Back in the day, Kerrie (Koda) Freitas would hang out with her friends from Moanalua Intermediate on the weekends.

Sometimes they'd go to Skateland in Pearl City or Mitsukoshi in Waikiki.

After school, they munched on Mexi-Fries at Taco Time or played Galaga and Moon Cresta at Tilt near Gibson's.

It was the life.

Fast-forward 30 years, and Freitas hasn't changed much.

She's still the gregarious, outgoing ball of energy she was back in seventh grade.

Just older, busier and without the feathered hair.

"Personality-wise, I haven't changed. But in other ways, I have," said Freitas, who runs her own printing company, Prism Creations, along with raising two kids in Kalihi. "You go through so many life experiences after high school. ... That's when you really know who your true friends are. They are always there for you."

It's not hard to make friends as kids. The opportunities are everywhere: in homeroom, on the soccer field, next door.

But it can be difficult to maintain these friendships over time, to keep the ties strong through the inevitable life changes as we get older.

We develop different interests and find new friends. We move to different cities or start families.

Life — and everything that goes along with it — gets a little more complicated, a little more time-consuming.

And you find less and less time for friends.

Especially ones from way back when.

But there's something about Hawai'i — could be an Island thing — that fosters these lifelong friendships, the ones that go back to the days of catching crayfish in the neighborhood stream or playing Chinese jump rope in the playground.

Add to that a little '80s flair, and these friends are bonded for life.

"Hawai'i is unique like that," said Shawn Nakamoto, 41, a communications services manager at Kamehameha Schools who still keeps in touch with her friends from Leilehua High. "We're more connected to our high school group than to our college group ... It was such a fun time. I'd never, ever go back, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Best times of my life."

INSEPARABLE FRIENDS

Lynn (Oda) Au Yuen, Vina (Roqueta) Marcello and Julia Takushi have been inseparable since the sixth grade at Jarrett Intermediate.

They did practically everything together, from buying Chico Sticks at Palolo Sundries to waiting for the Manapua Man outside the band room after school.

When they were really bored, the trio would hop on the bus — only 10 cents, then — and ride around Palolo for hours, just talking and laughing.

Nothing changed when they went to Kaimuki High, despite their different interests: Takushi played basketball and softball, Marcello was a cheerleader and Au Yuen twirled flags.

"That actually brought us closer together," said Takushi, who still lives in Palolo. "We'd always come back to each other."

Their weekends were spent cruising at Kahala Mall or crashing proms.

And when it came time for Marcello and Au Yuen to leave for the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, they couldn't bear leaving Takushi behind.

In fact, they missed their flight.

"We couldn't leave Julia," said Marcello, who's now married with a 3-year-old daughter in 'Ewa Beach. "We were just crying and crying. That's when you know."

Marcello and Au Yuen sold their meal tickets — at the time, worth around $500 — to come home every weekend. Their parents never knew.

"We were so bad," Marcello said, laughing.

Through the years, the friends have been through everything together, including breakups, marriage, divorce, kids, surgeries and the recent death of Marcello's father.

Now 39, their friendship couldn't be stronger.

"We have a really neat chemistry," said Au Yuen, who's married with three kids in Wai'alae Iki. "We have a bond. We just love each other so much."

CHANGING TIMES

Those who grew up in the '80s know times have changed.

And they're not talking about roller-skating and poppin'.

"It was an easier time in life," said Ronald Keith, a 38-year-old real-estate man and evangelist from Kane'ohe who graduated from Moanalua High in '85. "It was safer, different."

Freitas and her friends could walk around the haunted Morgan's Corner in Nu'uanu and through cemeteries — at night.

"Not anymore," said her friend Lorrie (Paik) Wong.

The gang from Kaimuki still wonder how they ever made it through high school and college without getting hurt or arrested.

"I don't know how we survived," said Marcello, who marvels at her own stories. "I don't know how we got home sometimes. That's the scary part."

The three friends would hit the disco five times a week. It started with Beach Night at The Point After on Wednesday nights and ended at Rumours on Sundays.

They have stories about sleeping in their cars, hiding in bathrooms and frantically searching for Au Yuen's cheap spoon ring on the floor at a party.

Their theme song: Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."

It was a bonding experience. But beyond that, they're just thankful no one got hurt.

"Maybe we were just naive at that time," Marcello said. "Now it's so different. Times have really changed."

Yet with all the drama around them, the three friends have never had a single fight. Not one.

"We understand each other, and we try to help each other rather than fight," Marcello said. "We don't jump to conclusions. We try to help each other out."

They don't talk as much as they used to. But they know a friend is just a phone call away.

"Wherever we left off, we just continue from there," Marcello said. "And it's OK."

They try to meet at least once a month, usually at Yanagi Sushi or Assaggio at Ala Moana Center — always somewhere with food.

Though now they're busy with husbands, kids and careers, they do have one tradition that they've managed to maintain: Christmas at Julia's.

Marcello and Au Yuen sneak into Takushi's bedroom in Palolo — they know where the spare key is — and wake her up with presents. Now their kids come, too.

"It's become our ritual," Marcello said, smiling.

At their 20th high school reunion recently, classmates were shocked they were all still friends. Close friends.

"We were always together," Marcello said. "We've been through a lot — too much, maybe — with each other."

Then she smiled: "It's scary."

NOSTALGIA COUNTS

Many people think fondly about high school. They recall proms and graduation parties, band trips and homecoming.

So it's not surprising, then, people connect their friends to these happy, nostalgic times.

"You're going through physical changes; emotionally, you're growing up. And these are the people who are going with you through your personal hurricane," said Nancy White, head of La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls, which sees a tight-knit graduating class of about 30 every year. "That's why (the friendships forged here) are so poignant and so deep. You're finding out who you are."

Glenn Gushi, a 38-year-old electrician from Salt Lake, is part of a big-but-bonded group from Moanalua Intermediate.

In high school, he broke away from the group, hanging out with his new football and band friends instead.

But the girls — Freitas, Wong and Pam Inoue — stayed close, writing long letters in class and talking on the phone for hours. They'd hang out in Mr. Kuri-shige's classroom and helped out with class fundraisers.

They even joined the Leo Club — "I still don't even know what that is," Inoue said, laughing — just to go on a trip to Maui.

There were never any major fights or scandals, no boyfriend-stealing or back-stabbing.

But as they've gotten older, they've all grown apart. Some moved away, others got married.

But somehow — through weddings and baby showers — they managed to keep in touch.

"There was always something that kept us together," said Wong, a registered nurse who's married with two kids in Salt Lake. "We've just known each other for so long."

It was their 20th reunion this year that pulled the friends closer.

Just about everyone from the group — including Gushi and Keith — got involved in the reunion planning.

And it was amazing — and nice — how some things just never change.

"Once you get around the same crowd, it's like you become that person again," Gushi said. "They bring out that youth and adolescence. You can play and have fun, and no one takes you seriously ... We're our old selves."

That's how Nakamoto felt when she started her job at Kamehameha Schools — with her Leilehua classmate Thomas Yoshida.

She was starting a new job with a new company — but now, with a familiar face.

"It's definitely made working here a lot easier," said Nakamoto, who still meets up with her classmates — some from elementary school — a few times a year. "It's made me feel a lot more comfortable being here. Part of that is the history we have."

For Kurt Arakawa, though, he didn't bond with his Baldwin High friends until college.

They were all assigned to the same dorm — Mokihana — at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

They quickly starting hanging out, playing intramural basketball and even organizing a game of tag on campus.

"We did everything together," said Arakawa, 41, a network engineer living in Salt Lake. "We all bonded because we were living on our own. That was a huge thing."

And in some ways, the decade has tied these friends together. They all reminisce about the '80s, from the Members Only jackets to the drive-in theaters that are no longer around.

Having this shared history — and fond memories — only strengthens their friendships, they said.

"You can not see each other for 10 years," Gushi said. "And when you come together, everything's the same."

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.