Friends From Long, Long Ago

 

Me, Inez, Mark, Jacqueline, Ranya?

Two friends I met in Europe long ago, and lost touch with long ago, contacted me in 2021 through LinkedIn.

The first was a German woman I met in Paris in 1979, when I was 22 and she was 20. We lived in the same boarding house for a few weeks, then kept in touch via letters, then I visited her in Germany in 1982. We tried to stay in touch after that, but it was hard back in the day when letters and long-distance international calls were all we had.

She contacted me through LinkedIn. Her name is more common than mine, and I did not know if hers had changed, but there are only so many Dennis Stambaughs in the world, so she found me. Since she got in touch in July, we have sent messages maybe once a month and caught up some.

The other person was an American I met in 1982 in Florence, where we took Italian class together. I actually contacted him because I saw that he had looked at my LinkedIn profile (his name is very common, so I would never have found him otherwise. I tried over the years.) We ended up speaking for about an hour, and he sent me some photos of us in Italy. He lived in Italy for several years and married an Italian woman before moving back to Virginia. He invented a product and started a company and has had an interesting life.

Problem is, I can tell from some of his LinkedIn posts that he's a Trumper, so I am not sure I want to have anything to do with him. So sad. Those were good times, and it's kind of amazing to hear from him now. However, the Trump thing is really disappointing. Gone over to the dark side he has.

I should send him a note. Maybe he can help me remember that Greek girl's name in the photo. There is more to life than politics, I suppose.

This month, this year, I have walked 78,000 steps, which is 8,000 over my goal. I reached at least 10,000 steps each of the last 13 consecutive days. Altogether I have accumulated over 928,000 steps and walked 464 miles, which puts me a few miles short of Spokane. I should be in Idaho already, but instead I will likely get there in five more days, and in seven days I will pass one million steps, so those are nice milestones coming up.

I wrote Mark a note. No response so far...