Pleasures of friendship

I had a telephone call today from a friend. Nothing unusual in that I hear someone say. Well, in this case there was. My caller was someone I first met just about ten years ago and last met over six years ago. A male work colleague. I never formed the opinion that we were close friends but my work strayed into his area of responsibility and vice versa. We would attend corporate hostility things together because that is how we were invited. I suppose the only shared personal interests we had were dogs and photography.
What struck me as unusual today was that he referred to himself as an 'old friend'. Back when we saw each other regularly, I regarded him as more of a acquaintance at work than as a friend. It was just as easy to get along with him as it was to fall out or be at loggerheads. Working relationships jog along better within a friendly atmosphere and the Bosses are happier. My caller today gave the reason that he was updating an old contacts list and seeing my name prompted him to call.
After we finished speaking with the usual protestations that we would do better at maintaining contact I started thinking just who else might call proclaiming we were brothers in arms. Obviously, family - mine and Norma's - were included. Other than the kids I have no family above ground. Norma's people were many but they are whittling down as age bites. There is a young woman who worked as one of my mail clerks whom I pushed up the promotion ladder very quickly. She writes at Christmas and on my birthday. That was about the sum total of friends I had made in civilian life stretching back to 1974. Friends? Hardly. I prefer a solitary life and am well able to live life on my own without a network of supporters - so far that is.
But, curiously, I do have a number of people whom I regard as very valuable and staunch. These are guys who were in the Army with me. Our friendship started over fifty years ago. Some of them I have not seen for thirty or so years. We may not have spoken in that thirty odd years. It could be that I would not now recognise them should we meet by chance. Where I have met some more recently, we pick up as if we were together just a few days previously. Instant sunshine.
I cannot work out just what makes these Service pals so very much more attractive and durable than people I met as a civilian. It is not as if we went through any great cathartic experience together. Maybe, as other ranks, we shared a dislike of officers and their doings but even this dislike was never very strong. Certainly not enough to bind us as we did. I take part in a forum with five or six of these guys and we banter about things way way back in the same style and manner as we did when we actually saw each other more frequently.
Whatever it is, this is what I understand as friendship. I think I have satified myself why I was amazed at my caller regarding himself as a friend. He lacked the sort of friends I have and was having to do with second or third best.