It's kind of impressive. He's had the same group of BFFs since he was in elementary school. They lived in a tiny bubble of perfection. He calls it Annehurst (a little neighborhood in Westerville, Ohio.) The way he describes it, I call it the Truman Show. Because he and his BFFs lived in this beautiful bubble of childhood near-perfection...one that almost seems to good to be true.
One of our very first dates, 8+ years ago, Chris drove me through the little neighborhood, past his childhood home (which is a normal, All-American two-story home, which he remembers being as large as a castle), past his elementary school, past the Dairy Queen where he and his friends used to ride their bikes -- by themselves -- in the summer heat.
He remembers leaving that house to play with his friends, first thing in the morning, returning home at night, hours later, for dinner, and then going back out with friends to catch lightning bugs or play freeze tag or do whatever it is that little boys do, until he and his friends were forced to come back home to go to sleep.
When Chris's parents got divorced when he was in middle school, he had to move away to Wisconsin. He was no longer a cool kid hanging out with other cool kids. He no longer had a gang of familiar friends who knew him by heart. He was the new kid on the block. And a very skinny one at that. And his dad made him wear his headgear to school. You can imagine how that worked out. I always imagine that 'era' of Chris being something like a cross between 16 Candles' Anthony Michael Hall and the movie's Joan Cusack character, when she keeps hitting her headgear on the water fountain.
Chris tells funny, self depracating stories about having only a handful of friends, not getting invited to cool parties, riding the bench of the basketball team and occassionally getting shoved into a locker.
The way I retell his whole teenage story in my mind, it's like a John Hughes film from the 80s. It's a bittersweet coming of age story, complete with the happy ending, when Chris returned to Westerville, the summer before his senior year, so he could graduate high school with those Annehurst BFFs that he so desperately missed from his Truman Show childhood.
Oh, the stories he has from his senior year. And from the 4+ years afterward, when many of those friends went to college together and lived their young single and married lives together. Oh, to see he and his friends recount the same stories, again and again, whenever they're together. It's funny and sweet and endearing. And if John Hughes were still alive, he would totally write a screenplay based on their experiences.
So I think it's kind of a big deal that this group of 9 guys....who have experienced just about every part of life together....still get together, pretty often. They've been to each others' weddings...the most recent (and final!) of which happened just this time last year. (Congrats Nate + Kate!)
They've been in each others' weddings....Chris was in Chris Andrews' + Rob Gore's weddings. They were in his, too.
Their kids have grown up knowing each other (our girls see the Andrews kids almost once a week.) And another of his Annehurst friend's wives, Tara, took the best, most amazing care of Ella when I had to work, before Kate was born.
Ella + Kate with the Sotherden girls, Mark + Tara's daughters, who were little mothers to Ella when she was less than a year old.
They get together during Christmas, most years. And last weekend, they got together for their 20 year reunion.
It was a really simple event, followed by a visit to a local bar. And because I rarely drink, and because we were out from 5 p.m. til 2 a.m., I consumed far too much alcohol and I shutter to think how annoying I must have been, as the night crawled into the wee hours of the morning. But my public intoxication notwithstanding, it was a pretty cool night....seeing these now-grown men, with their wives (and earlier that day, with their kids, too)...together once again to mark a full 20 years since they left the bubble they call Annehurst for 'real life.'
In a time when blogging and Wii (or whatever the coolest equivalent currently is) and FaceBook and gameboys and texting seem to fill the days and nights of so many kids, I wonder if our kids will have the good fortune to spend enough real, meaningful time with their friends to build truly lifelong friendships like these guys have. I sure hope they do.
Because their familiarity and their love for each other and the strength of their friendships inspire me. And I know when Chris looks at his very grateful life, these friendships are among the gifts for which he's most thankful.
