“Welcome to the party” the charming hostess would say to her guests who just arrived. “Let me introduce you to some of the other guests”.
The introductions would proceed in a warm and casual manner “This is Conrad and his family who works with my husband”, “This is Abernathy and his family, Abernathy went to College with my husband”, “This is Hannah and her family, Hannah is our sister in law and was a bridesmaid at our wedding”. “This is Leo and his family, our neighbor down the street”.
Inevitably the hostess would come to a family and say “This is Bob and his family, Bob has been friends with my husband since they were little, they first met in first grade at St. Alberts and have remained friends ever since”.
“Thats amazing” the guest would say, “to have a unique friend like that since first grade, I lost contact with my first grade class ages ago”.
The hostess would respond “yes its a very special friendship, in fact, here is another unique friendship – Joe and his family who have been friends with my husband since they were little, meeting at St. Alberts in first grade, and here is another unique friendship with Michael and his family who also has been friends with my husband since they were little at first grade”. The hostess was knew she was sounding a little winded and redundant repeating the same line over and over so she began shortening the introduction. “This is Tom and his family, he is also a little friend from first grade, and Mike and his family, another little friend from St. Alberts. In fact that whole group over there are ‘little friends'”.
As the party progressed, the guests would mingle and some would introduce themselves to this group and say “I heard you are ‘little friends’ with the host”. The spouses of the “group from St Alberts” took note of this term ‘little friends’ and decided to use it when they hosted a party. The term ‘little friends’ being said was certainly a lot quicker than saying “__________ is a friend of my husband who has known him since first grade at St. Alberts and they have remained friends ever since.” over and over again to their guests.
Thus from that day sometime in the 80’s, whenever any alumni from the St. Albert class of ’75 got together, they were simply known as the “little friends”.
