Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Should old acquaintances NOT be forgotten...

I have a confession. When I was little girl, our parents took us to a hotel for an overnight stay. My brother, a year younger, and I raced up the grand staircase to the second floor and peered down at our parents. We also spied a bald man walking by and OMG, yes, we did... Ptooie! Did it land on his head? We were so scared, we couldn't look. Our emotions and actions that night ranged between excited conspiratorial giggling and wide-eyed wondering and shoulder shrugging...would we be discovered?! We weren't.

This weekend we attended a holiday party open house, 1-7 p.m. Drop in, stay an hour, and leave. Twelve couples socialized, ate, laughed and had a good time. By 4:00 p.m. half of the couples had left and the other half had moved to the lower level, where the focal point was the beautiful Christmas tree with so many colorful lights it illuminated the room. We six couples were not related, but we have history in common. We attended high school together, class of 1967.

We women have grown up. Our guys have grown too...older and balder. Bald seemed to be a theme. Bob talked about the time one of our male teachers, who obviously wore a toupee, was trotting down the stairs during class change. Bob had unwound a wire hanger in preparation for his antic. From the half-landing above, he reached out with that hanger and snatched Mr. Nurenburger's toupee off his head and flipped it up a flight. Then he ran like the wind.

Chuck who bucked high school authority with his long hair, and took suspension over a haircut, now covers his pate (not with fake hair) as a few of the others do.

You'd think being in our sixth decade, we'd be less inclined to laugh at things we'd have punished our kids for, but we howled at the memories. We sipped adult beverages, nibbled delicious goodies all night and listened to one of our musician buddies strum his guitar and serenade us. By 8:30 our hostess harmonized on holiday songs and we all hammered out some of the words to the songs of our day. Mellow, we gazed around at couples snuggled in. Bill and I were wedged into an oversized chair
and I feared being stuck forever.

Back in the 60s, times were changing. We are all so grateful to have found one another again. Our gracious hosts toasted to old times, good friends, our future. Miss Bunny B. said, as she raised her glass and looked around at all of us, "I KNEW which of you would stay, and who would leave. I just knew."

 

6 comments:

Connie said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time remembering old times and making new memories! :)

Bookie said...

I think this is a blessing to aging that you just can't buy...shared memories with people you have lived through things with...Four more inches of snow last night but we see sunshine today.

Southhamsdarling said...

Love what Miss Bunny B said at the end! Sounds like a wonderful time with good company and good memories.

Anonymous said...

This was obviously a wonderful evening. I'm glad you had such fun...I'm also glad you and Bill didn't have to call the fire department so they could unwedge you from that chair.

(Now THAT would have been a funny story.)

Lynn said...

Sounds like a wonderful time. You tell it so well.

River said...

I reckon if I bumped into anybody I went to school with, I wouldn't know them from Adam.