Tag Archives: travel

Friends who knew you when……

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It is a very odd feeling when you find a person from your past, one that you shared so much with. To find a friend from a far off is a double blessing, they knew you when. Lately I have been blessed with this occurrence and even though there is fear that it will end with a bit of a let down, the attempt is very “worth it!” For me it was a good thing…no let down…whew!

One of may BFF’s from my high school/college years has moved very close to me now. I had not set eyes on her since her marriage day! I was one of her maids in a row, so to speak, and it was a happy day although bittersweet.  I lost my friend. Our time was one of high school and college  sororities and fraternities, Friday night dances at the Agricultural Center and the best cover bands ever. It actually seemed like they were the real Earth, Wind and Fire! All the football jocks on the front lines dancing in unison, couples pictures for which most of us have saved….a real testimony to a calmer time. The thought of acting the fool never really occurred to us. (ok well, maybe some did, but is wasn’t the rule!)

For a time I even lived with her and her Mom at their home, a home for which at that time was a HUGE HOUSE! But now, oddly enough, it’s not so big…going back is always weird that way. During our sophomore year at Middle TN State University in Murfreesboro, TN we took a spur of the moment road trip at spring break to Daytona Beach, Florida. Three girls in a lite blue VW Bug taking off listening to Paul McCartney and Wings …..Silly Love Songs about a zillion times and even Barry Manilow! He was big back then..it was the ’70’s!

WE HAD A BLAST! I was pretty much a home body girl. I had never ventured out, my Mom tended to not allow this kind of running off! I convinced her this time…somehow….probably because they were girls she knew and trusted….fatal parent flaw! Actually it was pretty okay…we were good girls…besides the fact for …..which I had forgotten the details until I had asked my friend….a few of our hometown friends (boys) went also and had nowhere to stay and after they spent the first nite sleeping in their car…begged to share our room!! Oh my!

It worked out well…they slept all day and left and never came back at night and we went to the beach all day and slept at nite…wonder what those boys were up to? hmmm? Oh well, best I not know! I shudder to think of what I would have done if my kids had done all that…..well let me correct that…I am not that naive…I shudder to think of them telling me of all their escapades!!

That is for another day! Please spare me any details!

Ahhhh youth….Fun to remember it all since we usually only remember the fun parts….we survived and got home safe..all that counts. The best part of our reacquainting of our friendship is we are still good! It was as if we had been talking all these long thirty plus years….ugh can that be? Can it be that long?……yes it is and she is as sweet and kind as she ever was, I felt the same comfort with her as I did back then and that is the joy of being known as I was known. She knows all my past.

She is like my sisters, she calls me a nickname, one that I do not let anyone else call me!! I can’t stand it from other people…sounds so stupid….but my sisters and her and really any of those old friends..they are the only ones allowed, they are the only ones that knew me then….gangly, backward and immature for my age. I tried to hide it but I was scared to death…growing up was frightful and if I was gonna survive I had to do it.

Durime and kim 1ng our college years we were little sisters in different faternities…we both were snobby of the sororities.me and kim ole' south..we weren’t stupid either….why hang out with a bunch of girls when you could be treated like a doll with all the guys? We had two of the houses covered, a team on the look out for that special someone. I still was just an Ordinary Girl but I had some good friends that got me through it all. Sometimes the looking back in remembrance is a good thing and re visiting friends who knew you when…..when life was just plain old fun.

I love you my dearest friend…and any of you who made me the person I am today…thanks for hanging with me…I loved every minute!

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June…here we go!

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SO the month of June is upon us and for me it is the beginning of real summer. Today is the beginning of all things summer…hot days, flip-flops, old lady shorts (pedal pushers) as well as “happy hour” at SONIC! Gotta love them cherry lime-aides! Yes, it has happened…I am not cool any more.

This does not come to me as a surprise…I felt it coming….creaking joints, pain in the back, and gray hair. I can take it all except the gray hair. I am not willing to give into that one. Gotta keep it colored. Makes since why my mom did it..now! Back in the day I was pushing April to wear flip flops…even if my toes were a bit chilly, I was there. Then cut-off jean shorts and a raggedy tee-shirt and I was good to go. Now days I usually schlep around in corrective looking sandals and pedal pushers with a “big” shirt as to cover that “oh so spacious” acreage around the middle. OH Lordy!!

June is the place of beginnings…schools out and time to have fun…lay by the pool, put SunIn in my hair and listen to top forty on the radio. But that was a long time ago and I am not so sure girls do that anymore….the Sun-In and top forty radio. They have become so sophisticated now….foiled hair and IPods are the choices now! At least June has stayed the same.

June bugs are a cool product of June as well as all the fat yellow and black striped bumble bees. Have there ever been a more cute insect? Considering the word insect I think not. Maybe a Caterpillar because of the fuzzy factor but not really because of the wormy-ness too close to its ancestor the snake. Also, June is the month you start to hear the ice cream truck. Yesterday, probably as a pre-June trial run, I heard the music way in the distance and it made me smile.

June is also a good month for a picnic. The heat is usually not as hot as in July and August so this is the best time for a picnic. Later in the year it will be unbearable. I actually mean the ones that are in the backyard, under a tree with the wind blowing, laying on your back watching the leaves twirl. There is no more peaceful a place than on a quilt laying under the trees. Unless you are fortunate to have a hammock that is. Now that is livin’!

June is also a good time to shop for back to school clothes..shorts that is. They are on sale about now and good to start the hot new year. In Tennessee it is hot right up through Halloween most of the time, so we wear summer clothes till we are sick of them. We can’t wait for that first cool crisp evening and the turning of the leaves. (oops different month!)

So to wrap up this frivolous homage to June, I will end with a hope and a wish. I hope everyone takes the time to picnic under the trees, while the grass is still fresh and green, take your shoes off and let your feet breath and walk in the crispness. Take caution for the June bugs but are brave enough to catch one, tie a thread around its leg and play….I suppose that may be not so PC! Would that go under the heading of endangerment to insects? If so forgive me and do not do it. Just enjoy watching them buzz along with the Bumble Bees….look for Zenia’s they love those!

Now on to a wish….a wish for summer to last as long as it did when I was a kid. It was nearly six months worth or it felt like it. If not that then, for the summer to be FUN! We all need a bit of FUN! I revel in the summer sun and it is a commodity I wish could be bottled up. If only I could, to take away those ugly, sad, cold winter months. No matter how hot it is it is never as bad as the cold…bitter cold of winter.

So June….here we go, oh how I adore thee!

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May Day! May Day!

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Usually the words…may day are screamed from the top of the lungs of a radio operator on a spiraling to the earth jet plane or an underwater submarine that is being attacked, or at least that’s what I attribute it to. This is a hold over from all those times my daddy would watch old black and white movies about war. As bad as I hated those movies, I loved him at home. Since he was always working either at his job or on our farm, something was always having to be fixed; he was rarely in doors just watching TV.

May Day!  was a distress signal…a call for help…but you knew it wouldn’t end well. It would always be such a stressful call for this poor guy who knew the end was near. Today I see it as a sign of summer, the beginning of the end of the school year, the end of my last child’s Freshman year.

How did this happen? He was just born wasn’t he? Our precious little family mascot, so to speak. He was the love of all our lives. When he was born he was nine years after the last one…..a definite caboose! Now we are enduring the end of course tests then final exams. This will be a busy month for him. May is the transition month.

This is the slow swing into the Summer. I will never forget the old saying….March winds a’ blowin’, April Showers bring May flowers! Someday when I too have succumb to great memory loss…(who am I kidding, I am already there!!) I will forever remember that saying. It is like the “It’s a Small World after all” song at Walt Disney World. Once you hear it…it is there for life.

This transition month is the safe time to plant flowers…usually no more harsh weather although, who knows these days. I love May Day! It is a day of freedom. Since I HATE, (yes I said HATE….in ALL CAPS!) Winter, the worst possible time of year, I am thrilled when we get to May Day! The first day of May…ahhhh! What a perfect day. Sunshine and green grass …..before the Sun has scorched away all the pretty vegetation. I know it will happen but, even though it is hot I still like it better than cold cruel winter.

So for this one day in May I will shout to the top of my lungs like a desperate radio operator about to perish....MAY DAY! MAY DAY! What a wonderful time of year! What is to some a sound of pure terror…..to me is is a call to enjoy! Can’t beat that!