A lot of meals and secrets shared in 20 years of walks

Twenty of so years ago, my friend Marilyn and I decided we did not want to die young. Not that we were so young at the time, but in our mid-40s we figured we might be able to add a few good years to whatever our lifespan would be, by taking up walking.

So, for 20 or so years, we have met once a week for a brisk 3-mile walk. And the benefits have been extraordinary.

Not only are we still in reasonably good health, but our friendship has been forever cemented by the secrets we have revealed to each other over the years while walking.

Our walks vary, but not by much. One week I drive to her Newport Beach neighborhood and we walk “the island” -- Balboa Island, for the uninitiated. We stare in the windows of the wonderful houses along the waterfront. We watch as houses are renovated or torn down. And surprisingly, considering the many years we’ve been doing this, once a house disappears, we can’t remember what the original looked like. Memory fails, I guess.

The next week she drives to my house in Irvine, and we walk along the railroad path, waving to trains as they pass. Once in a while, a friendly conductor toots his horn. We’re like children, and that’s part of the fun.

And we laugh, often at our own expense.

A few years ago, during a lull in conversation, we got onto the heady subject of finances. She remarked that the Dow was down that morning, and I said I had heard it was just a momentary blip and experts were predicting the market would be back up the next day.

A few seconds later, I turned to her and asked if she knew what the Dow was.

“No,” she said, “what is it?”

“I haven’t a clue,” I said. We laughed at the idea that we had been speaking as if we knew what we were talking about.

Besides the shared secrets and laughter, we get one other pleasure from our walks: breakfast.

When we first started our weekly treks, we were working women, walking in the evenings, after which we would go to dinner.

Now that we are retired, we walk in the mornings, although not too early, and have rediscovered the pleasure of breakfast.

Once a week, we allow ourselves this treat, always at Denny’s, where the senior menu fits our needs and many of the staff have come to recognize us as we order a big glass of iced coffee, regardless of the weather.

The walk that used to take us about 45 minutes now takes 50 to 55 minutes. But we also have more to talk about, since we have, in that time, acquired grandchildren.

Walking, in itself, is a totally boring waste of time. But with a friend, particularly one with whom you have shared things no one else should know, it takes on a whole new meaning.

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Myra Neben lives in Irvine. For 28 years, she was editor of Leisure World News in Laguna Woods, and for about 10 of those years, she wrote a weekly column for the publication.