My first bestie

Monday, December 9, 2013 Permalink

Again I’m participating in Kerri Sackville’s blogging challenge involving a #MyFirst theme each week. This week’s was a bit of a no-brainer for me fortunately – unlike last week’s My First Kiss debacle in which I publicly admitted to having whored myself out to anyone who’d have me. (Well, as one does at 13 years of age when confronted with a kissing booth!) 😉

As it happens, I really had no say when it came to my first best friend. It was a bit like having a sister you were expected to play with day in and day out. Fortunately however, my bestie and I got along well and remained very close until way into adulthood.

Born 2-3 months before me, my best friend Miss M* was also my neighbour. My parents moved into our house not long after my older brother was born and Miss M’s family arrived after that. By the time I came along I had a ready-made best friend living right next door.

As a result Miss M and I saw each other rain, hail or shine EVERY SINGLE DAY (unless one of us was on holidays which wasn’t THAT often) for just over 17 years. We had our rituals – I’d go next door with my bike before school and wait (im)patiently while Miss M finished her breakfast so we could ride to school together (she was a dawdler!). We generally also rode home together after school though were rarely in the same ‘form’ class. We played together after school. We went to Jazz Ballet classes together, played basketball together and we remained in the same social group throughout our entire school life.

Naturally as we got older we had our own interests. Miss M lost interest in basketball and played hockey while I played some netball as well.

Our personalities were really quite different but our lives were essentially intertwined. Almost all of my childhood memories involve Miss M. Between the two of us we felt like we could do anything and occasionally we tried. I’ve shared a couple of our exploits before.

By the time we’d gotten to high school we’d staged backyard shows for our friends; we’d jointly written a book; we’d attempted to sell lemonade to neighbours; we’d tried to build rockets and parachutes out of a large tarpaulin; and we’d tried to make an intercom system to speak to each other from our bedrooms! (Note to other youngsters: toilet rolls, waxed paper and string when combined do NOT an intercom make!)

And more importantly we’d sat around day after day talking and sharing our innermost thoughts, fears and dreams.

PicMonkey Collage us

As we were attending different Universities in Brisbane we went our separate ways not long after our 17th birthdays, but undertook epic bus trips across town to visit each other. The closeness remained for many many years and I flew home from Africa in 1996 to be a bridesmaid when she married.

We’ve lived in different parts of the state and world now for almost 15 years so don’t see a lot of each other and are only in intermittent contact. Her mother still lives next to mine however so we probably both know exactly what the other is up to at any one point in time. But – like it is with so many of my school friends with whom I have a long long history – when we see each other we start where we last left off. Our shared childhood is a bond which ties us together forever.

Are you still in contact with your first best friend? 
What about other friends from school?

* Name changed to protect her innocence. Plus I’d meant to contact her to tell her I was writing this and… forgot!

18 Comments
  • Kerri Sackville
    December 9, 2013

    Divine you are still friends. DIVINE.

    • Debbish
      December 9, 2013

      Yes I’m lucky. I’m actually friends with a heap of my old school friends. Many of us went to kindy, primary and high school together and caught up when back in our (small) hometown for hols. I’m sure it would be harder in a larger place.

  • Lee-Anne
    December 9, 2013

    Your experience is not unlike my own high school bestie. http://bit.ly/17YMg9h
    And what a bonus having your best friend as a neighbour too!! 🙂

  • Min
    December 9, 2013

    I’ve linked up this week too Deb. Your photo’s remind me of the photo’s of my first bestie and me (which are still in albums at Mum and Dad’s house)….except I was the short brown haired one and you are my tall blonde haired bestie!! We were also neighbours! Bizarre! Fantastic that you are still friends with *MissM. I am still friends with my first bestie too – though we don’t see each other often.

    • Debbish
      December 9, 2013

      I think it’s harder as you get older. She’s lived elsewhere for a long time now and has a family etc. I’m sure (like me) she’s surrounded herself with new friends over the years but is also in contact with our old school gang (we caught up last Christmas).

  • Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot
    December 9, 2013

    LOVE the photos, definitely something to treasure 🙂

  • Sam Stone @ A Life on Venus
    December 9, 2013

    What a great tale of two besties! I think it is so lovely that you flew back to be her bridesmaid, that would have meant the world to her.

    • Debbish
      December 9, 2013

      I suspect there was never any question in my mind that I would. I’d also been o/s a year so coming home for the month was quite nice!

  • Johanna
    December 9, 2013

    Love that you are still friends! Also amusing to think that you are always the one on the left in the pics – perhaps it’s a bit like when you go to kiss someone on the cheek or hug them – do you find like I do that you always for for the same side?

    • Debbish
      December 9, 2013

      Johanna – I guess I do and even now I probably turn to the left when I get a picture taken. I don’t know (or think) it’s my good side or anything though!

  • Jess
    December 9, 2013

    Oh love this story! How wonderful your parents are still neighbors and you are in touch! 🙂

    • Debbish
      December 9, 2013

      Yes… our mum’s are good friends. Before mum started having trouble with her knee (a few years ago now) they walked together every day etc.

  • Char
    December 10, 2013

    I love those old photos. I swear they could be mine except that the faces are different. Same haircuts. Same clothes. Same shoes. It’s like looking through old family pics.

    • Debbish
      December 10, 2013

      Miss M and I used to also own some matching outfits as I recall my mother making us matching bolero jackets and so forth as well… 🙁

  • Jo Tracey
    December 16, 2013

    We moved around a lot as kids- every 2 years until I finished high school, so I’m not still in contact with many people from back then… My first bestie was when I was say 10-12, I guess, in a town in the Upper Hunter. She knew so much more than me & came from one of those old money grazier families that play polo & send their kids away to the best schools in Sydney. Suffice to say, we moved before I had to deal with the pain of the rejection that would have come when she got new friends that were more to her class…

    • Debbish
      December 16, 2013

      Do you know / ever wonder what became of her?

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