The Good Ship Friendship.

I went to see an old friend of mine last week who moved to the south
coast. We used to play in the same band many moons ago and lost touch
over the years but using skills worthy of Miss Marple, he managed to
track me down to my Buckinghamshire hideout. He contacted me by
email, we went for a beer, discovered we were both still very much
into music and a friendship was renewed.
I have met up with other friends from long ago including my school
days and have had happy, alcohol fuelled reunions. However, despite
promises of 'doing it again' and 'keeping in touch' it never
transpires. I think this is due to the fact we have all moved on and
you can only reminisce about old times so often before it becomes
dull. Unless you have new shared experiences or something in
common other than the past there is nothing to bind you together
no matter how witty or fun your old friends are. Life gets in the way and keeping in touch becomes hard work. That is the point of social networking, it allows you to keep in touch with people you cant be bothered to visit.

Then there is the potential minefield of your friends other halves and
your own partners friends and their spouses. I am sure we have all
had friends who we like immensely but wish they would leave their
other halves at home or your partners friends who are annoying and
irritating but you smile and pretend you like anyway  for the sake
of domestic harmony.
Many years ago my brother and I were taken on holiday by our parents to a large, rambling B&B with extensive gardens in Devon, we must have been about
seven or eight years old. There was a young German family staying at the same
establishment with children roughly the same age as my brother and I. Of course, the chance to play war with real Germans was irresistible so all four of us spent the week running around shouting "achtung pigdog, die tommy" and
making ridiculous machine gun noises. Heaven knows what the parents
thought but nothing was said about it. By the end of the week we were all really firm friends and I was sorry to leave and upset I would never see them again. So much so that it is one of the
few enduring memories from those years. I have had similar experiences
during the two weeks of summer camp as an army cadet in my teens
although the games were a little more grown up... but not by much.
I would think the camaraderie felt by soldiers actually going to war
must be akin to love.
I have had many good friends come and go over the years, all top blokes
to a man, or top girls in some cases. I will always regard them as friends even if I do not see them from one year to the next but I think you need new shared experiences to keep the good ship Friendship afloat.