My best friend from childhood was Rusty (given name Paul). I first met him when we were about six years old. Rusty lived three houses down the street, and we attended the same school through high school. Our fathers worked at the same factory on the other side of town and car-pooled together to work. Rusty’s father was a mechanical engineer like I became.
I have written about Rusty before here. We shared many of the same interests back then and both loved anything mechanical and that moved under its own power. We built a crude go-cart using his grandfather’s lawn mower engine and with parts from his brother Tallie’s soap box derby car. I vacationed with Rusty and his parents on a trip to Wisconsin where his family was from. The black and white picture on the left is from that childhood trip.
My family and I moved away when Rusty and I were 13 years old, and we lost track of each other for the most part.
Fast forward to 2018 when I looked up Rusty and we started communicating again. We agreed to get together with our wives. Due to scheduling conflicts, followed by the Pandemic, our reunion was on hold. Then after many years, my childhood friend and I finally did meet for dinner this summer: Rusty and his lovely wife Trisha; me and my wife Monica.
The color photo on the right was taken at the restaurant. Notice the similarities, none of which we planned; it was totally spontaneous. Rusty is still half a head taller than I; and in both pictures, he is standing on the left of me and there are rocks as a background.
It had been decades since I had last seen Rusty. But by the end of our time together, it was like we just saw each other last week. That is how it is for long-time friends, particularly ones who knew each other as young children and shared a long time together during their formative years. He is the friend that I have known the longest.
We discovered that we both still have a lot in common and share many of the same interests and backgrounds.
I plan on continuing my friendship with Rusty in the coming years and am very grateful that we finally got together after all this time.
True friendship is hard to find and stands the test of time.