, I was wondering to myself about how many of my memories are tied to food! Later I thought of a non-food related association with some relief.

Diamonds. Diamonds always make me of one of the first people to befriend me when I moved to Hawaii, Leilani. Leilani was working for a Diamond jewelry business at the time. She used to actually walk to work to save the price of the bus fare, and it was a good distance, about 2-3 miles, one way. I walked to work with her one day, she had to slow down for me, and even so that walk really wore me out. Walking with Leilani, is in fact is one of the main things I remember about spending time with her. She and I walked to the University of Hawaii to play tennis a few times. Just the walk alone wore me out. When we got there thankfully had to wait for a court and I could catch my breath. I don't recall if we actually ever got a court.

I pretty much never was very athletic. She couldn't understand why I was not more enthusiastic about playing tennis and our friendship kind of fell apart, but I still am thankful for her efforts and friendliness towards me. I sometimes wonder if I could have pushed myself a little more if I could have learned to keep up with her and had a longer relationship.