The Friends You Meet at the Beach
I’m on a Chincoteague listserv, and someone started a thread recently about being a kid and making friends with random other kids that are playing near you on the sand. The first person told a story about twins she befriended and the hermit crab they took care of together for the day. The twins took the hermit crab home, and they tearfully exchanged email addresses so they could keep in touch. And they did—for about one email exchange.
It sent me down a rabbit hole of finding beach “friends” on Facebook. I was successful with two, remembering their names because we exchanged years of letters back and forth (no email back then) that petered out by middle school. Though one lived about an hour away, and our parents allowed us to get together once. The other used to write me on stationary with bicycles, and his Facebook profile is all about biking.
I left both alone because I couldn’t imagine how to start that letter. “Hey, remember 30+ years ago on the beach how we built that sand castle?…” But it was nice to see that they still existed.
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Yeah, it could have been a nice reunion of sorts if they remembered you and kinda disappointing if they didn’t. A few years back, I happened to recognize the name of someone I was friends with at a summer music camp one state away in high school as a mutual friend of one of my Facebook friends. We happen to live in the same metro area, and I thought it would be fun to reconnect.
I messaged her, and she replied but did not remember me at all. Even though we did continue a “pen pal” relationship sporadically for a couple of years after the camp. #awkward
I had some fun acquaintances from summer programs in my youth, but we never kept in contact. They might remember the name of the program, but that would be about it…
This is going off on a slight tangent, but back in 1979 when I was in Grade 12, I got sent to Ottawa by the local Rotary Club for a week for their annual “Adventure in Citizenship.” There were almost 300 of us, sent by Rotary Clubs from all across Canada. I had a FABULOUS time. I sat beside a girl from British Columbia on the flight there who was going, and we are still in touch today, but I’ve sadly lost touch with all the other friends I made that week… although the guy from Toronto that I kissed one night became a reporter for the Toronto Star — I used to see his byline there. 😉 I would love to know what happened to the other kids who were there. The program has been running since the 1950s and we were told about several prominent national/political figures, including a past prime minister, who attended over the years.