Stand By Me

In the movie Stand By Me the author says that friends you make when you are young (12, 13) are the best and you will never have friends like that again. I have always loved that line because it is so true. I also like the movie "Now & Then" because it is the girl version of that age.
My friends back then were incredible. We had slumber parties where a seance became the talk of school on Monday. ( I was kicked out of that inner circle because I laughed.. really, Abe Lincoln? could we not come up with anything better?) And what was the deal with "Light as a feather" and picking people up? Did boys do these things?
Anyway, I am heading to Maryland to see one such "Then" friend who happened to stick. We hated our brothers and shared clothes. We never crushed on the other's boy, we rode motorcycles and ate ice cream, we walked into each other's houses and looked in the refrigerators without a thought. Our Moms were hilarious and passed it on to us. You could never have a bad time with Ronda, it was simply not possible.
I wish I had a tape of our lives then, That terrible awkward teen thing... I would not do it again unless I could do it with the same friends. Ronda, Ann, Mary, Chris, Murphy, Terre, Crystal, Cheril.... that great inner circle where we fought and made up over and over again. They have the most special place in my heart and I hope I am in their's too.
We had a blast!
And since I will be with Ronda this weekend I will have fun again... because with her, it is impossible not to.

Twisted Sisters

If anyone reads my sister's blog they should know that I am usually the female relative she writes about. Her latest blog about the scale is sad but true. I did have a scale that was off 10 pounds and I happily went through life thinking I was thinner than I was. Then every doctor visit I would turn livid that his scale weighed me 10 lbs. more.
Last year I was at different doctors alot and on Monday my family doctor's scale weighed me 10 lbs. up and then the next day the endrocronlogists weighed me 10 lbs. heavier.
The chocolate river of denial was over. I got a new scale. It is digital and I have O.C.D. and it flashes different weights as you stand on it... when it is lower I am praying and when it flips higher I am mad.. and then it locks in.UGH! And even though I am 10 lbs. heavier I am still fighting the same 5 lbs. up and down they go.
And now I am old. My aunt looked at me one day and told me just to go with it... I just can't. And if I did I would be washing myself with a rag on a stick and be on some show with the wall being chopped out to release me from my house. Maybe with Richard Simmons outside with a microphone tsk, tsking me....
So when I read my sister's blog ( who has more followers than me, thank you very much) I wonder where this came from, the whole numbers thing. I have even talked to people who refuse to get on their doctor's scales...WHAT? You can refuse? But I never will anyway because in my depraved mind I want it to say 160... MY! MY! you have lost so much weight!
Stop laughing, it could happen... if I could just lose this extra 10 lbs. I recently "found"

Basswood Road

I moved to Basswood Road when I was about 5, before I was in school..no kindergarten for me, straight to 1st grade and guess what, I was a genius! I remember how exciting it was to read the word "Something", such a big word for a child that did not have Sesame Street or PBS. I swear I never saw the alphabet in order until I saw it above that black board at Osceola school. I still love Dick & Jane in their white bread world, because they taught me how to read which I still love all these years later.
My Dad still lives on Basswood Road and my Daughter Aubrey moved in when my Mom died.
When my Mom was dying she told me to get her bulbs and she was not talking about Christmas lights, she was talking flower bulbs. Once she quit working she kicked into some crazy Martha Stewart wanna-be who would almost cry with pain at the end of the day from gardening. I am talking a flatbed truck might not work for all the plants.
And please note, I am not a gardener.. I got poison ivy one time which turned into shingles which turned me off being in any weeds. But my Mom told me to get her bulbs.
I went to Basswood road yesterday after work and I dug up some flowers. I had to get the iris plants with flowers so I knew what color they were. I could not get the tulips that were the most amazing tulips ever when they bloomed last Spring.. my Mom never saw how wonderful they were. But we all did and it broke our hearts.
But I leaned the shovel against the truck and cried in front of my Dad. He said mowing the lawn was so hard and I pictured him coming around the corner and not seeing her bent over some new plant or weeding like a maniac. I don't know how he can do it.
And then, later I asked him where she got all the rocks from around the bushes. Did she buy them? He said she picked them up in the yard and carried them in 5 gallon buckets.. and I had to laugh. I miss the silly things my Mom would do.
And Basswood Road was her home.
And in many ways it will always be mine too.
(And Mom, I still am not a big fan of gardening but you know, you never liked to read, love you, miss you, see you soon!)