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Just as important as family is the stability that close friends bring. William Bender, 71, a retired journalism professor at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., winces at the thought of abandoning his circle of friends for the Sun Belt. Bender joins about seven or eight pals for a lunch date every month. And Friday afternoons there is bratwurst and "a lot of beers" with a dozen friends at a local German restaurant called the Hofbrau. Bender, a widower with two grown daughters, enjoys attending concerts and other cultural events at Bradley. Although he says he could probably make friends anywhere, he insists that he wouldn't want to trade in his Peoria crowd for even the mildest of winters. Says he: "With all the different towns and cities that are out there for you to live in during your later years, sometimes you wind up finding that the grass is greener right on your own front yard."