LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Keeping a friendship alive after decades apart is no easy task.
However, a group of friends who grew up together in California proved that no matter how much time has passed, their friendship will always stay the same.
Earlier this month FOX5 met with Sheila Chamberlain, Janice Hill, Geneva Nettles, Betty Ann Loggins and Peggy Johnson.
The group of five friends had reunited in Las Vegas after 74 years.
During their stay, FOX5 met with the group at Boulder Station as they reminisced on their past.
The showed us school pictures from the 8th grade and revealed that was the last time they were all together- which was the year 1951.
“Didn’t we write each other,” Peggy asked the group.
As social media and smart phones changed the dynamic of how we communicate, this Vegas reunion for the group became a reality for the friends who are now spread across the country.
The ladies described their reunion as “emotional.”
“They don’t seem like friends they seem like long lost family,” Geneva said.
When asked what stopped them from meeting all these years, the group said they each had their own families. Many of them were married while they were still teens.
“I think some of was were married some of us weren’t, husbands working didn’t want to leave without our husbands didn’t want to come without them,” Sheila said.
However, in the last 74 years they have each lost their husbands and had to navigate their grief without on their own.
“I lost three, and I kicked the 4th one out,” Geneva said.
This was a reminder of how the group always leaned on each other.
“One time we was playing baseball and a smart aleck girl comes up to bat, and Sheila was the catcher and I was out in the center field and that smart little girl came up and hit her with the bat. I threw my mit down and I ran from center field all the way to first base and I just beat the stuffing out of that girl,” Geneva said.
From having each other’s back to rebelling, the group was in it together.
“We wore jeans and that was a no no back in the day we had to stay after school,” Peggy said.
Then there was a time when they snuck into a drive in theater.
“I got caught in the trunk,” Peggy said.
“Those were the good days,” Geneva said.
When the ladies were not at school, they told FOX5 how they would walk down to the only milkshake shop in town, and they would use a nickel to use the juke box.
Their favorite song was “How much is that doggy in the window.”
The ladies flew back to their respective homes after spending five days together and tell FOX5 they hope to reunite once a year.
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