This past Saturday I had some extra time on my hands.

With restrictions that go along with COVID-19, you probably did too.

So I visited with some old friends. No, I didn’t go to anyone’s residence or even use a social media application.

I stayed at my computer.

The idea I had been percolating for some time, and Saturday was the day I implemented it.

Some people love to listen to music of which I am guilty.

Some people love to listen to different genres of music of which I am still guilty.

So, I refined my love, so to speak.

I could have gone to my go-to band, The Beatles, but that would have been easy. The Beatles are my favorite band, so to condense it to one hour would have proved too difficult.

So here lies the rub, my iTunes database contains about 33.5 days worth of music or about 54 gigabytes of information. That’s a lot to wade or even skim through. I had to come up with a better way of narrowing down of what I wanted to hear. The criteria consisted of having more than one album, having at least five popular songs, and having at least a “greatest hits” compilation. Any genre would do as well as any time period. I didn’t have too many limitations, so only a few bands would be applicable.

So I scoured my database and found many bands that fit the defined parameters.

Journey, Boston, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, REO Speedwagon, Genesis, The Police, and many more bands came up during my browsing period.

And then I settled on one band.

The band is from England, and has a good songwriting duo, who to some may seem obscure when see the names. To true music aficionados, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook have penned many catchy songs — at least in my opinion. They write songs mainly for their band Squeeze.

During mid 80s, I had heard of Squeeze, but didn’t really know that much about them. Squeeze has been labeled as a New Wave band, but I don’t think I would hang that moniker on them.

I think Squeeze was a rock band who happened to flourish during the New Wave movement of the early to mid 80s because at the end of the decade, the hair bands took over only to see the Grunge movement take hold in the early 90s.

I began writing as a music journalist in 1987-88 for The Post-Journal, and on Nov. 12 1989, they came to St. Bonaventure University. Katrina and the Waves was opening for them, and I was lucky enough to get a preview interview with her. I also received press tickets to the performance.

After that performance, it was clear that Squeeze was becoming a fast entry into my Top 10 bands. I have not stopped liking them since that show.

So, I set aside an hour and I listened to one band and only one band.

And I revisited with some old friends that I have not heard from in while. They included “Tempted,” “Hour Glass,” “Labelled With Love,” “Black Coffee In Bed,” “If It’s Love,” and of course my favorite friend of the lot, “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell).”

Of course if you want to visit with old friends, you don’t have to limit yourself to music. You can visit with works of art, books, comic books, magazines, TV shows, movies, or anything else related to the arts.