They May Be Just Acquaintances. They’re Important to You Anyway.

Ilze Earner, 67, retired final yr after 25 years of instructing at Hunter College in Manhattan. Life in rural Claverack, N.Y., had its satisfactions and friendships, however after just a few months, “I started feeling like I was missing something,” she mentioned. She started taking herself to lunch weekly, sitting on the bar on the close by Chatham House.

Soon, the bartender had discovered her title (and vice versa) and of her love of lobster rolls. Ms. Earner gained a bar-top recreation of ice dice bocce in opposition to the freeway crew who additionally got here in for lunch. “They noticed when I disappeared because I had a knee replacement, and when I came back it was, ‘Hey, bionic woman!’” she recalled. “It’s nice.”

In Placerville, Calif., David Turoff, 72, a veterinarian, chats along with his mail service and UPS deliveryman, and generally drops in on the mechanic who repairs his truck simply to say hiya or go away a present of firewood. “They make me feel good,” Mr. Turoff mentioned of such transient interactions. “I like having connections with people.”

Toby Gould’s day begins with a 7 a.m. go to to Chez Antoine, a bakery and occasional store in Hyannis, Mass. Mr. Gould, 77, a retired minister, buys a takeout latte and speaks French, haltingly, with the Belgian proprietor, who bestows a slice of ham on Mr. Gould’s Australian shepherd, Layla. If the store closed, “it would leave a hole in my life,” Mr. Gould mentioned.

Weak ties, together with these developed on-line, don’t essentially flip into shut ones and don’t should. Close relationships, in spite of everything, can contain conflicts, calls for for reciprocity and different issues.