I may bitch and complain about a million things a week. I know I can go overboard with my rants and tantrums (most are just for fun unless I’m driving) and I enjoy rubbing folks the wrong way although most of the time once again it’s just for fun and if it gets out of hand I’m usually the first person to slide into your DMs with a sincere apology. Unless I don’t like you.

One thing you’ll never hear me complain about are my friends. I have been truly blessed with my posse of guys, gals, weirdos, whackos, a-holes and b-holes. I have had in my corner the best of the best. The ones that pull you away from chaos and ones that ride shotgun with you all the way down into that bulging pile of burning shit I sometimes find myself in.

They are unquestionably the best assets of my character.

I put my friends in three categories and I think you’ll find similar categories with your friends if you’re hovering around the same half century age as me.

Generation I

Generation II

And of course currently Generation III

Generation I are my childhood friends. The folk I grew up with that we might’ve met playing street ball in the neighborhood or our parents were friends and hung out together or we were fortunate enough to have a desk within note passing distance in elementary and middle school. This group we share a strong bond of experiencing adolescence, growing pains, beating the shit out of each other over broken toys. We’d build foxholes, damn up creeks, chase salamanders and shoot BB guns at cow patties to watch them explode. I grew up in Piedmont y’all I get all of this honest. We’d get detentions together, ride bikes to the gas station to play Pac-Man or sit in our family’s den listening to their old country albums. We discovered Atari rivalries and watch Steamboat kick Flair’s ass after watching Saturday morning cartoons. Some, their parents were my second parents.

We talked about our first crushes, had our first wine coolers we stole from Friendly’s, double dated at the prom with our big hair dates. Throw up at our first kegger and put our foes in headlocks for talking shit about our boys. We threw our caps in the air side by side and the next day we’d be strolling down the grandstrand late evening at dirty Myrtle looking for some cute girls from Ohio.

These are from my 0-18 years of childhood. The ones I still talk to on a daily basis now I consider the be my brothers and sisters. I can’t give you an accurate number but it’s probably a dozen and a few more. If any of these folk called me and said “I’m in trouble can you pick me up in Copenhagen?” I’ll be on a plane with my shoes untied. These friends are invaluable to me. You will never hear me speak a negative word about them unless we are standing side by side ribbing each other. These are the friends that built my character.

Generation II you could consider your new college friends or work friends you meet when you finally leave the nest. For me these were people I began to gravitate towards at my early adult phase. Bartending , partying late nights, playing pool and such. Your world expands when you leave the nest but your friends tend to shrink a little. At least in my day before social media when you graduated high school the only time you’d run into old high school friends were holidays when we’d all go out to the same three bars in downtown Greenville. Addy’s, Corner Pocket and then close down Casa B’s. We’d exchange numbers but never call each other but it was always swell to see those old faces. Gen II got to watch us learn some trades all the while we’d apartment hop around sometimes picking up co workers along the way to live with us to share bills and stories. We’d find our first real significant others and move in with them until we outgrew each other. Some of us shared the same orientation class at work and bonded over being the newbies. We’d party all night together and bring each other bojangle biscuits to calm the shakes down for lunch service. We’d all go to the beach overnight, crash Freedom Weekend Aloft while dancing our asses off to the Village People, smoking cheap cigarettes and buying cases of Busch lite. Late night pool parties, card drinking games, couch surfing at each other’s place and consoling heartbreaks from falling in love a little too fast. We’d slowly progress and grow professionally. The close ones always stuck around if and when you left to follow your dreams once you got your feet secured to the ground and could find your path. Others stayed right where they are and have open arms for you should you come back home with zero judgement. These were my saddle buddies who spent a lot of time next to me at bars and rolling silverware. We didn’t grow up as childhood friends but we bonded over personal growth, heartbreaks, hangovers and late 20s philosophies. My time at Arizona produced an amazing amount of love and friendship. We were just now finding ourselves and held each other’s hands along the way. Some of my favorite people in the world I met organically at this time. They are the best of the best. I’ve become a better human because of you.

Generation III are the friends I’ve made over the recent years as far back as my mid to late thirties to now. I probably converse with you all more than some of my older friends because our universes are parallel from coincidence, geography and lifestyles. Some I made from opening up southern while most were just random conversations on social media and we’d connect and over time find out we get along swell together. The bonds I made through my old restaurant put me together with a number of unique and good hearted folk. Met new families, vacationed with them, hiking friends, service industry friends. These friends wouldn’t recognize me without my shaved head and beard but we talk like we’ve known each other for half a lifetime. We have our own circles but they circle each other like wagons on a prairie. We share stories over coffee now instead of cocktails, we send ridiculous memes and sometimes will have a whole ass conversation on IG for years even though we have each other’s digits. Like the other two generations we are all growing older together. We don’t worry about the same things we used to and often times we’ll spend hours reflecting on nostalgia. I don’t put any of these friends below the other generations their friendship is paramount. I enjoy supporting their businesses and dreams as do they for me.

I’ll never complain about having too many friends. My bank account can go fuck off my riches are spent on these people because they are my currency. My friends account. They’ve help me overcome my bouts of depression, sometimes driving two hours down the road just to sit next to me on my sofa. Hug me for no reason and will have my back even when I’m trying to fight half a dozen goons in a bar (sorry about that phase but at least you have some fun stories to tell your kids)

Whenever I get a big smack of unfortunate events I pull out some friend memories and all is well once again.