It's not a good thing to be friends with people you're covering. There's just no point in doing it. It's tempting, but they're not going to consider you their friend anyway. They just know that you're somebody that can do something for them. ↗
I'll fly Away took place in the 50's and 60's in America's South, and there are a couple of scenes where me and my friends are supposed to be skinny dipping with these girls. ↗
I visited those friends who'd just had a baby, and she was washing dishes and he was cleaning the house, and I burst with happiness. And in their minds, they were in this terrible domestic rut. ↗