[graciegirl]

Here is an easy way to make friends for anyone just a little shy.

I did this on the second day after we landed here at our home in Hadley six years ago. We brought some card tables and chairs and a few pieces of furniture, but were not company READY.

I went around and knocked on doors and said we were going to have a coffee at our house, please come, next day. Bring chairs for driveway.

Went to Publix and bought five coffee cakes and some Styrofoam cups, etc, and they came. Maybe twenty of them, our neighbors, new too.

It was the beginning of some very beautiful friendships that have grown over time. They were people who we had never met and they have grown into people we care about.

The fear of public speaking is not the greatest fear in the U.S. I am convinced the fear of entertaining people in your home is.

Or another idea is to make a big casserole of your never fail recipe or buy a frozen Stouffers Lasagna,and ask people to bring something to share. Potlucks are common in the middle part of the country, not so much on the east coast, I have learned, but it is a great way to have a gathering and easy on everyone.

People don't mind paper plates and plastic forks. It is the getting together that matters.

Ann Landers
aka Gracie.

P.S. You get back out of life about what you are willing to put into it.
People are just as shy and scared as you are. Take the first step.
Mahjong is NOT the place to make friends. It is shh. shh. shh. You can't be friends until you talk, listen, smile and care.