Beneath the Wraps

          It’s been almost 40 years since Jill and her family moved out of my mom’s neighborhood.  They are the first family that I remember having moved.           It’s only been in the last couple of months that I got in touch with Jill through facebook. She has since moved back to Utah. I told her about mom and made arrangements for us to visit.           And so the other day Jill drove to mom’s house and we visited for a while.  She told me how she and mom had spent many a days visting at each other’s houses.  And made it known (for the first time) that her youngest had had a crush on me when we were younger.  Really?!  Because I had had a crush on him and wasn’t aware that he had felt the same way until Jill took us to lunch.           I think the greatest thing was watching mom’s rec...

          When we first moved to our current neighborhood, I wondered if had neighbors.  It was quiet.  The most people I ever saw was in the morning when children would walk to the bus stop.  I hadn’t actually met the people on either side of us – but my social Jenna introduced herself to just about everybody.  We met our across the street neighbor through her.           Next door to him on each side were Spanish speaking neighbors – the adults anyway.  Jenna would occasionally hang with the girl who was 4-5 years older than her.  Jenna said she didn’t know Spanish that well – weird.  If that’s what they spoke in the home.  They had to have spoken Spanish to the grandma as she just didn’t know any English.           They have since moved.  The house was vacant for a couple of months before an ...

         Jenna had a hard time after we moved in – often crying as we were waiting for the bus that would take her to school.  I am so grateful to Angie who took the incentive to befriend Jenna – though it was only for a couple of months.  They were really hoping to have a play date together.           Angie’s mom worked – and so the only time we could come over was after dinner.  The first time we had gone over to play with Angie, her mother looked at me and asked what kind of pizza I liked.  We visited a bit while the girls played and then Angie’s mom put on a video.  Cinderella III – in Spanish.           Jenna watched that show all the time – but in English.  But I was certain she’d still understand what was being said.  But that’s not why Jenna was there. She was hurt when Angie started watching the movie and p...