Old Friends

Among the people attending my mother's funeral were some of my oldest friends.

I spent some time visiting with my childhood friend Andy Maine. He reminded me about an incident where he and I were cornered by Kubejko’s bull in their barn. I did not really remember it.

So when Rose Kubejko came over, I asked her about it. She remembered it vividly. She said that the ground was muddy and Andy and I walked along the top rail of the fence, which was wet and slippery. That bull was huge, and so strong they had to build a special watering trough for him because he kept tipping over the regular watering trough.

When I mentioned this to Andy, he said that the reason we were walking along the top of the fence had nothing to do with whether the ground was muddy. The fence provided an escape route from the barn since the bull could not reach the top of the fence!

We also remembered the time we built a raft out of discarded railway ties where the old Antross town site used to be and floated it down the creek. One night we were sleeping out under the stars when a storm hit in the middle of the night. We grabbed our clothes and bedding and ran up the hill to shelter in an old barn. The only light was the blinding flashes of lightning, as we ran up the hill barefoot through the thistles. I think the thistles helped us to remember!

As we reminisced about playing together as young children he mentioned the incident where I jumped into a manger without looking first, and speared myself through the cheek on an antler. I still bear the scar today. What are the chances of anyone remembering these things? Only an old friend may remember.

I also visited with Wally and Ida Zwiers, who had ridden from Calgary with their son Michael to honor my mother. We had a chance to reminisce about times we shared 60 years ago.


As an old saying says it so well:
"Make new friends, but keep the old,
These are silver, those are gold!"