Three Friends and No. 63

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Three Friends...Forty Two Years Apart

Three Friends Over Time.

Forty two years ago these three girls spent Spring Break in San Miguel de Allende. It was our senior year of high school. I spearheaded the trip because I had been going to San Miguel for six years already and wanted to share this magical place with my friends. 

Me and Mary 

Mary and Emily                                                 

We went by TRAIN! Overnight in a sleeping car  from Nuevo Laredo to a field NEAR San Miguel. Someone picked us up I guess. I don't really remember. I do know another friend's uncle drove us back to the train stop and we sat in the back of his truck, drinking beer and nibbling on crackers in the middle of this field, until the train came. Frequently I look back and wonder how I knew how to do this stuff.    

Waiting for the train. 

In a field. 

With cocktails. 

Of course. 

The train trip was memorable mostly for the flasher who was outside of our window in Monterrey. We were stopped for over an hour and this lovely gentleman in his official flasher raincoat stood outside our window putting on a show. One of us- no names will be named- stayed glued to the window screaming "O my God! Look what he's doing now. O no. Don't look."  And if we tried to peek, she pushed us away so we didn't interfere with her view.  

While there, we shopped. 

We ate street food.

Mary takes her chances with some churros.

We went to the bars and met handsome Mexican boys. 

Me and Eduardo. 

I believe we also talked those boys into buying us drinks.

And dancing. 

Even in 1974 there were photo bombers.

Fingers and toes were painted. 

 Apparently that red shirt got passed around. 

The day after I got home from Mexico 

I fell off a horse and broke that leg...

And then we came home, graduated and grew apart. We went to different schools in different states or - in my case- a different country.     

I have seen these ladies at high school reunions and a funeral over the last 40ish years. Possibly five times total. (More really, but not much.)

Last Monday we had lunch. 

A three and a half hour lunch. 

So much has changed yet so little.  

Mary, Emily, Me. 

No handsome Mexican men to buy us cocktails this time. 

And we've improved with age, no? 

It is now irrelevant which "groups" we are in and surprisingly we all expressed the fact that we felt marginal/invisible/unimportant in high school even though that wasn't true.  Perceptions. 

They are extremely talented and hard working women. While I have loved my life and think going to school in Mexico certainly formed me, I do occasionally regret not getting a degree. I just couldn't settle on what I wanted to be when I grew up. I'm still wrestling with that. 

And this lunch was at a new restaurant for me so there's another notch on No. 63's belt. 

We ate at Seasons 52 in Houston City Centre.  Fabulous crab cakes and salads.  We were a boring group and basically all had the same meal. Only the salads varied. No worries. Our meals were fresh and delicious. 

The best part of the day? A phrase which came up and I have co-opted as my rallying cry for the year, the decade, the rest of my life.  

"I'm in." 

Works, doesn't it? 

No. 35: Part Two: That 40th High School Reunion + a Birthday

No. 35: Part Two: The 40th High School Reunion Pics 

I went to my 40th High School Reunion. But first I reminisced and posted lovely high school photos of some of my friends from 40 years ago. While I was at the party Saturday night, I did my best to get pics of those same people.

Some comparisons....

Curtis in 1974

Curtis

(With Lisa Laird Married Name that I Don't Know) 

and Brown

 And here's Brown in 1974 

with Carol that is no longer with us.

Brown and I talked about how much we wish she were still here. 

So both of these guys are looking pretty good. The hair isn't as long but at least they still have some!!

Right? 

Me with Mary in 1974

Me with Mary now.

I think Mary looks almost exactly the same, just shorter hair. And both of our faces are thinner. 

What's up with that? 

Me with Emily.  

Wish I had gotten a better pic of her. 

I swear she looks better now than then.

Half of Brown, Me, Emily and Kevin, back in the day.

Here's Bobby/Bob and Kevin now. 

They are just as adorable as ever except with, again, shorter hair. 

And Bobby then. We need to know his secret. 

You know, the "never age secret". 

 Sally, Me, Liddy- 1974

Me, Sally, Liddy- 2014

Sorry we are a little blurry- cell phone pics.

I believe we have all gotten blonder. 

Imagine that!

 Tricia then.

Me and Tricia now.

This was about the 7th selfie we tried taking...I had to break out the reading glasses just to see what we were doing. Both of us were pretty close to hysterical.  For some reason we just 

couldn't get it right. Some alcoholic beverages may have been consumed at this point.

Anyway, same smile, same fun person.

Tricia with Martha/Ann

Lynn, Peggy, Martha now Ann, Allison, Anne, Liddy, Me

And in the back middle we have Martha/Ann again, looking not one day older.

Did Robert E. Lee have something really magical in the water fountains? 

And just because- me and Liddy enjoying the night. 

We were good at that then, 

still good at that now.

The guys haven't aged. The girls haven't aged. The years have been good to all of us.

Thank goodness. 

Love them all. So happy I got to visit.

Thanks for indulging my stroll down memory lane.

No. 35 is officially complete.

AND.....

Today is 9/11.   For most that day is a day of remembrance, a sad day when many lives were lost senselessly.
For me it is my middle child's birthday along with my handsome soon-to-be-wed nephew's birthday.
A reminder that while there is evil in the world, there are also reasons to rejoice.
Happy happy birthday Belle and Brian.

Hard to believe that this baby...

 Born with a full head of black hair...

became this baby...

and turned into a natural blonde. 

Life is full of surprises.

No. 35: Go to My 40th High School Reunion

No. 35: 40th High School Reunion: DONE!


O my!!

This one was fun.

Funny, isn't it? I went to my 30th High School Reunion and was overwhelmed by all the people, and everyone seemed so old and unfamiliar.  I stayed about an hour, and actually could not leave soon enough. There were zero photos to even document that I was there.

I'm thanking good ol' social media for making this more manageable.   I've seen pictures of many high school friends on Facebook even if I am not officially "friends" with all of them. That helped the recognition factor considerably.

Our class panoramic photo. 

I looked and looked and could not find myself. 

I know I was there. 

And I would credit this photo but I don't know who took it. Sorry. 

Another help was most of the spouses stayed home unless they actually attended our school at one time. No one was trying to impress anyone; no one was trying to pick anyone up; everyone just seemed to want to visit and catch up.  And most of the spouses realized if they didn't know anyone, it just wouldn't be fun. The spouses that did come banded together and entertained each other. Not having all the extra spouses meant that I didn't have to search faces to see if one was recognizable.

My spouse came but was a good sport and didn't complain once about being abandoned at a table with a few other men he had just met.

The invitation for the night. 

Slightly wrinkled from its travels. 

Kind of like all the attendees.

I LOVED seeing all of these faces again.

I must say the women fared better than the men in the looks department for the most part. I thought men were supposed to get more distinguished and the women were supposed to get frumpy. Ha!
That was not so much the case here.
Hair dye probably gets a lot of credit for the disparity. The women dye, the men don't.
Although one person came up to me and said "You are blonde!" and I replied "I've always been blonde." And then I looked at my Senior picture where I was anything but blonde. I was blonde until I was 6 years old....then I picked it up again when I was in my mid twenties. What a surprise to me!
I always thought I was blonde, I had just gotten blonder. Nope.

Anyway, there were highlights and lowlights, as is the case with any evening.

My Favorite Spontaneous Interaction came when one of the former hunky football players who now is a bit more rotund (think of Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants for a physique) practically twirled up to me, glanced at my name tag and gleefully announced "I remember you! Do you remember me?". When I replied "Of course", he spun away.  Made my night.

Some of us were shaped like this, some of us weren't.

We all looked darling.

The Most Huh? Moment came from a class member that sidled over, glanced at my name tag, looked at me and said "Nope. I didn't know you." Which was odd, since I know that yes, you did know who I was. Whatever.  I'm filing that under the "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" category.

And the Most Mind Blowing Conversation was with a guy from my home room. We weren't ever close friends but we were in the same home room for ever. We chatted and I told him where I was living now and he said "Do you know where Mt. Princeton is?"
Why, yes, I was there last week, soaking in the hot springs as a matter of fact.
"Well, my family owned it from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s."
 WHAT???  Ninety percent of the people I talk to have no idea where this part of Colorado even is.  When I expressed disbelief, he rattled off a list of little town names that would only be known by a local.
"Tin Cup, Chalk Creek, St. Elmo's, Buena Vista, Nathrop. Do you believe me now?"
I was totally taken aback. Once I got home I had to Google the Mt. Princeton history just to verify and yep, there was his family name. Wow.

Me, last year, at Mt. Princeton Spa. 

And my classmate's family used to own it.

Wow.

But mostly it was just delightful to see all of these people that I had spent a good part of my childhood/teen years with. Friends from Girl Scouts. Girls I had disagreed with. Boys that had dumped me. Boys I had dumped. Didn't matter. Everyone was just happy to see each other.

Thrilled that I went. Can't wait for the 50th .

Annnnnnddddd......
I took pics during the night and will share them on Thursday.
I did my best to get follow up pics of all the peeps that were on last week's Throw Back Thursday post.
Won't that be a fun comparison?!

Throw back Thursday: In Honor of No. 35, Go to My 40th High School Reunion

Throw Back Thursday: Whereby I Post Embarrassing Photos of Friends from High School


It's going to be a high school reunion. No. 35 on the list.
Forty years.  That's a long time.

So of course I had to find me some old photos...you know, to jog my memory of how darling and cute we all used to be.   As opposed to how mature and dignified we all look now.

I remember pulling up to the building at my 30th reunion. There was a valet parker. As we waited in line to get to the valet, we watched people exit their cars. I turned to the hubs and asked "Are you sure this is the right place? There are only old people here."  Yep, it was the right place.

This time I know what to expect.

But first- a stroll down memory lane.

The dances:

 A Cotillion dance with Dale.

He didn't go to our school but friend Liddy and I both dated him at different times.

And the same dress (quelle horreur) but a different date- 

this time with Curtis.

How come I can't convince my girls to wear the same dress twice? 

Mom's wonderful photography skills.

Half of Brown, Me, Emily and Kevin.
I loved that outfit but how ...homespun... these dresses look.

And Senior Prom:

This picture has been removed because 
I got tired of the "cast fetish" attention. 
But it was me, with my date, and my leg in a cast. 
My date looked like Napoleon Dynamite.
Use your imagination.

My how Prom dresses have changed. 

See here and here for Belle's prom dresses.

Makes mine look pretty tame.

(Also Bunny looked at this picture and said "Looks like Napoleon Dynamite". Yep.)

A Senior Spring Break trip to San Miguel de Allende  on the train:

 Mary and Emily

Me and Mary

The highlight of this trip might have been the flasher who stood outside our 

train compartment window while we were stopped in Monterrey.

He exposed himself while one of us (not naming names) stayed glued to the window, blocking everyone else and squealing 

"O My! Don't look! O my! O! Don't look what he's doing now!"
For about an hour.

Bobby, now Bob, sitting in my room.

Why, O Why did I have a poster of Raggedy Ann and Andy in there? 

Although I do love how Bobby/Bob color coordinates with the room. 

 Sally, Me, Liddy and that black spot on the right is our French Poodle, Eaugarte.

Studying, I think.

 Tricia, learning to macrame´ .

 Me, Charlie, Liddy

We basically all three have the same hair cut.

A particularly beautiful picture of Liddy taken in San Miguel.

And from Tricia's birthday party:

Tricia and Martha

Brown and Carol.
Sadly she is no longer with us.

Billy, Mark and Gwen 

Kevin, DeeDee, now Dee, and John

Ok. So now I'm ready to go the reunion. 

I'll recognize everyone as long as the guys still have shoulder length hair and the girls are barely wearing any make-up. 

Follow Up Friday

Follow Up Friday:  odds and ends

Well, goodness.
Thursday just slipped my mind. Obviously there was no post yesterday.

No excuses beyond my allergies have been horrendous and too many antihistamines will make anyone loopy.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Soooo.

It's been lovely and cool here in Colorado.

Lots of rain.

My Twin Sisters after the rain-

hiding their heads in the clouds.

My garden is happy with volunteer sunflowers. Only two plants survived out of all of the ones I planted last October. Lesson learned. One week of scorching weather with no one here to water and it doesn't matter what you plant.  And inches of rain after a week of dry makes no difference. Those dead plants will not come back to life.

Lots of sunflowers that I didn't plant. 

And not much else.

So hopefully my head will clear and I will be back to my regular schedule next week.

This weekend is the Wine Festival. (If I can't clear my head I might as well enjoy it being fuzzy, no?)

Next weekend is my FORTIETH (how can that be?) High School reunion.
I confess. I graduated when I was only 8 years old.
Again. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Forty years ago.

What you can't see is the white plaster cast running from my toes to the top of my thigh-

well hidden under that gold gown.

A Reunion Run Through...

Practicing for the Reunion

No. 35 on my list is Go to My 40th High School Reunion.

For my next list maybe it will be go to my 70th high school reunion!
(I have one great champion who says I need to do a 90 x 90 once I'm done with 60 x 60. )

Yesterday I drove my mom and dad to her 73rd high school reunion. She was graduated from JH Reagan High School, Houston Texas in 1941. Amazingly there were 725 kids in her graduating class. That is a huge number even by today's standards. At the time it was the largest graduating class in Texas. 

Reagan was established in 1927 as an all-white high school. Wait! You could do that?? 

Ah! Here's an explanation.  It was named after John H. Reagan (not Ronald Reagan) who was the Postmaster General and then the Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States. After the Confederacy fell, he became a U.S. Senator from Texas. He died in 1905 and then had a high school named after him 22 years later. 

The reunion was held at The Golden Corral on the Northwest Freeway and there were 9 attendees (7 graduates and two spouses) plus 5 drivers. Everyone in the graduating group is aged 90 or above...except for the two youngsters who are just turning 90 this next month.  This group meets every month but not everyone shows up every time. Apparently more than a few just come once or twice a year. The Christmas reunion seems to be the big one. 

Stella, Richard, Jean, Annabelle (?), Fred, Roy,  Ilene, Margaret

Roy is the interloper- he didn't graduate with these guys.

In the next room over (still at the Golden Corral) was the Lamar H.S. Men's Club which had men from the 1940/41/42 graduating years. ( The wives are only allowed to come at Christmas.)  This group had an even bigger turn out-maybe 20 to 25 men. They also meet monthly. There was a bit of visiting back and forth between the groups...some of these  people had known each other since grade school.   Lamar High School was opened in 1937and was my high school's biggest rival.

Hedley and Jean Mom

He's from Lamar, she's from Reagan.

Lamar was Robert E. Lee's rival by the time I got to high school.

Before lunch started there was a recap of the news which pretty much was a list of who was in the hospital/rehab/ground. Then everyone ate and visited. No alcohol was served. Everyone behaved.

Delivering the news.

I'm not sure I will be able to say the same for my 40th coming in September. 

Dad and Margaret.

Mom swears she always gets a pic of them hugging.

Had to carry on the tradition.

 A note: 

Robert E. Lee High School, my high school, was built in 1962 to relieve overcrowding at Lamar HS.  It is now officially Lee Senior High School and references to General Lee have been removed from the school.  Robert E. Lee was a General in the Confederate Army. 

A little revisionist history anyone?