First Friends

So, I am going to talk about 2 people in this post, one a little more than the other.

To start I want to mention that we moved around a lot for the first 5 years of my life because of my Dad's job (for those of you who are curious, no, my Dad was not in the army). I don't remember all of them, but I remember a couple of the people we met.

The first friend I remember having was named Ryan. I think this was mostly a friendship of convenience for our mothers because, from what I can recall, we lived across the street from one another (although I could be wrong here, I was only like 3 or 4 at the time). All I really remember is that for his birthday we got to play on a slip'n'slide. Also, he had this kit that had balloons in it you could blow up and then a bunch of different parts you could attach - like the balloon version of Mr. Potato Head. And for some reason I also always associate the song 'Crocodile Rock' by Elton John with this friend of ours as well, although I don't know why.

The second friend I ever remember having is named Laura. This was also a convenience for the parents friendship I think, since we definitely lived across the street from her. But it was also convenient that she had an older brother who was the same age as my older brother and we could all go over and no one would be bored or left out and my bro wouldn't have to play with icky girls. I remember we used to do everything together. I remember getting a hula-hoop for my birthday and then she broke it (I always said she did it on purpose, but probably she just was using it and it broke and I blamed her).

Laura  and I were in kindergarten together and I remember one time we were painting. They made us bring shirts to wear over our clothes while we painted in case of splatters, so she and I were both wearing these shirts that used to belong to our fathers that on us looked more like dresses than shirts. Somehow we started splattering each other and then realized that it would be way more fun to paint on each other than to paint on the paper. So there we sat, painting on each other's shirts, having the time of our lives. But we had to use a lot of paint to really make the colours show up on each other. Well, after painting time was over and we took those shirts off we found out that the paint had soaked through to our regular clothes as well. I don't really remember getting in trouble for that, although we must have, but I remember how much fun it was.

We moved away from that town when I was just starting grade one, and I never talked to Laura for a long time. There were a couple times over the years where we would write each other a letter or go visit each others house or something, but it wasn't really the same. I went to her High School graduation and party and by that time we were so different it was really no fun for me. I didn't know any of the other kids and she wanted to just go have her last hurrahs with her graduating class so it was kinda a bust for me - but I don't blame her for me not having fun and we still keep up with each other. We are now friends on facebook and I was invited to her wedding. She is now married and has little twin girls who look really sweet. I am glad she was one of my first friends and from her I learned a lot about how to have fun and interact with others.