OLD friends

Pic of the day;

Here we are young and OLD

Jack/Sherry & Marian/Dallas

The Three Trouble makers, Buddy, Vondale and Jack 

For today:

I have been around a long time but my life from childhood has never allowed roots. From my younger years, below 16, I have friends in several towns I still think of them. I keep in touch (long distance) with Jim Page, from Valdese, NC.

I have two long time friends (Vondale Tucker and Buddy Sansbury) I seldom see, but if I needed them or they needed me, we are a phone call away. Unlike my sweetheart I do not have friends from my childhood thru school.

We have some solid friends from the military. I mentioned Dallas & Marian Fletcher.  We met in 1956 and have kept in contact ever since. They were the first Military Friends. There was Steve Schmidt, Wayne Hodge, Jim & Jean Proffet, Les & Gail Maifield from Gitmo. Great short-term friends.

At Naval Station Key West, we met Dan & Joan Doughton. They became long term friends. Dan was my Leading Chief when I taught in NIPS (Naval Intelligence Processing Systems) Our families became close. Funny that, our first and last long term friends in the military are from this area of Pennsylvania.

Friends can give you joy just to see them; they can also break your heart at the sadness in their lives.

Dallas & Marian are still so upbeat and full of joy.  They have a large family and like all families have had setbacks. We went out to dinner, and they bought our meal, saying it was for our 68^th anniversary. Hey.... Their 68^th anniversary is just around the corner.

Dan & Joan? A completely different story. Joan has full blown Alzheimer's. Dan now uses a walker to see her daily. He just spent 4 weeks in the hospital from a fall. He barely has strength to speak.  The last time we saw Joan her health was good, but she did not know us. She is in a facility now and we did not get to see her.

Sherry saw a note on FB: Miesse Chocolate Co. Was moving to a new facility. Tracy, Dan’s daughter had owned that company, so we went to the event hoping to see one of the Doughton's. We did see Tracy!! She told us where she would meet us to go see Dan. WE did that; she is a sweetheart herself and has a great family.

Dan and Tracy, amazing how much she looks like her mama!

So we got to see Dan. It was great to see him, but heartbreaking to see a REAL leader & friend from my past, that feeble; he says he is going to get back to where he was….. You go Dan!!

Nite Shipslog

PS 

LOL  Thanks for all the comments, They are always a pleasure, you guys enhance our lives. I do appreciate the FRIENDS I have here on-line.