FOOD! FUN! and FRIENDS! All three of those elements were plentiful last Monday night at the Cheesecake Factory. I was thrilled to be able to spend time chatting and reminiscing with 5 of my friends from high school. The conversation ranged from us talking about our silly and care-free days growing up together to us sharing stories about our families, children and plans for the future. At times I found myself feeling like we were all 16 again...ditching school to go grab lunch and gab :) At other times I looked around the table and saw us as our current selves: the beautiful bishop's wife, the independent single mom, the spazzy scout leader, the energetic YW president, the amazing mother of 5, and the happy stay-at-home mom. As different as we had all become since the glory days of the 80's, we had also stayed much the same as we remembered each other. One constant among us was our love for our families and our concern as we watch our children grow and experience life. With one of us getting ready to send her eldest off to college, others just getting adjusted to "teen-aged" kids, and still others with children only in elementary school; it was great to hear advice and stories across the board. More than once it was said, "I hope our kids don't ever do some of the crazy things we did". Sprouting from those comments came talk of how the world now is so different from the world at the time that we were growing up. i.e. not allowing our kids to have sleep-overs at friend's houses, our children not being able to skip classes as easily as we did, the threats of pornography and other addictions (gaming, texting, etc.) that did not exist in our era. Our banter ran the gambit from giggles about playing "nasty" barbies to solemn seriousness on the issue of child abuse. It was an eye-opening discussion and one that left us laughing one minute and then sitting in stunned silence the next. All in all, it was a wonderful night and one I won't soon forget. Thank you, my friends, for being just that --- my friends.
3 comments:
Ok, I'm going to add to my list of talents and professions that you could be: journalist (you have the voice to go with that one), columnist, author, creative writer, etc. What a perfect description of our evening!!! Thanks for the sweet comment on my blog!! You are awesome!!! Now theirs a word from the past!
Ok, I just read my comment and thought I better tell you to ignore the spelling errors. That reminds me. I need to add to the list of occupations: english professor, radio announcer, attorney, actress, but most of all, an adoring, bubbly, fun-loving, charasmatic mother of three!!!
Hi Rees-
I was just in Alpine and so I have old friends on my mind too. (I found you on the AFHS page--thanks for linking your blog.) I need a key to the descriptions you wrote--they were great short updates but I didn't know which of you they applied to!
I found out that one of my dear friends is a first cousin of yours--Sondra. I met her when we were in the same ward in Ann Arbor, MI.
Thanks for the glimpse into your life. It looks like you're doing great!
-Heather (Nielson) Wimmer
(I'm on Facebook, or you can email me--the address is on the AFHS class report page)
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