Mom and Dad always had good friends. These close friends became our second family. These experiences led me to understand that living close to your family is a blessing. When you need help moving something, you call family. When you need a babysitter, you call family. When you are sick, you call family. When your car breaks down, you call family. When your wife has a baby, you call family. On holidays you get together with family. Living in New Mexico and Texas made calling on our family impossible for those things. Even a telephone call was expensive back then, and people only called on holidays or with emergencies. Like most families today, we lived a long way from our family while growing up. Since Dad was a preacher, we were always involved in a church, and Mom and Dad always ended up making friends with other families.
I want to list for you a few of the friends that I remember considering “family” in the different places that we lived. They each had an influence in raising us kids, and an impact on our lives.
- Richard and Mary Gans – Mom and Dad’s high school friends,DeSoto, MO
- Roger and Cindy Pickard – Sedalia, MO
- Priscilla Davis – Artesia, New Mexico
- Joe and Nancy Wigley – Roswell, New Mexico
- Larry and Rachel Aguilar – Roswell, New Mexico
- Gary and Susie Hill – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Jim and Vertus Duckworth – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Del and Bev Garland – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Elias and Fran Rodriguez – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Dr. Marshall and Betty Jung – Scott City, MO
- Jim and Betty Abner – Charleston, MO
The lesson to be learned here is that it is important to find good friends. When you live far away from family, joining and getting involved in a church is very important. Good friends make life enjoyable, plus being able to help each other out in tough times can be a difference maker. Mom and Dad always found good friends to do things with. It made being away from Grandpa and Grandma a lot easier.
Family is the best. Family is great, and I never appreciated all of my family like I should have. But friends are important, too, and wherever you go in life be sure to put effort into making good friends. It can be so rewarding, and I would argue that the best place to find good friends is at church.