Do any of you still keep in contact with childhood friends who you went to school with or lived in your neighborhood?

Mine is my old friend Mary. She went to Honduras as a teacher and Peace Corp worker in the 70's. Her and her husband Jose were forced to leave Tegucigalpa in the 80's. I got to see her about 18 years ago when she came back here to visit her oldest brother.

Mary and I played with my Barbie dolls on hot summer evenings on her porch in the late 50's and early 60's. Her dad was strict and according to her, didn't think she should have one of her own. He did allow her to play with my Barbie dolls. We picked wild blackberries and strawberries in the field. We walked to the public swimming pool to swim. On our walks home we'd collect empty pop bottles and cash them in scoring a penny or two to buy us a pretzel we'd share. When we got really lucky we'd find an empty bottle with a nickle deposit fee that would buy us a popsicle, which we also shared. We learned there were free samples of baked goods at our local Davis Bakery. We'd stop in on our walk home from the pool and ask, "do you have any free samples?" One time the bakery clerk asked me, "does your dad give free samples at his job?" I had no answer because my dad was a painter. After dinner we'd join the neighborhood boys (composed mostly of her brothers) to play softball. Usually Mary had chores after dinner and sometimes I'd help her so she'd finish faster to come play with me. Her and I also helped the nuns clean classrooms when school was out for the summer. The nuns would reward us with the leftover pints of chocolate milk from the days classes.

Now I correspond with her by e-mail to her home in San Antonio, Texas. She teaches third grade there.

Those were some wonderful memories of some wonderful summers with my best friend.