48 years. Met the guy in 1960 when we were students in Chicago; we were roommates for one year. We've always kept in touch, and I dropped in to visit for a couple of days on my vacation in the summer of '82. He was booked up one of those evenings, so he set me up with a date for that time slot; the upshot of that was he was best man for that young lady and me, in December '83. The young lady didn't want to move to Chicago, where I was living, so I moved here. When we shopped for a house, we ended up within half a mile of said oldest buddy. Still see him often, but i don't see as much of him as I do of the lady he introduced me to...