In my new job, I’ve been advising young men and women that they should value their true friends, because they are so rare. Cherish them, I say, because they will be the individuals you’ll count on when you need them, or when so much time passes that you can renew your relationship as if no time at all had passed.

I had the distinct pleasure just the other day of renewing my relationship with three fine men. Dennis, Mark, Tim and I got together for the first time in a decade to laugh our backsides off at some of the goofy things we did as kids and to poke fun at some of the individuals we encountered back in The Day.

I’ve known these guys about as long as I’ve known anyone. Dennis and I go back to the seventh grade, where we were enrolled in the same junior high school home room. Mark and Tim came along just a few years later, but we hit it off immediately as our paths crossed at the McDonald’s restaurant that employed all of us.

Well, we gathered once more in Portland, Ore., where we all came of age. The visit was brief, just one evening, which we spent at Tim’s brother’s house and then on to a night club in Hillsboro, a Portland suburb that used to be a country burg, but which has grown into a city of nearly 100,000 residents.

We listened to some rock-and-roll music from a band that included Tim’s brother, Jay, on the drums. I knew about Jay’s drumming skills, but saw them in the flesh for the first time just the other night. The boy can play.

Communities change, yes? But friendships – the kind the four of us have forged – remain intact. I cherish them all.