None from primary school, a few from secondary. Email makes it easier to stay in touch, as does riding bikes, drinking beer and talking utter shit.

Having a child makes a divide.
People who are non breeders don’t wanna hangout so much. I cant really take my 2 year old on a day session or leave my wife at home every Fri and sat night with the boy to go drinking. These people remain friends but it’s easier socialising with those who can have kids and can be around temper tantrums and see the small pleasures in having 1 pint after going to the park for swings and slides.

Also none of my school friends bar one ride a bike.

I’m probably going to buck the trend here.

My two closet friends from Infant School are still my two closet friends. We’ll turn 40 over the next 12 months. There’s a couple more of us, less close – lives drifted apart – having a family, moving for work etc – but we still see each other every few months, it’s never awkward, it’s like we haven’t seen each other for a couple of days, not 6 months.

Then we’ve got ‘new’ friends, really we’re two circles of friends who merged when we went to college – we all went to the same school, but they’re a year older than us – we’ve only been friends 20 odd years.

The thing that keeps us all together is the riding – not everyone makes every weekend, but most people are out a couple of times a month and we all get away down the Alps in the summer together.

Bar one, I don’t see my childhood friends any more other than Facebook updates. They all remained or moved back to the small town we grew up in, to get married, have kids etc whereas I stayed in the city and didn’t have kids. The only one I keep in touch with is in the same position. The rest are in the ‘burbs having polite dinner parties and worrying about school catchment areas whereas

Met my Two best friends when I was eight (46 years ago) – Went out with them and their wives last weekend. One lives close by one 200 miles away but I could still call either of them at any time to get me out of jail*.

There have been times when I didn’t see either of them for a year or more, but we were always close. Now we make the effort to get together somewhere nice at least three times a year – beer, bikes and a high old time.

(*this has only happened once).

Deleted

Gave up on my old school friends, college friends, old work buddies and now completely avoid having friends as I prefer my own company and cant be arsed with other people. I had 3 weeks off in the summer and didnt speak to anyone other than the dog – magic!

Of the friends i had at school(s) or Uni i’d count almost none of them as friends now or even acquaintances. I’m only in contact with two of them via a “spare” facebook page with my old name. I’ve actually made friends with 3 or 4 people who happened to go to the same secondary school/uni at the same time as me, but i was completely unaware of their existence at the time. Only found out we’d been at the same place later on. Much, much later on in some cases.
Probably doesn’t help that i was at at least 5 different schools. Possibly 6.

Peering into most of the ex friends lives via facebook (and the occasional news story) tells me it was probably a good idea to move on when i did. And emigrate, twice. And (eventually) change my name (only once).

recently got back in touch with an old friend from secondary school when he popped up on facebook. Through chatting with him I found out that a chap who was my very best friend at school for many years had actaully died through alcohol and was found by his 12 year old daughter. Pains me that I didn’t reach out to him a few years ago and might have been able to talk to him or been a friend if he was low. I have a few primary school friends on FB, one girl was my ‘wife’ at primary school and we once got married with a ring pull as a ring in her caravan by Karen Hutchinson as the vicar.

I’ve heard it argued that your best friends shouldn’t just be your friends from school. However — I had difficulty making good friends for a while, though my best friends are – on the whole – the ones I went to primary and secondary school with — best man, ushers at wedding are still considered my best friends – plus a handful from starting work and biking in Edinburgh (hello @donald). Since moving up here — good friends as well, through biking, probably not on the whole the ones I’d immediately turn to in a crisis — isn’t that the definition (among others).

Not that many from Uni, interestingly.

I think, part of it is that while many have moved away (and some returned) the parents all tended to stay around so there was somewhere to gravitate to at Christmas (and Hogmanay). With parents finally dying off I wonder how much we’ll see of some of them..

😀
My parents moved several hundred miles during my first year at uni, then moved again a couple of years after i’d finished, several hundred miles again. Since then they’ve moved probably half a dozen times. Including one or two international moves.

Don’t think either of them will settle down until they get put in a box.

45 now and still good friends with 2 people since the age of 12, one I would class as my best friend even though we have lived 5000km apart over the last 7 years. Slowly removing ex-school friends from my FB, I will have the odd contact with one or two as some are spread out around the world but generally have no interest in seeing them and I am sure its the same with them.
In life you move on, people come and go, I think that’s a good thing as it means its up to you to make effort to keep the good ones and you get lots of chances to meet more good people.
I shall consider deleting this upbeat thread later as it probably goes against all that is STW .

I haven’t seen any of my old school mates from more or less the day I left my last school.

not bothered by it really

I only see one friend from my schooldays of 45 years ago. My Mrs! ( we had a 32 year interlude though)

There’s a group of 4 of us (Lister is one of them) who have been close since we were 11 – for the last 29 years! Despite living at opposite ends of the country we still make time for a meet up where we will argue/harange/mock and generally abuse each other, two or three times a year. Every 5 years we try and do an MTB Road trip somewhere.