Gold Friends – Brian’s Blog

30 years is a long time. Think about where you were 30 years ago. I was a 16 year old kid working at Hardees in Mandan, North Dakota. The woman who would become my wife was my supervisor. We used to sneak in the meat cooler and make out. I can never look at a meat cooler in a restaurant and not smile. I remember one night I accidently started the break room couch on fire. Mark, my boss at the time, could see the smoke from his house and came to find me pulling a smoldering couch out through the back door. Who would have thought that 30 years later I would sitting a Colorado Eagles game with Mark and his wife.

You never know who is going to be a lifelong friend. Life has so many changes, professionally and geographically and it amazes me where we end up. Mark and his wife Jane moved to Colorado just a few years after we did in the late 80’s. We have a kept in touch a bit and it seems like about once a year we get together. It is amazing you can go years without seeing people and immediately fall right into that comfort zone. I found it funny as we were walking up to the Bud Center to meet them I said to my wife “I think I see them. They are the couple with the same haircut.” They both have short gray hair. When we hooked up with them I told them of my “hair” comment and they mentioned that they had said the same thing about us. So 30 years later here are the 2 couples with matching hairdos watching an Eagles game.

I don’t have many things that have lasted 30 years. I think my wife, a stuffed animal, some Elvis records, an REO Speedwagon t-shirt and Mark and Jane are the only things that have made it that long. There is that old saying “make new friends but keep the old, the new are silver the old are gold”. That is so true. Make sure you take the time to reach out and polish up your gold. You probably have old friends you haven’t hooked up with a long time. Do it today.