Tell us about an interesting friend of yours

My sister's mother-in-law, who is in her late 90's, is an awesome woman. She is very well traveled. Has taken solo tours to Alaska to see the aurora borealis, visited Mexico and caught a huge sailfish, visited Spain and various areas in Canada. She paints, and, for a long time, unbeknownst to us, sold her art through downtown galleries here in Toronto. Every year, we get hand-painted birthday and Xmas cards. At the Japanese senior's home (Momiji .. a fantastic place), she takes line-dancing, teaches art and I'm sure she does more that we don't know about.
 
Well, that was a relative :)

I have a friend in South Australia, who I met on the internet. She sent me a message, when she read that I was interested in pottery. Along with her husband, they ran a sheep and crop farm in a rural area outside of Adelaide, where I moved to and lived for a few years. Besides helping with farming, she was a potter, and once had a potting studio along with a tea shop. Besides pottery, which she retired from, she is a stained glass artist, and makes commissioned pieces.

Aside from that, she paints, is a great cook (she made me sushi, which even I can't make), can sew anything she sees in a clothing store, is a math whiz (she used to calibrate all the farm machinery) .. in a word, she is awesome. You will not meet a more soft-spoken, humble person.

"W" and her husband, gave me so much moral support before I left my difficult marriage there. I love them, like they are family. We met around 1999 - 2000, so, we know one another extremely well.
 
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I have a good friend named Philippe. He’s French Canadian, originally from a rural area north of Montreal, where his family was involved with turkey ranching. When he was about 20, he hitchhiked down to New Orleans, intending to find Americans who could speak French… he knew very little English & had no confidence speaking it.

But eventually, he made it westward to California, where he encountered a lot of emerging ideas, including those of Buckminster Fuller, and projects like those detailed in the Whole Earth Catalog and Mother Earth News.

After he returned to Quebec, he got together with a woman his age from one of the cities there. They travelled west to British Columbia, where they found employment as reforestation workers — a tough job, paid according to how many trees you planted in a day. They travelled over to my region in the southeast of the province, and were able to secure a mortgage on a modest acreage with an old house.

Philippe self-educated by keeping his eyes open when in people’s gardens or farms. He’s always been a collector of useful books. He took a course in permaculture, after which he designed his farm. He integrated fruit and nut trees (& shrubs) that he and his partner planted, along with a small vegetable patch. Once he had enough experience & confidence, he began to teach courses. His reputation grew, and after ten years or so of teaching, he was invited to visit Nepal to teach this sort of land-use design there. He's also been a great supporter of local organic-seed exchanges, and of co-ops.

Gradually he’s shifted from teaching permaculture and has put his knowledge and energies into land restoration. Along with selling or trading nuts & fruit from his matured plantings, he’s made an income by teaching and restoring degraded riparian & wetland areas in our valley. When he's around people in our community, he's humble & shy. But he’s managed to meet some of North America’s most knowledgeable & innovative land-use biologists. And I appreciate that he lives his life with great humor.
 
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I have a friend that I knew from 3 years of age.

I took my own journey through life, and he took his. In short, he trusted his heart to no-one, and never chased the $. He always worked, but was at the bottom of the economic ladder. However, work was just something he did, he didn't invest anything into it. While those around him worked their ass off, he cruised on much less.

Over time, he'd become accustomed to his choices, and didn't feel hard done by. He didn't have a big house, car, a family, or a big bank balance. But he just carried on.

I admire him because after all these years I realize that no caring is in fact a statement all by itself. He didn't want to die alone, so did online dating. He's married now.

I admire him because I know I could never have made the decisions he did. I've had exponentially more than him, but have benefited less. Life has meant more to him than the next great thing.

I'm worn out and sometimes sad. He's just getting on with things. I live that guy.
 
My most interesting friend I ever had:

I met Zelma when she was 90 and showed up to volunteer for my organization. She was well-read, outspoken and SALTY as all-get-out. There was never a dull moment when she was around. She could swear like a whaler, knew all the latest slang, music and trends, and had friends from teenagers up to oldies. She was pretty impatient with "oldies" who "couldn't keep up".

She was born in 1899, had graduated from high school at 17, went to "Normal School" (what they called teacher training back then) for four months and then was sent to teach grades 1-12 in a one-room school in the wilds of Kentucky.

Zelma told me how, after being there for a couple of years, she had met a gentleman from the "big" town a few miles away (population maybe 500) and had started "keeping company" with him. That was scandalous enough for a maiden-lady schoolteacher but he was DIVORCED. Well, both of them got just about ridden out of town on a rail. They hopped a train and headed for the glittering lights of Louisville. They married and lived happily ever after until he died. They never had any children.

You could discuss anything with Zelma. She watched the news and read the newspaper every day. She could discuss the merits of Boy George with my 12-year-old daughter and argue who was the better pro football team with my husband. It was a cold day in hell when anybody won an argument with her.

It's been many a year since she died, but I'll never forget her.
 
The long-time friend I'm thinking of is 71 (or 2) and she seems to know a lot about a wide range of things most people don't know a lot about. She's my son's mother-in-law, actually. This woman knows carpentry, veterinary medicine, brain neurons, politics, ancient and contemporary history, emergency first aid, auto mechanics....I could go on. Plus, she's an excellent artist. And she's very kind.

I love talking with her.
 
jujube said:
My most interesting friend I ever had:

I met Zelma when she was 90 and showed up to volunteer for my organization. She was well-read, outspoken and SALTY as all-get-out. There was never a dull moment when she was around. She could swear like a whaler, knew all the latest slang, music and trends, and had friends from teenagers up to oldies. She was pretty impatient with "oldies" who "couldn't keep up".

She was born in 1899, had graduated from high school at 17, went to "Normal School" (what they called teacher training back then) for four months and then was sent to teach grades 1-12 in a one-room school in the wilds of Kentucky.

Zelma told me how, after being there for a couple of years, she had met a gentleman from the "big" town a few miles away (population maybe 500) and had started "keeping company" with him. That was scandalous enough for a maiden-lady schoolteacher but he was DIVORCED. Well, both of them got just about ridden out of town on a rail. They hopped a train and headed for the glittering lights of Louisville. They married and lived happily ever after until he died. They never had any children.

You could discuss anything with Zelma. She watched the news and read the newspaper every day. She could discuss the merits of Boy George with my 12-year-old daughter and argue who was the better pro football team with my husband. It was a cold day in hell when anybody won an argument with her.

It's been many a year since she died, but I'll never forget her.
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jujube, an amazing person. How would you say Zelma influenced your life, made a difference?
 
I met a man that was 18 years older than me years ago. He was an American Buddhist monk. I got to be friends with him, and at the time was interested in him being a "spiritual guide". What made him so interesting to me is that he was the first male nurse to graduate from the College here...way back. He then got a BS in Journalism. During the Korean War he was a nurse in a M.A.S.H.. He said it was so bad at times that he did many a minor surgery. Of course that was a bit exciting for me being a MASH fan.
He was a Presidential Appointee during Johnson Administrations' war on poverty. He had so many stories of going to different states in the south while facing a very unfriendly group of citizens. How he dealt with this was always fascinating. He withheld Federal funding if the city council's didn't reflect the racial demographics of the area. He was chased out of some of the states. :) He was a master gardener and loved to plant trees and all kinds of herbs, spices, and vegetables ( from all over the world ). He also loved to cook, especially international cuisines. I had many fantastic meals that he made...and I helped.
He did help me for several years "grow up". He had unconditional love for a lot of people, and was a role model for me through my middle life. He lived in a small house in the forest and had a vow of poverty. He showed me how to live simply and to be interested in the vast spectacle of life.
 
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I appreciate the responses in this thread. Fascinating, and kind of heart-warming to read one person's interest in, or esteem & gratitude for another person.

SF is a social medium, and it's obvious by the interactions of people participating that we seek human contact. So in a way I'm surprised that just a few have described a person they've found fascinating or had high regard for in 'real life' (as the expression has it).

??? 🤔 Any others?🙂
 
JBR said:
I'm surprised that just a few have described a person they've found fascinating or had high regard for in 'real life'
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I've not responded because although I've met more than a few real life people that I've found fascinating and had a high regard for I've not ever been lucky enough to be friends with them. So I felt like I wouldn't have enough to say about them.
 
I have a friend I met a while back, she is in a different town every night, she's a music promoter, CEO of her company, has recording studio's in Nashville Tenn , NY, professor for a couple of months at a University, she is also 77, still going. Met this real nice guy with his family ,at Lowes last month, he has a movie that just came out, he loaded a toliet on a cart for me and carried it out to my van, and loaded it for me, strange who you meet
 
I have a friend, Richard and, for the most of the last decade, he's been pretty well retired, living on Vancouver Island. The continuing thread in his life has been music. He plays several stringed instruments, and as a young man learned to both repair and make them. I gradually learned his life's backstory, starting with how, as a young boy, he became fascinated with radios... which of course provided music.

Anyhow, as a young man he earned an amateur-radio license. And that led to a period of about five years when he made his living as a Canadian Coast Guard radio operator, providing information to boats & ships along Canada's west coast & up in Inuvik (near the Arctic Circle). It's a job that sometimes saves lives.

Richard has played guitar, mandolin, and the occasional other instrument in various groups. He's also an inveterate tinkerer. He & his wife have combed flea markets & yard sales, and he's restored many compact home radios of the 1930s-40s bakelite-casing era. More recently he's restored, to working condition & fresh appearance, a juke box from the 45rpm era. He'll still do the occasional instrument repair for people who've heard about him.

Richard is a kind fellow, good conversationalist, well liked. He has a quick wit and an odd but engaging sense of humor. He says he's had a modest but decent income, which he seems to have managed with shrewd common sense.
 
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I had a friend who I played in a band with in 1983-1984. We had a lot of fun together. I was married and she loved my children. She was a music major at MU. We lost touch when she moved to St. Louis. I heard that she was teaching high school music. She also played piano and sang in a few bands on the weekends. One day while driving I heard a song on the radio that sounded just like her. I immediately went to a record store to find out what record company produced her music. It was a major label. From that day, i witnessed the skyrocketing of a rock star. You might have heard of her. Sheryl Crow :)
 
Thanks for the heads up, @JBR!

You all have met some pretty interesting people who have lived rich lives!

A lot of the inspirations for my cartoons and other art works have come from the many people who've I known over the years, from friends to foes. One of the ways I've learned to deal with pain is to make as a two-dimensional expression, and, as my signature reads, to find humor in any situation.

The best example of the many good-humored people in my life is my best friend whose comic character's name is "Rad". I met Rad in the Spring of '64 and we still often communicate and visit. Now, Rad was not a good student, doesn't read much, but is a genius when it comes to metal, machines, and humor. We couldn't be more different, as I am a pessimist who is into reading and that girly art thing.

In 1979, I was visiting with Rad, lamenting after a second failed engagement and be gave me some sound advice:



rad.jpg

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More to come as I dig through my old files...



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