Dash #8 Friendships

It appears that I missed posting a dash last week, and so I will post an extra one for this week.

               It's hard to say who my first best friend was or how for how many years we were in touch.  There are several photos that were in my mother's possession and now in Corey's which indicate that our yard seemed to be a hang-out for many children.  Mom has pictures of some of the older kids as well as those that were my age and number.  There is one of me holding hands with Daniel and Brian, several in which I am with David or Mike and Scott.  I only remember one of me, David, Brian and Jeri.  Many party photos.  Though there was a wide variety of children to play with, I would have to say my best friend at that time was probably Daniel Bird from across the street. 

          At that time Daniel had three brothers as the youngest brother had not yet been born.  Daniel was interested in eating food and I seemed to have a more inquisitive mind and wanted to know what happened if . . .  I think it's safe to say I was the inciter. Mom said that some of the mischief we caused was dumping cosmetics in the toilet, nails in the washing machine, and mixing soap and Jell-o together.  I am so grateful that Jenna was not nearly as mischievous.

          Mom says that one time when Daniel came over to our house that she told us to stay out of mischief.  Daniel made a puzzled expression and said that "mischief" existed at his house as well.  Of course we ended up causing mischief - though I don't know the specifics, I'm sure that my mom had sent him back across the street to his own house.

          One time Danny and I used the ladder to climb and get on the roof.  I don't know if the ladder fell or if my brother Patrick just wasn't able to hoist himself up or what.  He ran across the street to find my mom visiting with Daniel's mom and starting crying because he couldn't get on the roof like his big sister. 

          Mom said that when she went outside she saw me waving from the roof to her.  She told me to carefully go back to where the ladder was as I needed to get down.  It's a wonder I ever survived childhood honestly.  There was a half fence that separated Birds property from the property just east of them.  I don't know what reason we were on the wrong side of the fence, but the boys wisely went the long way to go around to get back to Bird's side of the fence.  I decided that there was enough space for me to squeeze through the fence that ran east and west and the one that went north and south.  There wasn't.  I got stuck.  My mom said that when she found me, my head was suspended in the air and the rest of me was dangling but not touching the ground.  The fire department had been called to come and get me out.

          Danny was like another brother.  All of the Bird boys were.  Daryl was the oldest and then Danny and I were same age. Patrick was two years younger than us, John was behind him and Matthew was the youngest.  Turns out our families have been friends for generations and continues - though the ties between Daniel and I are not as close as they once were.  Our minds went in different directions and may keep in touch through other family members, but not directly.

          The girls I hung out with most were Jeri Gilbert, Lily Black and Julieanne Downs though I don't remember which order or which friendship may have lasted the longest.  All four of us lived on the same street.  Jeri, Julianne and I all lived on the north side.  There was a house between Jeri and me.  The house to our west was a corner house.  To the west of that was a small avenue.  Julieanne lived at the next corner lot.  Lily lived across the street from Jeri.  The house to her west was the one in between her house and the one where Birds lived.

          I enjoyed playing with all three of them, but don't remember many times when I played with more than one of them at a time.  I remember only one time when Julieanne, Jeri and I hung out together and possibly one time with Jeri and Lily but never Julieanne and Lily.

          Jeri, Julieanne and I were the same age.  Lily was exactly one year younger than me as we both shared the same birthday.  I remember having many sleepovers at Lily's house.  Sometimes when Jeri's parents would go out of town, she would stay with our family.  I don't believe Julieanne's parents would allow sleepovers.  I thought her mom was nice - but she seemed to be sick a lot.  I always thought her dad looked old enough to be her grandfather - and perhaps he was.  Roland and I are both old enough to be Jenna's grandparents.

         

          Though Julieanne and I were both in kindergarten at the same time, I don't know that we were friends then.  I was in the kindergarten class that had at least three different teachers teach us throughout the year.  I liked the first one.  Mom said she had gotten married and probably moved out of state.  I think both Jeri and Julieanne had Mrs. Flinders as a kindergarten teacher.  I remember wishing that I had Mrs. Flinders.

          Julianne had an older brother.  I think he was five or six years older.  We would listen to records.  She liked Bobby Sherman and Donny Osmond.  We would play school.  She would be the teacher and I was the pupil.  Sometimes we would play in her yard though I don't remember the specifics.  She had a Mrs. Beesley doll.  I liked the doll and requested to have my own one Christmas.  After she had accidentally gone through the washing machine she had stopped talking.  I remember Julieanne's dad fixed it so that it would talk again. 

          Jeri and I would often play with Patrick, John and Matthew.  We would act out the Wizard of Oz.  Occasionally we would try another story - such as Sleeping Beauty.  If there was a kissing scene involved, Jeri wanted to be the princess and have Patrick be the prince. Mostly Jeri would come to my house to play, but I remember playing with Barbies at hers.

          Aside from sleepovers with Lily, I remember playing in her sandbox.  My favorite part about playing in the sandbox was being near enough the raspberry bushes to eat the delicious berries.  I don't know how old I was when Blacks moved to Alpine.  It must have happened during high school as I remember Lily's older sister attending my high school when I was a sophomore and she was in her senior year.  Though I tried to remain connected, Lily and I seemed to have lost touch after they moved - perhaps before.  I don't remember.

          By junior high, Jeri and I were civil to each other at best, but did not choose to hang out together.  Julianne and I had signed up to share a locker (as there were more students than lockers) but as she had a lot of health problems (I think most were psychological) she dropped out of public school and was supposedly tutored at home.  Thus I had a locker to myself.  I was pretty much a loner for the rest of school.  I did have friends in high school - or at least those I considered to be my friends - include Lily's older sister.  Eventually Gilberts moved from our neighborhood also.  I'm not even certain as to which family moved out first.

          I hung around seniors all three years of my high school.  I hung around more seniors in my sophomore year than in my last two years combined.  I really don't have many positive things to say about school regardless of how old I was or what school I was attending.  I think I would have enjoyed learning more if I hadn't had to deal with so many peers.  I wish I had been more outgoing and not afraid of being myself like Jenna is.

       Jeri and I have reacquainted through facebook, but we are not the friends we use to be.  I keep in touch with what's going on in Danny's family as there is still that bond between us and I suspect always will be.  Neither Lily nor Julieanne have shown interest in facebook.