Festivals and Such

This weekend we went back to our hometown for a festival that they put on every October. It's such a feeling of home when we go back. My parents are actually divorced now and my dad sold my childhood home so I don't get this feeling but once a year, at this particular festival. The food, the sounds, the fall air...I love it all. There is a family that sells giant pickles on a stick and I MUST have one each year. There are local church choirs and bands and spelling bees and story telling...The theme is kind of "old settlers" so most vendors are dressed in old fashioned getup. On Sunday, there is always the longest parade in the world, I swear. Well, relatively long anyway, considering the size of the town (about 7,000 people I would guess), it lasts about 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure just about every high school alumni goes back at this time of year, no matter what. I always run into dozens and dozens of old classmates and friends. It's so much fun to catch up and see how people turned out after all these years or even snicker a little bit like junior high kids at how some of the mean kids turned out. I think I'm at the age now that it's just standard that you must chat with anyone that you recognize, even if you really know them that well or even get along. I saw my arch rival from high school, who still lives there. I think until this very year I still had bitter feelings towards her but something must have happened between last October and this one because I chatted it up with her like we were old friends. I guess that's a part of growing up. She, of course, is nothing like the person I used to know and is quite lovely.

I also ran into one of my best friends growing up. Our families go way back but have since grown apart. She did not look well. I don't know much about these things, but I'm pretty sure she is on drugs. It made me SO SAD to see. I have been crying for her. She had/has so much potential, I really thought she would go far. :( I wonder what events led her down this path? I want to help her but I'm not sure how. We did exchange #'s and agreed to do lunch sometime.

Has this happened to you? Have you seen one of your old friends go down the wrong path? What position did you take on staying in touch with them even though they have chosen a lifestyle different from your own?