Happy Birthday to 2 important people in my life. My *ahem* younger sister turns 43 today. Happy Birthday baby sister, love you.
As tradition will have it, I will call her and sing Happy Birthday. Just something silly we all do for(or is that "to") each other. I would imagine it's rather grueling to sit and listen to my warbling on the other end of the line, lol.
The second birthday is of my childhood friend Lee. Lee and I attended "Junior High" (as it was called back-in-the-day!) together, 7-9th grade. I've moved 20 or so times since then (and 4 times before then!), but we managed to stay in touch, albeit briefly, over the years. Christmas cards almost every year and I "almost" never fail to send her a birthday card. Does she need to know that since it's my baby sister's same b'day that it's impossible for me to forget? lol
Lee was a voracious reader in school. She read all those big, fat books. I read the smaller ones, and nearly not as many. Lee always sat behind me in classes, alphabetically, her name was always right behind mine. I was the Ba, she the Bu. No comment. She was fond of a tweed jumper, a navy blouse, navy opaques and hushpuppy tie-ups. She had a very wonderful family, and parents I adored, I'd stop on the way to school to pick her up, as we continued to walk the 2 blocks to school. Her father loved to tease, and I always knew that's what father's were supposed to be like. Her huge family ate at a long table, and always had laughter and love just briming. I was struggling with family issues at that time, and her place just gave me a huge sense of normalcy. We were in band together, hung around with the same few friends and chose the same pattern for our Spring Formal dress (by mistake!). We would sing in the hallway at school and had chosen Winnie The Pooh nicknames for our close group. I have no idea who was who, sorry. We were in the Flint Junior Symphony together. We'd skate on her frozen back yard ice rink...w0nderful memories.
My mouth got me in trouble more than once, can you imagine I got in trouble for talking? Humpf! Once while chatting to Lee, Mr. Mobley grabbed me and my desk (in one piece) and slid me out into the hall so he could conduct his class. I cried. I was mortified. I likely ever uttered a word in his class again. That's my style.
She's still my best friend, in my mind. She must be a wonderful mother and wife. I could imagine myself sharing many a cup of coffee at the kitchen table, if we were neighbors.
Love you Lee, wherever you are. Thanks for being a HUGE part of my life.
Aren't flashbacks fun? *sigh*
7 comments:
Flashbacks ARE fun. Happy Birthday to your baby sister (mine is 43 also) and to your best friend Lee.
I "got" your post completely. I too spent a lot of time in the bosom of 2 families while growing up. They were ports in the storm of unhappy home life when I was an adolescent. I guess they didn't object too much--they probably knew their homes were good places for me to be. Over the past 10 years I've finally lost the threads, but I still have a lot of love in my heart for those two girls.
Amazing how a child can find a haven and how many families out there provide that place for them.
Now I am sure that you are a great singer and she enjoyed every minute of it..........I think.......maybe?
Have a great long weekend!!!
Flashbacks are fun -- thanks for sharing yours!
Very interesting story. I've always wondered if those wonderful TV-type families ever really existed--all the ones I ever saw were disfunctional.
This was sweet.
A pox on Mr. Mobley. His response to teenage chatter was a bit much.
Mr. Mobley must have taken "effective teaching" classes with one of my elementary school teachers who dragged me by my hair out into the hall because I was talking too much. It hurt!
Post a Comment