Friends

I've known the first two lines of a poem for a long time now, though I've never quite known where they've come from. They are often unattributed and were even borrowed into a Girl Scout camp song (again, without proper attribution, it seems). You probably know the lines, too.

Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.*

We certainly have fun making new friends, but there's nothing better than getting together with "old" friends. And when you move around a lot it doesn't take long before new friends become old friends.

We've had plenty of opportunities to get together with a some of our "old" family friends this summer. On the 18th of June we got together with the Cummings family and the Perry family.

Rachel and Nic are like soul sisters. They're both rather tomboyish and even though they're a couple of years apart they've always gotten together fabulously.

We need to get these three together again sometime!

On June 29th our friend Crystal was in town with her kids and they stopped by for a visit. I don't think I'll ever get over her boy not being two years old anymore. And trust me, he's not. He's more like seven. 

But to me he'll always be two.

The kids invented a game of horse/dog/cat. They were so funny. 

Miriam borrowed one shoe of E's and one of G's and was trying to catch up with the big kids. It didn't work too well.

On July 14th we met up with the Smiths at the park. They were here on home leave before moving to Zimbabwe. It was so fun to get to chat with Jill again—I haven't seen her since the beginning of the year, just when the Egyptian revolution was starting and Solomon was a tiny baby.

Now he's a pretty big boy, but it was Mo who surprised me. He's like...old. I haven't seen him since he was Rachel's age! Trying to get a picture of all five of our kids was a challenge.

 Luckily Rachel was able to snap a pretty good picture of me and Jill together!

Finally, yesterday, Caitlin (who was also in Cairo with us for the first five months) stopped by with her husband and new baby. They were here for her brother-in-law's wedding (which was on Tuesday) but had to skedaddle back to California for her brother's wedding (which is tomorrow). I'm so glad she took time to drop by!

My girls taught baby Patrick how to yell—they were fighting over who got to hold him first and may have been pulling on his limbs and getting far too far into his personal space so he started telling them what was what. I hope Caitlin enjoys this newfound talent. She was laughing about it yesterday; we'll see if she's still laughing about it in a week.

I suppose that's one good thing about living in Utah—it's kind of the central hub for my Mormon friends so no matter where I meet them in the world there's always a slight chance that we'll run into each other here.

*I found the entire poem published in the March 1911 edition of The Friend. Unattributed, of course.

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

New-made friendships, like new wine,

Age will mellow and refine.

Friendships that have stood the test —

Time and change—are surely best;

Brow my wrinkle, hair grow gray,

Friendship never knows decay.

For 'mid old friends, tried and true,

Once more we our youth renew.

But old friends, alas! may die,

New friends must their place supply.

Cherish friendship in your breast—

New is good, but old is best;

Make new friends, but keep the old;

Those are silver, these are gold.

After poking around a bit, I found it attributed—a couple of places, actually—to a mysterious Joseph Parry. I wonder if it is this one.