After my parents divorced, when I was about 9, my mom moved towns, and I switched schools to the new town. Being just out of second grade, I didn’t maintain any friendships from my old school, but did retain a friendship with a kid down the street who went to parochial school. He was my only friend when I would visit my dad (almost exactly half the time, in all sincerity, good job parents/divorce mediators!) and was still what I consider to be the best friend I’ve ever had. We would make cartoons, walk around the neighborhood trying to get lost for hours. He was honest, kind, smart, funny, fast, strong, responsible. He was really the brother I never had.
I’ve written about him in other threads, actually. His family were fishermen, and lived rough and were very…conservative. Our relationship spanned a time before that mattered, and the family were always nice to me. As I got into high school and started smoking weed and coming out of my shell, dating-wise, it strained our relationship. He had always worked jobs, and worked a lot in high school and we drifted apart. The last time I saw him in a Dominoes parking lot I was too high to handle the reunion and said something about catching up then drove away.
It’s the most torn I’ve been about reaching out to somebody. It would be a miracle if he weren’t a Trump voter, given his family’s cringe-worthy views that I overheard on the fringes of our friendship and only processed later. I feel very bougie thinking that I don’t want to “spoil the golden memories” by reconnecting, but that is pretty much where I’ve landed with it. I’d love it if his crystal clear integrity from those times somehow would transcend what would certainly be vast political differences now.
Of course, I’m also just lazy at friendships, and barely talk to anyone who isn’t in front of me day-to-day, so I’m probably just romanticizing my own weaknesses.
