Let's talk about friends and friendship

I'm thinking back to 1976. We were camping with a school group. It must have been near Alice Springs. Here are, us four friends, brought together by our geography and demography. We were merely the same age, growing up in the same area and ended up in the same public school. That was all that friendship was made of in those years.

Is that a bad thing?

From left to right:

Luke was one of the nicest of people I have met. He went to NIDA I heard. Something to do with stage direction or lighting.  I never heard from him again after this year.

Gavin was a good bloke. Supplied us with some good whiskey at times. I managed to stay out of trouble but still managed to spent some great schooldays down at the beach with a bottle of Johnny Walker or two. Remember in particular 'borrowing' David Lockyear's little Corola (I think) and going for a spin to the beach. I had no license and hadn't ever even driven a car but we still made it to the beach, put down a bottle and made it back to school alive! I think Gavin took an apprenticeship somewhere. I never heard from him again.

David was a good mate. He lived up the road from me and we spent some time together. We even camped out in my backyard one night - do you remember that night David? I bumped into David at the beach one day. Our kids were taking swimming classes at the same time. This was soon after I ran for parliament on a 'Save Our Schools' platform. He said he voted for me. He was the only person I have ever met that had said that to me. I have not seen him since.

That's me on the right. That's 36 years ago. I sometimes feel no older than that and yet at the same time feel that that was another world away.

So, where do our friends go?

They go and live their own lives and, I suppose, we go and live our own.

My mother has a friend that she met when she was a teenager. They would often spend their holidays together. they speak to each other at least every year but they don't travel to see each other anymore. It has probably been 20 years or so since they've seen each other. But they are friends. How many people can we count as friends in or life? Should we be counting?