Story of friends

When I was a youngun' I was alone a lot. We moved from town to town so that my no good father could fleece ( to defraud of money or property; swindle) another whoever out of whatever he could. We might be there a week or a month or even through one semester of school. It is really hard to make friends when you are on the move that often. I was either ahead or behind in school.
I think by the time I hit 7th grade I had been to 12-15 schools in either OK or TX. Because we moved so much, I didn't have a chance to make any long term friendships. Books were my friends and I read any and everything I could put my hands on. I loved comic books, because they were transportable and eaily read in the backseat of a car. My cousins were really, really poor and whenever we visited, I was popular because of the comics. I never had any left by the time the visit was over. I was an only child and there were 5 of them. Visiting them was always treat, I used the comics as an entre into their world and they shared theirs with me. We would visit the inevitable outhouse, swim in the local plot of mud, gather blackberries and swat wasps. I learned to love the smell of honeysuckle and the taste of mud pies. After we left, I would look at my sunburned, bug bitten body and hoard the feel of companionship as I sat in the backseat of the car reading my new comic books, listening my my father's inevitable country music coming from the car radio.

So why am I bringing up all this debris of my past? Well, I have friends today. I have some really great friends that make me laugh out loud, give me moral support, piss me off and spread their love over me. Sometimes I feel I am not worthy of them. I feel I am peeking into their lives and not giving them back all the wealth they have given me. Perhaps, it has something to do with all the moves and transitory relationships I had as a child. I do not know, but I do know that now I am so very, very lucky to have these people in my lives.