Friends

Today I taught again in San Francisco. I did much better and my students were great! I really think every class gets better. I invited some guys from France to come to my class today, with some guys from China so my students had some actual ESL students to teach. The classes they taught were very good, and the visitors had a great time, that they will never forget. Isn't it interesting how quick we can make friends, but does it really last. We all have many friends over the years, but what happens to them. I wonder how things like Facebook and email will affect the way we keep in touch with friends in the future. Sam Retherford was my best friend from 6th - 8th grade. We were always together, he picked me up every morning and we walked to school together. He lived across from me and we were in Boy Scouts together. Everything that happened to me I would run over to his house and talk to him about. Whenever he had nothing to do he would come over to my house and we would do "nothing" together. Sam moved when we went into 9th grade, his father was transferred to Washington state. Of course we both said we would keep in touch, and we probably sent a letter within the first week. Who am I kidding, neither of us tried to keep in touch, even though we did have telephones even that long ago. Life went on without Sam, I went to high school, graduated, went to college, majored in Elementary Education and ROTC. In the summer after my junior year I went to ROTC summer camp. The first day we had to go on a bus and get our uniforms and I was sitting next to a guy from another school. We talked about where we went to college and where we went to high school. We talked about what we would like to do in the Army. We got in line and he was in front of me. We got our uniforms and then went to pick up our name tags, the guy I had been talking to on the bus picked up his name tag and it said "RETHERFORD". I told him that I used to have a friend named Retherford, and his first name was Sam. He told me his first name was Sam. Then we realized that we were best friends when we were young. It felt so strange and we couldn't even understand that we were the same people, but it was true. In the 6 weeks of summer camp Sam and I built our friendship up again. We were together often and found out everything that had gone on since we had last met. When the summer camp was over we said good bye, and of course told each other we would keep in touch. And of course, we both went back to our colleges and didn't keep in touch. I went into the Army, got my training in Alabama, went to Germany, and then back to Alabama for more training then was assigned to Alabama for a few years. During my time in Alabama I had to go on a business trip to Washington. I was in a meeting and I noticed a familiar face in the same meeting. Sam was there. He had joined the Army, gone to training in Indiana, gone to South Carolina, the back to Indiana for more training, then was in Washington. He had gotten married and we promised to keep in touch. We didn't. A few years later I was sent to Korea. I was a commander and often got paperwork from the General's office. The General never signs his own correspondence. I don't even have to write the next part, but, the signature on the General's correspondence was Sam Retherford. I called him and we met once. We laughed about the way we always ran into each other. About 15 years later I had access to military email addresses and found Sam Retherford was listed. I emailed him and said hi, he emailed back and said he lived near Washington D.C. and if I was ever in the area I should let him know. That hasn't happened yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if sometime Sam and I crossed paths.