Do you still have the same friends from childhood now?

Wanderer2010 · 14-07-2019 04:48PM #1

I bumped into an old mate from primary school last week and we kind of caught up for a few minutes and its mad how different our lives are now. which got me thinking: I don't have any friends nowadays (Im in my 30s) that stem from childhood. Most of the people I call friends are from college or extended family. Do you still know childhood friends and have stayed close to them/drink with them even as you enter 20s 30s and beyond? Do you still have things in common?

RMAOK · 14-07-2019 04:50PM

Fück no - have nothing to do with any of them.

Stop moaning ffs · 14-07-2019 04:52PM

There’s one I often wonder about. How he’s doin. I’d love to go up to where I used to live and knock on the door n see him.

How Soon Is Now · 14-07-2019 04:52PM

My best friends are same ones I've had since 1st year.

Time has flew by in fairness!

Thelonious Monk · 14-07-2019 04:53PM

I still have a few that I would have met in my early teens and we still do stuff together from time to time 25 years later. Also have couple from school and college and people I've met through work. I've a couple of good friends now that I met only in the past few years, so you're never too old to meet new people.

Thelonious Monk · 14-07-2019 04:53PM

How Soon Is Now wrote: »

My best friends are same ones I've had since 1st year.

Time has flew by in fairness!

Spoken like a true 2nd year

Timberrrrrrrr · 14-07-2019 04:54PM

Guy i sat next to in school from the age of 14, worked in bars clubs together for years and still talk every few days and always meet for a beer when am in Dublin.

How Soon Is Now · 14-07-2019 04:55PM

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Spoken like a true 2nd year

Haha about twenty years ago!

AlphabetCards · 14-07-2019 04:57PM

Secondary school lads, yeah they are my friends for life. Even now that we are all over the globe and most of them are fathers.

14-07-2019 05:03PM

Yep still have my oldest and best 2 friends. But I have no contact to anyone else from primary or secondary

stargazer 68 · 14-07-2019 05:05PM

Just talking about this the other night. Myself and my 2 friends have been friends 35 years!! Go out regularly just the 3 of us and also with the 3 hubbies

wakka12 · 14-07-2019 05:11PM

Im in my 6th year of college,dont speak to anybody from primary school anymore. Still try to keep in touch with a few others from secondary school. Emphasis on 'try' though, its always such an effort, and I dont know how long a friendship can sustain if every time you meet is a concerted effort

14-07-2019 05:13PM

There's a whatsapp group of us from secondary school, in truth on its last legs. Some people evolve, others don't. Differences can become magnified. The course of life. Those I've befriended since my late twenties are the main constants.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 14-07-2019 05:15PM

Yes, I still meet up about once a month, or so, with two friends that I have known for 70years and 63years.

branie2 · 14-07-2019 05:23PM

Yes I do

ToddyDoody · 14-07-2019 05:25PM

I have one imaginary one that I'm still in regular contact with.

Butterface · 14-07-2019 05:30PM

Still have 3 friends from primary school, friends since we were 5 years old. Went to different secondary schools and colleges, and never lived in the same town again, but we meet up now at least once or twice a year, usually at Christmas.

Have a few from secondary school, but again it's mostly staying in contact on social media and then seeing them at home at Christmas.

Stop moaning ffs · 14-07-2019 05:33PM

Who’s your oldest friend age wise?
Mine is 75 and an expert on Bob Dylan and all things music.

Lackadaisical · 14-07-2019 05:35PM

Nope! Definitely not.

I had one guy contact me out of the blue after decades and, to be quite honest, it was a bit odd. It took me ages to remember who he was. I had moved away from where he lived when I was 10 or so. None of the people he was mentioning rang any bells with me. The context was gone. I just had vague memories of playing football on the street with them and didn't even remember names or anything.

Met up for a pint and basically he reminisced about people I have very little memory of and we never met up again.

Facebook has a lot go answer for!

It's strange in some ways I've people I was vaguely friends with in the early 2000s who are still on my Facebook and really it's very unlikely I'll ever meet up again but at the same time we still do the odd like on line.

In the old days those people would likely have just disconnected and been vague memories. Now they're always there. It's not necessarily a bad thing but just odd in terms never forgetting anyone. It's like the natural ability to move on is gone.

I mean I have exs and people I had one night stands with in college on my Facebook and sure we're all still liking eachother's pet photos and other very mundane stuff. It's all very civilised and it would be rude to delete then. They're probably lovely - it's just very unlikely I'll ever reconnect.

It's an odd world where privacy is fading fast and nothing's ever forgotten.

voldejoie · 14-07-2019 05:50PM

Yes and no.

I'm still in touch with my two best friends from primary school but we hardly ever see each other and have very little in common. They both have kids and totally different lives and priorities to me. We meet up around Christmas each year but that's about it really.

I care for them both a lot but it's just interesting that if we met now instead of as those scared 4 year olds on our first days of school, we likely wouldn't have anything to do with each other!

andekwarhola · 14-07-2019 05:59PM

Yeah, three of my closest friends now, I met in school. One in primary, two in secondary. Also another close friend is a cousin I've known since birth.

Plus, I'd still know a few other secondary school mates and am in touch through social media and meet for pints maybe once a, year or so.

Wibbs · 14-07-2019 06:10PM

Yep. Most of my friends I've known since school. Talk or meet up with at least one a week. Two live overseas and we talk on the phone/email at least once a month.

Lackadaisical · 14-07-2019 06:23PM

I'd say though it boils down to how you were brought up. We moved city to city several times when I was in primary school and again in secondary school.

I went to 5 primary schools and 3 secondary schools. So most of my long term friends were made in my college days with one or two in my teens. The primary school days are a complete blur to me.

I sort of never really considered myself to be "from" anywhere in particular but I would be very strongly attached to my university days and that era.

14-07-2019 06:37PM

Yeah my main group of friends are all people I know since end of primary, 1st year in secondary (all early/mid 30’s now). Still all contact daily in WhatsApp groups and meet up regularly for pints etc. We never really made “college friends” as most of us went to the university or IT close by and some of us even did the same course so we all hung out with each other during college too so never really got close with other people. We are mostly all still living around or close to the home area now (some having moved away and come back others never moved away) so we are all still the main group of friends.

We all would have made friends through work etc who came and went but nothing as close as we are with the original group of friends still.

suicide_circus · 14-07-2019 06:40PM

yep all but one or two friends i've known for 20 years plus

retro:electro · 14-07-2019 06:42PM

My best friend I met on my first day of playschool, she sat down beside me and we had our picture taken for the local paper and have been best friends ever since. My core friendship group are all girls I met in primary and secondary. I’d be close to a few still from college/work but my bestest best friendships are all 20+ years old.

Stop moaning ffs · 14-07-2019 06:47PM

Would love to know where my teachers in primary are now and what they’re doing

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo · 14-07-2019 06:58PM

Yep. A few from primary and secondary school, and a few from around where I lived. With Facebook it's very easy to stay in contact with people who would be more 'distant' friends as well. I'm not even the most outgoing of people, it's just nice to stay connected with friends you get along with. WhatsApp helps a lot I find.

14-07-2019 07:08PM

Stop moaning ffs wrote: »

Would love to know where my teachers in primary are now and what they’re doing

Two of my primary school teachers are neighbors and family friends, retired now of course.

DoozerT6 · 14-07-2019 07:10PM

I'm only in touch with one friend from school (secondary). Nobody from primary school, in fact there are girls I went to primary school with for 8 years that I literally never laid eyes on again after we all said goodbye on our last day there, even though we were all from a fairly small town and its hinterlands. (We would have all gone to a few different secondaries in bigger towns nearby).

Lackadaisical · 14-07-2019 07:18PM

On a related point, does anyone else find that the fact that a lot of Irish people who stay in Ireland don't really seem to move much beyond their home turf that it makes it very hard to blend in?

I have always found that I feel more at home in big international cities than I have here. There's just always this sense of being a 'blow in' that I get from not having entirely grown up here and having moved around a lot. Whereas when I lived in the US and in London I never felt that.

I just find you go to a pub with a group of people and that's as far as it goes. Beyond that a lot of them tend to just not want to make the effort and I have found as a result most of my friend in Ireland aren't Irish or, if they are that they've moved around a lot too.

Just on a lot of occasions in Cork I've had my accent brought up by random people where it just makes you feel like OMG I've lived here for almost a decade and I'm STILL not considered to belong. Same has happened in Dublin albeit a bit less so.

Just little things like I was in a cafe in the city centre and for "ah sure you're from the states or Sweden or something"

"Sure what would you know: you're not even from Cork FFS!"

"What does it matter to you?! You're not even from here!"

That kind of subtle thing...

Do you still have the same friends from childhood now?

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