> My two cents: If your friends are the sorts of people who will try to drag you into the middle of all the drama for their own benefit, rather than do their best to keep you out of the drama for your sake, they may not be the sort of "friends" you want to keep around at all.

I'll second that.

Personally, I have been out of high school for about 53 years, and I stay in touch with two guys I've know since we were in 8th grade. As you might guess, several of my old HS cronies are dead, but of the ones that are still around, I enjoy hearing about them. They include a general, some doctors, a scientist, a bunch of teachers and several who have been successful in business. Most of us are retired now, and we still have a lot in common. Email and the interntet have allowed us to relocate a few missing classmates.

The two guys that I stay in touch with still share some of my interests. We are all three travelers and two of us are restoring antique vehicles. One lives near Chicago, the other in Tallahassee and I'm sort of in the middle in Tennessee.

When you find good friends like that, try to hold on to them for a lifetime.
Howard