Do you have a best friend?  I’ve grown apart from my closest friend while, at the same time, renewed contact with my oldest friend (since age 4 or 5).  I believe it’s an important ingredient in having a balanced social life, whether you’re single or married.  Some people think that their spouse should be their best friend.  I don’t.

My history of friendship has always included having a best friend–a guy, though I had many close female friends later in my life   Having opposite gender friends is another topic altogether and maybe even a bit controversial.  My first close friend was the previously mentioned friend that I made in nursery school, which is what pre-school was called in my day.

Our parents were friends and neighbors and “D.J.” and I became close friends all the way through high school.  Later, in junior high school I had a best friend who my mom really didn’t like.  He wasn’t a “good kid,” according to her.  She was right.  He liked to do things like get cherry bombs and firecrackers and blow up stuff.  His mother was divorced–a stigma in those days.