Best Friends Forever -

photo above - Ken on left.  My hubby, John, in light blue on right.

 

Before we left on our trip out west, my hubby, John,  was in contact with Ken, an old school chum of his.  Since we would be in the state of Washington Ken made arrangements to drive to Issaquah and spend a day with us . . . or really with John.

It was enjoyable to hear these two close friends reminisce about bygone days, the kids they knew back then and how time had changed people and places.  During this conversation I also learned that Ken had been a couple of years behind John in high school.  Back then it was,  and probably still is today, uncool to associate with lower class mates.  However John and Ken shared common interests; they both lived around Lake Sammamish and they both like fast engines and things with fast engines  such as boats and cars.  Theirs was a friendship that would last the test of time and of distance.

When Ken arrived at the hotel we lunched together.  I sat and quietly ate while the two old chums talked and caught up on several years  worth of their lives.   Ken was full of stories about the many changes that had occurred to their old home town of Issaquah and to some of the kids that they once went to school with.

Conversations went similar to this:

"Hey John.  Do you remember Billy Dan-fangle ?"  Ken inquires.

John looks puzzled and shakes his head negatively.  "Can't say as I recall the name."

"Oh I'm sure if you had met him you'd remember."  Ken replies adamantly. "He was a scrawny kid, clothes were worn and dirty.  You could smell him from down the hall.  Don't get me wrong,  Danny was a really nice kid and he and I were good friends.  
He used to live in this area before Issaquah got all built up.  His folks had a farm here and about nine kids to raise .   They were about as poor as they come.   Don't think Danny had more than a couple of  changes of clothes and maybe one pair of shoes back then.  He always looked unkempt and, as I said, you could smell him coming.  Poor kid, the family didn't have running water in their old farm house so it was a luxury if Danny got a bath once a week.  They were good people, hard working, honest, respectable but dirt poor people.

Well time changes.   Bull-Dozer Corp wanted to build their corporate office out this way and had plans for a big development.  They offered the Dan-fangles a pretty penny for their hundred and some odd acre farm.  Over night the Dan-fangles  became multi-millionaires.  Couldn't have happened to a nicer family.  I like to see things like that happen to deserving people."

 

I couldn't help but be fascinated by Ken's stories of the past; the people and the places.

After lunch Ken suggested it would be fun to drive around  some of the old haunts that he and John grew up in.  So a drive around  some of the neighborhoods  around Lake Sammamish became our agenda for the afternoon.

 

photo above - a view of Lake Sammamish.  Most of the lakeside is private property, off limits to the Have-Nots such as myself, but someone had propped open a wrought iron gate with their flip-flop, giving us egress to the lake shore and the view.

Now a days we all know that lakefront  property is prime real estate, the crème de la crème of location - location- location.   Therefore our tour consisted of  comments such as:

"I don't believe it !  That used to be where Timmy Wagsworth's house was!   By God, it's been torn down and there's a mansion there now! "

 

 "Oh look!  That house is where  Trudy Pick-a-Lily lived.  Well I'll be,  it's just like it was back when we were kids. Hasn't changed a bit."

 

 

Unfortunately time had done away with both John's and Ken's old childhood homes,  but time can never erase all the memories that were made there.  The summers spent on the lake, swimming, water skiing or just cruising the lake in a boat. 
Things may change but some friendships stand up to time and distance . . . BFF.  :)