Old friends, new friends

I love Facebook and I’m always confused by people who dismiss it out of hand, or think it’s dangerous or beneath them. Facebook keeps my entire diverse and far-flung extended family in touch with each other and keeps us up-to-date with ex-neighbors and friends from the ‘hood. It also helps us reconnect with people we knew back when, you know the ones, when you think to yourself, “I wonder what ever happened to — ?”

I reconnected with an old friend Ron Dicola, whom I met forty years ago. He was part of a crowd my girlfriend hung out with in the neighborhood where she went to nursing school. Ron introduced me to the books of Carlos Castaneda and was one of the first people to take me sailing, both of which had a big influence on my life. I only knew him for a short time when I heard he and his wife had moved to St. Thomas. When I saw him on Facebook I sent a note and we caught each other up on the intervening decades. It turns out Ron did a single-handed circumnavigation in the late 80s and with that, he moved right into the pantheon of heroes for both Jack and me. We couldn’t wait to see him and Sunday was the day.

Once again we took the ferry over to St. Thomas and Ron picked us up for a driving tour of the island. It’s great to find that someone you met as a kid forty years ago is still the kind of person you want to be friends with today. We both think we look exactly the same.

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Ron drove us all over as we got to know each other again and appreciated the view of St. Thomas from well above sea level.

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Then we were treated to the very best kind of experience of cruising, being invited home. We met Ron’s wife Jane, a yoga teacher and vegetarian, so you know we hit it off right away. We spent the afternoon in their beautiful home enjoying the incredible view of the path we sailed to get here, and Jane helped me get the kinks out of my back from two weeks of uncomfortable passage sleeping. Jack and I felt an instant kinship with Ron and Jane and we’re so happy to convert a Facebook connection into a real life friendship.

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3 Comments

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3 Responses to Old friends, new friends

  1. What a fortuitous meet up after all this time. You must be living right.

  2. Anita

    too uncanny. You do look alike Jack. Glad you were able to connect.

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