Have you ever become friends with someone you started out at odds with?

[BikeWriter]

I found out yesterday a Marine VietNam vet friend of mine had died the preceding day. This reminded me of the first time I'd encountered him at a local bar. Some remarks were made about his Halloween costume of black silk pajamas, conical coolie hat, and sandals.
My ex remarked since he was out drinking and away from his shrimp boat, we'd go put on our klan sheets and burn it! I thought her outrageously tasteless joke funny, we'd been drinking most of the afternoon. He took offense. I told him, "Shit, my wife was only kidding, we're sorry." His response was, "Don't curse in the presence of my bride."
My immediate comeback was, "You shouldn't bring your bride into bars in Texas if her ears are that delicate." This is where things got serious. He noticed my ballcap which stated "VietNam remembered" and asked, "Are you really a Vet or did you just find the cap?"
I slid off my stool and headed for him, he shouted something about going for his .357 as he made a hasty retreat. I shoved a few people out of the way who were trying to intercede and shouted at him he was going to need that .357 if I caught him!
He got out the door and he didn't come back with his gun. A mutual friend told him later he'd made a mistake with the remark about my service, that I took it very seriously. He asked the friend to tell me he was sorry. I later joined his Chapter of the VVA, and we became friends.
Marine, rest well, you've served your tour.

[Heidi]

1. You've got a good heart, BikeWriter.

If I disliked everyone who'd ever rubbed me the wrong way when I was a younger, more drinkin'ish woman, I wouldn't have a friend one.

Safe passage for your friend.

[BikeWriter]

2. Thank you, Ma'am. Yes, bars are good for that...

I've been in a number of dust ups in my adult life.
My friend got religion late in his life; I hope his beliefs were true.

[Solon]

3. My best friend thought I was an asshole when she first met me...

We partied within a group, she was invited by another of my friends, and refused to talk to me, first impression being extremely bad and all that. Now, 6 years later, we are still best friends, and will be for the rest of our lives. She's like a sister to me.

[BikeWriter]

4. Lol! Good story! I'm glad she found out you were okay.

:)

[Solon]

5. It was funny, cause at first...

I didn't know what was wrong, she simply wouldn't talk to me. We all worked at Wal*Mart at the time, and the L+G guys(us) were the party animals. Any cute girls we met from other departments were invited to the parties. Brian, one of my friends invited her, I didn't even meet her yet, at least not formally. But she ran into me at work one day, and I was in a bad mood, and when she found me at the party, she ignored me, thinking I was an asshole. After many years, moving in together(twice!) and many other ups and downs, including her moving a little further away, we are still best friends. Just this last saturday she showed up, and wanted to talk and catch up on things. She says she NEEDS me to move closer to her, she misses me, etc. See I live in the St. Louis area of Missouri, her in Springfield, Missouri. Its kinda far away, but I'm definately going there for her birthday, which is next week, she showed up for mine last year.

Just in case you were wondering, she's a Lesbian, and also, during the partying days, she picked up more chicks than anyone. She was the "Player" of the group.

Later on she told me about why she ignored me at first, I wittled down her resistance so to speak with small talk during the parties, and we became best friends.

[BikeWriter]

7. That sounds like a strong friendship you have...

It's so odd how things work out like that sometimes and other times they don't. My last best friend and I were married for fifteen years and both thought it would be forever until she fell out of love with me.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I became friends with a Tory.

I landed, quite by accident, on a British newsgroup back in the mid 90s. I was actually posing on an Irish newsgroup but there was crossposting taking place and before I could stop myself I was trapped in a four year battle of the wits with some incredibly intelligent brits, ex-pats and one New Zealander named Jeff. Admittedly, they were using wit and I was just damn angry for a very long time. However, I did learn that anger can be a conduit to very good things. I learned more in those four years about expressing myself, than I ever did in any American institution, private or public.

There was one brit in particular. If I hadn't been happily married already, I could have turned out to be an internet statistic. Anyway, it was the Gore-Bush election which brought me back stateside. Somewhere in that year that followed, I found DU.

[BikeWriter]

8. Oh, I've seen some scathing posts on British sites...

And met some remarkable Brits online. One of my oldest friends in real life here is from there. He is incredibly witty. :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Scathing, disrespectful, humiliating, arrogant, demeaning...

God, how I miss it.

But one of the more memorable lines actually came from an American. We Americans on the ng had to form some tenuous alliances to defend ourselves against these brits, who were worldly about everything, including food. They talked about recipes and ingredients all the time and a poster from California named Aurora H. gave them the barb that had us all rolling:

"Tired nuts, for tired nuts with tired nuts."

I miss you Aurora H!

(P.S. Of course, the internet being what it is, I could never truly be sure she wasn't one of the ex-pats pretending to be an American.)

[BikeWriter]

11. One of my favorite Brits made a forum on Delphi...

called "Fuck the World!" The name was the least irreverant thing about it! The Delphi Admins eventually deleted it, but not before we had some fun.

[jmm]

10. My brother and my cousins Mike and Chris

My brother and I couldn't be together for long without wanting to hurt each other until I moved away from home. I guess the distance helped because then we became good friends and a year ago purposely moved to be closer to each other.

One of the fews time we actually did team together growing up was when we were babysitting our cousins Mike and Chris. We were frequently forced to watch them and they would never behave until one day we got fed up. The only thing worse than to spoiled ritalin addicts is them at your house, destroying your property, while going through withdrawal because their mom decided to take them off of it cold turkey the night before sending them to your place for the week. They swore they hated us for mocking them while forcing them to sweat to the oldies but all we cared about is that they'd finally listen to us. As they got older they grew to become pretty cool guys. It started with the younger one. One day he accidentally sent me an IM intended for a friend that led to a long discussion about what was going on in our lives. Now we all see each other and speak often.

Other than that there are a few people who have had the wrong impression of me then changed their mind and we've became friends. Doesn't seem to happen the other way around though :shrug:.

[BikeWriter]

12. I'm glad you've become friends with your kin, Jmm!

That's the way family should be. :-)