Not sure what I'm supposed to find true, Maryanne. I'm not convinced that age is a factor. There are other differences between my parents generation and mine... and mine and my sons, even. As society becomes more mobile, friends as well as family end up scattered all over the globe. My Father's friends all grew up in the same town, married home town girls, worked in local factories, hung out at the same bar, hunt and fished together and knew each other most of their lives. I had a circle of friends that lasted through high school, then mostly a different set of friends in college, another set of friends when I went to graduate school in New York and succeeding groups of friends as I moved, right up until the present. Looking at my grown sons, they seem to have a similar pattern. Seems to me that how many friends someone has is more dependent upon how willing someone is to open up, be out-going and be comfortable with a certain level of vulnerability. I don't think that has much to do with generational differences or age.