By Rocky Wilson

When I was much younger, on Christmas mornings Mom and Dad would bundle up my sister and me and off wed go to pay Christmas visits.

Things were different then.

We notified no one we were coming, thus arriving unannounced on a joyous morning, and always experienced and shared cheer and good feelings with friends. Sometimes Chris and I would get hot chocolate and almond roca, and never were we as a family ever treated with anything other than grace and warmth.

Wed plan our visits beginning about 9:30 a.m. thinking that was an hour safe to avoid conflicts with the all-important business of opening Christmas presents and head home before noon, thus negating any chance of our hosts feeling obligated to invite us to dinner.

Wed only stay at one home for a half-hour or so and regularly visit maybe four or five households per Christmas morning.

We took no presents, received none, yet after a short number of years friends began looking forward to those Christmas visitations.

Fond memories remain.

Probably the time of year was a huge contributor to the loving ambience we felt those Christmas mornings.

Still, the simple act of friends visiting friends need not be limited to special occasions.

It seems in todays society that the act of friends visiting friends, other than to drop in and share a quick beer almost has become obsolete.

The obvious culprit is television. Countless Americans come home from work, flick on the tube, and take their shoes off for the night. Whether the programming is pleasing or not, common thought is to keep surfing channels until the least offensive television show is found and grit it out.

Cell phones now boost communication, especially among those younger in years, but whole families hopping in the car together and driving elsewhere for a friendly visit is becoming less and less prevalent.

Part of the reason for that in addition to the ease of flicking a knob, shucking shoes, and grabbing a beer has to do with the additional step such visits require in todays society.

Whereas our Christmas visits years ago occurred when people freely went to visit others without any need of forewarning, thats not necessarily standard operating procedure in our modern world. Id guess Miss Manners, or whomever controls accepted cultural practices late in the Year of our Lord 2012, most highly would recommend that a phone call precede a visit to anothers home.

But what do I know, right?

Anyway, theres a lot to be gained from getting together with special friends at their house or yours. It almost seems a formal request for others to join you and your family for a meal is required today, but it doesnt need to be that way.

When friends tell you, Drop by any time, which they often do, its no sin to take them up on their word and pay an unplanned visit when youre in their neighborhood.

Its not like youre mandated to pay a long visit, but the simple act of dropping by to see friends almost always is rewarding.

All too often in the society of today, its far easier to conjure imaginary barriers to keep us from reaching out to friends than risk being a friend.

Also, many times we become so absorbed in going fast that tending to our personal best interests gets sorely overlooked.

Theres a lot of merit to the simple phrase, Slow down and smell the roses. And for many, that might include popping in for a visit with a friend.