Thanksgiving & Friends

Thanksgiving & Friends ~

When the alarm went off long before daylight Monday morning, the five-day Thanksgiving break came to a close, but the glow of focusing on all we have to be thankful for still lingers in my thoughts and emotions.

It’s amazing the changes life brings. From one decade to the next we often can barely recognize who we once were or even know who we will become. But whether it was a nightmare of a season or a dream-come-true one, family and friends become an integral part of that journey.

Friends come to us through dozens of venues and they always help shape our lives. Sometimes we gain and lose friends without realizing what’s taking place. Other times it’s a distinct decision.

My first real friend was an African American girl I met at a school I’d just begun, neither of us thought to tell our parents the color of the other ones skin. It was the mid sixties and I still remember the roaring laughter of our dads as they shook hands the day she came to play at my house.

But we moved a few months later and that’s when I met my next best friend, a Plain Mennonite girl.

Females of the Plain Mennonites wear the caped dresses and prayer kapps. She didn't watch television, listen to the radio, or ever wear pants, even when the teachers asked her to.

I had watched television since I was a babe and later I watched soap operas with my mom. I had eight-track tapes because the radio bored me with its commercials. I wore pants--even though my dad disapproved. She wasn’t new to the school. It seemed that I was forever new to schools. And looking back I wonder what drew us together.

~ Hmmmm, more on that next time ~