Silver and Gold

My grandmother -- the sane one, not the nutty one -- had a plaque in her living room with this old saying:

"Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold."

This is a story about three young girls who managed to find, hang on to and thrive in a golden friendship.

The first one I met in kindergarten or first grade. I sat directly behind her and I was fascinated with her hair. Not only was it thick and beautiful, but her mother did these elaborate braids and other styles. When she wore pigtails or a ponytail, I was constantly touching it. (Today, that's called stalking.) She lived within walking distance of our school so once we became friends, I was often invited to her house. Her mom would make us lunch or serve us an after school snack. We bonded. We competed. We grew up together.

In middle school, we met the one who completed our unit. She was a skinny little thing with a big personality. She's still our glue. When we were teenagers, she was the one who took the blame whenever we got in trouble. Today, I am the proud godmother of her children and my own mother thinks she walks on water.

We get together at least twice a year. We used to include the kids on one of our annual trips but now that they're all older, we skip that part. Now it's all about us. We catch up. We ask each other questions. We each come up with various questions, cut them into strips and put them in a pretty bag. We carry it everywhere during our trip. No subject is off limits. We used to stick pretty close to the Midwest but now that we're older, we're fantasizing about more exotic locales.

We drink some wine and eat a little junk food. We reminisce and we cry. We reconnect and leave knowing our lives are enriched with this friendship.

I don't have any significant childhood memories that don't include one or both of them. We email each other almost every day. Still, nothing compares with sitting in a hotel room and being able to say, "You've got to lose those shoes."