Do you still have friends from your childhood?

@alan20 I forget what they did, but what did they use as a conversation starter when they had an only child?

@MaryJanine I know a teacher who is forever talking about the complimentary things her pupils allegedly say to her, which invariably start off with "Miss..."

@alan20 I hate that, too. It makes you feel so OLD. We had a seventh grade/upper grades science teacher (male) who could never remember, out of two seventh grade classes, who was in his class at a particular time! Yes, he too, had the habit of calling on you with "Miss___" or Mr.__________" and made the mistake once of telling us - just once - "If I call the wrong student, just tell me, 'They're in the other class.'"

Well, you know kids. We were like tigers, lying in wait to spring out with his dictation. Once, he said, "Miss Hand" and we yelled back in chorus, "She's in THE OTHER CLASS!"

Mr. Becker didn't turn a hair. He just said, "Miss Foot!"

We all had a good laugh, then he called on me to finish the problem.

More or less. A few times here or there when it was only letters. But especially the one from ninth grade - we talk a few times a week on the phone - usually every day.@NenaRussa

Wow! It sounds like you two have a great friendship. @Mamapolo2016

We do. Both of us are widows, so we have more time.@NenaRussa

@SW-User

:) I lived in Smyrna Tennessee for a few weeks. I understand.

@Heartlander I lived in Memphis

@SW-User Nothing against Tennessee, really. And I was there for just a short time, like a few months and otherwise pretty busy. My feelings about that part of the state were that it was like a private society without much of a public welcome mat. It was like I should have joined a religious congregation to get beyond the "outsider" feeling. Such things like restaurants were few and far apart, even in the larger communities, like Murfreesboro.

@Heartlander It's just a little ironic - within three months, three people I went through grammar and high school with passed away. One was a brain aneurysm and two were cancer. On the last one, she died on Easter Sunday - and, according to her obituary, she had been suffering for months from cancer - though she didn't look it.

@MaryJanine Some people can mask their fear, pain and suffering and leap beyond the emotional and physical weight of such horrible prognoses and circumstances .

A good friend just outfoxed a horrible stomach cancer with the help of a brave surgeon and by disregarding advice about "that's it, time to call hospice".

Most weren't so lucky though :(

I had a similar loss within a few days. My old college roommate and a 1st cousin. Both were mentally still in their prime and in great spirit even knowing they were clutching the ends of their ropes. My old roommate suffered from CHF, and made it through 3 heart attacks, and only had enough energy left to be nice to everyone.

@Khenpal1 Not everybody. Joe (the get-together organizer) keeps the classes of 1968 and 1969 well-informed about who is deceased and who has moved or possibly married or widowed.

@sspec I am glad to hear that. The question really is,how far do you go back? Our block used to be full of kids we went to school with and most of them are now moved away, married and/or dead. In the space of three months, I had three classmates who I went to school with,both grammar and high school,who died - one had a brain aneurysm, and two died of cancer - one on Easter Sunday, to boot.A month ago, my next door neighbor, about four years older than I, died of a heart attack at home (his daughter found him).

Thanks to the efforts of one of my grammar school classmates, we meet every so often for a meal, but even that number is getting smaller and smaller.