Knowing Me, Knowing You..and other ABBA-like thoughts

Today's topic for discussion, my little chickens...does anyone really "know" you?

Whatever do I mean, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

Unless you are a complete sociopath, you have at least 1 person you can call a "friend". My question to you - how well does this person actually know you? Is "getting to know" a person something that we gradually accomplish over time....months... years? Or can you genuinely "know" someone if you only recently met them, no matter how much time you spend together?

Case in point. (You knew this was coming.)

I don't personally keep in touch with any of my childhood friends. For the sake of discussion, "childhood" includes ages 1 to 18, okay? Anyhow, other than the occasional "Girl! Look at you!" in the grocery store, or "Girl! What up?" on facebook, I don't have a childhood bosom buddy. My closest friend in high school officially disowned me a while back, which frankly was no big loss. In fact, I've been blackballed to the point that if I use my home pc to look at her blog, a big screen pops up and tells me to "Go **** Yourself." Classy, huh. Can you believe that? And I'm such a nice person, too.

If you don't know what those little asterisks mean, go rent "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints", as every character with a speaking role in that movie says that word at least 5600 times.

So, nobody remembers what I was like as a kid.

Moving onto young adulthood - I have one friend that I keep in touch with via facebook and this blog ("Girl! What up?" again) from my late teens-early 20's. She didn't know me before then, and I haven't seen her since 1991. Our conversations primarily consist of reminiscing about our Navy days.

So, nobody remembers what I was like as a young adult. This might actually be a blessing, come to think of it.

In my 20's, I moved back to my hometown and took a job in city hall. My circle of friends consisted almost entirely of people from my church and my coworkers. I left that job 7 years ago, and that church shortly after. I don't really keep in touch with those people much, either. The man I married at 18 left me when I was 29 (boy, now that would make a doozey of a blog post).

So, there goes my 2o's and my early 30's.

My current circle of friends have ALL known me for less than 7 years. Most have known me for less than 3. They don't know my childhood - young adult life - 20's - except for what I've chosen to tell them.

I remarried in 2003, and I think the dog knows more about me than my husband.

So, I put the question to you again, dear reader - how well do these people actually "know" me? How much of a person's history must you know in order to figure them out??

Your turn. What do you think?