PHOTOGRAPHS AND MEMORIES

"Photographs and Memories" was an old song by Jim Croce.

I was looking for music for one of my DVD's when I came across

that song.  It made me think of some of the friends I had in school.

When I did the post about college, I went through all my photo

albums, (remember those?),  and found a lot of these photographs.

Unfortunately, the quality of some of them couldn't be used.

That doesn't mean the memories aren't still there.  

The best of the best...

Susan, Jo Lynne, Ruth and Steve

I met Susan in Jr. High and we were best friends

through high school.  On Friday nights Mama and Daddy

would go out to dinner and I'd get to stay at Susan's.  Her dad

 would make a Varsity stop on his way home.  My order has

 not changed since those days.  Chili dog,  hamburger, 

french fries, onion rings, and fried apple pie.

The summer of 1969 was the best.  They invited me to go
on a trip cross country to California to visit an aunt.  Her dad
had a truck with a camper on the back.  On the way I got to see
Yellowstone, the set of Bonanza,  and the giant redwoods.
We'd spend nights at campgrounds, where Susan's mom and dad
and baby brother Mike  slept in the camper (above photo), while
Susan and I camped in a makeshift tent her dad set up on the roof
of the camper.  We were on a budget and stopped to eat in a restaurant
just once.  It was in Kansas City and I had the biggest and the best
T-Bone steak ever.   Thanks, Vernon.

Jo Lynne and I go all the way back to Sunday School.
Both of our Dads owned gas stations.  Out of all of my friends,
Jo Lynne was my Dad's favorite.  She was a cheerleader at Forest
Park High School.  After the games, Susan and a bunch of us
would meet Jo Lynne and her cheerleading squad at Shoney's.
Jo Lynne was probably the most popular girl at school.  Think of
Scarlet O'Hara and the barbecue scene.  I remember Mama and Daddy
and I driving up to North Georgia College for a beauty pageant she
was in.  I won't reveal the outcome.  The best and scariest memory
was at the cabin when Jo Lynne, Susan, Ruth, and some friends
went joy riding in Daddy's Korean War Jeep.  We were going too
fast down the dirt road at a turn and flipped the jeep into a ditch.
None of us were hurt.  It could have been pretty bad had it not  been
for the ditch.  That's where we all ended up, in the ditch, under the jeep.
We pushed the jeep back up, went back to the cabin, and didn't say
a word.  We all went back on the church bus, while Mama and Daddy
drove back, but not before a neighbor stopped them and asked if the
kids were alright.  When we got back home everyone quietly scattered,
leaving me ALONE... with Daddy.



Clubs and school activities during high school is how Ruth
and I connected.  She was smart as a whip and she still is.
I remember we were at a friends house going through some
record albums (remember those?)  when Ruth mentioned
 an up and coming singer who did the soundtrack for a movie
 called "Friends".  He had an album coming out and she thought
 he would be big.  I got the soundtrack and the new album and
 every album since then.  I've been to his concerts and pretty
  much kept up with his life and his career.  His name is Elton John.
  I said to Ruth, "That's a funny name,  Elton?".
  Well, the man with the funny name has 3 units and 2  floors
 in my late mother's condo in Buckhead.
Ruth and I still see each other now and then.  She married my
cousin Buster and is now one of the fabulous Browns.

Every girl should have a first boyfriend like Steve.
Just look at him.  He was all that and a bag of chips.
My family was crazy about him.  He even worked
with Nannie at Belk's.  I've always said that Steve
was the sweetest guy you'd ever meet.  How sweet?
How about me sewing him a tie in Home Economics.
It was made out of wool and was so thick that the knot
and tie stuck out so far away from his clothes.  That's
not all, the tie was bird s__t yellow.  And he wore it.

Best memory.
Sept. 19th 1970
He asked me to "go steady" at this football game.
He didn't have a class ring, but gave me his ID bracelet.
It's with other special things in a Hope Chest I inherited
from Nannie when she passed.

 I've been lucky to have had friends like these.
Sometimes we live our lives with all its ups and downs.
Every now and then one should look back to where we
all started.  To remind ourselves who we were, and that,
who we are, is still in there.  SOMEWHERE...


2013