Show and Tell Friday...

Today I'm participating in my first Show & Tell Friday! I have been wanting to do this for ages...and hopefully, I'll be doing lots more! It's hosted by Kelli, at "No Place Like Home". She says,

"Welcome to Show and Tell Friday! Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there's a story behind your special something, that's even better!"

For my first show and tell, I want to show you something I ran across as I was doing all that organizing a few weeks ago. Remember- when my family was off camping, gallivanting, and have a general good time? Well, in my box of mementos, I found this little booklet- a Brownie friendship booklet, to be exact- which I have kept all these years!

And what makes this especially significant to me right now, you may ask?

No...it's not that my own daughter is now a Brownie...(I could hear some of you thinking...good guess, by the way!) She is Brownie age, but up until now she have been busy with other activities...

No, what makes this significant is a special reunion I have coming up.

Do any of you remember this post?

OK, go take a quick peek and come right back. I'll wait right here...

Are you back? That was quick! Groovy, right?

You might remember that awhile later, I wrote this post..."Out of the Past."

Look closely at this blurry closeup of the first page in my little friendship book...


I'm still completely reeling all these months later...only in my wildest dreams did I imagine one of my long, lost third grade friends would actually stumble onto my post. And contact me just one week later.
Amazing...a miracle, actually.

Next weekend, my family will be making a weekend trip to the Seattle area to see the sights...and where she and I will finally meet after all these years.
We have not seen one another since the summer after third grade- the very grade my own little girls is entering this year!

But back to my little friendship book...let's look at Mavis' friendship page, shall we...


You can see here some very pertinent information...top secret...and my delicate eight year old penmanship!
Seems her favorite sport at the age of 8 was...football? Hmmm....
And her favorite hobby was riding horses...somehow, I don't remember her riding horses back then, or having her own coral...
And her favorite color was blue. Mine too! Maybe that why we were the best of friends! ;)
Funny, when we were arranging our reunion for this month, I had this nagging feeling that I was remembering her birthday was in August...but how could I possibly have remembered that all these years? Probably it was this scribbled out, misspelled word next to her birthday month that was ingrained in my mind!

I remember our countless sleepovers, the pool they had built in their back yard (much to my excitement!) and, of course, our dance routine. To this day, I have not been able to hear "Cherokee People" without thinking of the fun we had trying to memorize and coordinate our little eight year old feet.

And I remember one particular time in class when we had become especially chatty, and my beloved Mrs. S. had to separate us -but only by one desk. We were in the front row so she could keep an eye on us, but we stretched our hands together behind the desk and giggled...such girlhood innocence.
I think I even saw Mrs. S. smile with humor at us as she kept talking to the class...

But all of this fun was packed into only one year of friendship...her family sold the house with the newly built pool and moved out of state before the start of fourth grade.

Fast-forward life like pushing a button on the remote....teens, 20's, 30's...and now- 40's. Yes, exactly 35 years- probably to the month- have gone by since we saw each other last. Since then, she remained just a nice memory of my childhood...the friend you always wonder what became of them when they grew up...

To actually sit down with her over coffee...and later have my family join us for dinner...well, you can imagine how I am feeling. A little nervous...but mostly very, very excited...knowing how completely blessed we are to have this chance!

We are now mature adult women...she with a lucrative and exciting career...myself, as a home-educator with loving husband two young daughters.

Completely different paths...but hopefully, somewhere down deep, where it really counts...we're the same silly little girls who chatted during class and sang along to The Partridge Family's greatest hits.

Only next weekend, we'll get to sing those hits over double mochas...