Quote of The Day

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sunday Scribblings Phantoms and Shadows




Sunday Scribblings Phantoms and shadows


I wonder what she recalls?



At eight years old I routinely got myself dressed, marched alone to the end of the block where I attended Church. There I met my best childhood pal Toni. Eight months younger, one grade below me we forged a sweet long term relationship. The tallest, most mature girls for our age we managed to giggle our way in and out of lots of trouble.


As little girls we attended Sunday school, pioneer girls and youth groups together. We sang beautiful duets, chased the boys, and developed close relationships with a couple of the church moms who taught Sunday school.


By eleven we’d both developed into buxom, mischievous young women addicted to roller skating and boys. At twelve we attended a horrible island church camp, where three fifteen year old heathen boys from home appeared, sneaking us prohibited junk food as a reprieve from our oatmeal with powdered milk and mushy peas staple. Yuck, I still remember the letters home, begging for mothers worst home cooked meal, once detested, yet a thousand times better than the garbage allotted by the church camp.


Both of Ukrainian descent, we loved to make perohy (perogies) together, from scratch! Still a favorite! We could be seen spending a whole afternoon pinching dough at our kitchen table. We slept at each others homes all summer long. Toni joined our yearly camping trip to the Okanagan; we shared secrets, fantasies, and many late nights laughing.


Her dad took us to a cabin at Pender Harbour where I fell in love with fishing and sunflower seeds. Most of the summer we slept on a queen sized mattress hauled onto our covered veranda. Stealing away in the middle of the night as often as we could to meet boys. Only to talk, dodging behind bushes on sight of any distant headlights! Occasionally snitching a few summer kisses from the favorite boy of the hour.


Looking for a quick buzz, and a pound of courage at thirteen we'd split a Mickey of vodka, chugging it without mix over a toilet at the Coffee house, a Friday night teen haunt where local bands played weekly. We crunched oodles of white, pink or green mints attempting to camouflage the smell of liquor while awaiting the eleven o’clock ride home from my dad. Acting sober became an art.


My only downfall was boys, I'd do anything to be in their company. Hard to beleive it's the last thing on my mind now! Slightly more roguish my friend Toni had no qualms about stealing candy from the local supermarket. I was the big chicken, making sure to be no where in sight of her thieving escapades. She often stole clothes from department stores too, offering to steal some for me too. Horrified, I declined, waiting outside by a bus stop. I never understood why she felt the need to pillage. She was always given more money than me, got better gifts at Christmas, had nicer clothes. Still she felt the need to take what she wanted. In retrospect I think there were big silences in the home, peppered with inaccurate accusations from parents sleeping in separate bedrooms.


At fourteen we became a little more competitive. More buxom than me, with longer legs the boys preferred her figure, still, with short legs, a tiny waist, the nickname buns; I won them over with my jovial personality and humor! A notorious flirt with the ability for intimate conversation I was always surprised at how much the boys liked me. My friend was more sarcastic. The contemptible sarcasm inherited from her judgmental father was the eventual demise of our friendship.


Toni stood up for me at my wedding for sentimental reasons; then I moved away and never saw her again. I read she was managing a hotel restaurant in Vancouver. I often wonder what happened to her, so I recently did a google search to find her dad had died; she was living on the same island her dad took us fishing, married later in life, she has two daughters with very unique names. Which didn’t surprise me, because at ten years old, insistent our kids would have exclusive names; I picked Paisley, and held to it until it was refuted by Peppers dad!


When Toni was young she was an exceptional writer, far superior to anything I could ever hope to pen. It was her birthday on Tuesday, I think of her every year around this time. She'd be fifty one now, I can’t help but wonder how she is, and if she has a blog?

16 comments:

Lucy said...

oh Giggles! What beautiful memories of Toni you've shared!! You really should write to her! what would be the worst thing that could happen? After all these years, I bet she will still have many of the qualities you had loved about her and she may have lost that sarcasm.
So much in this reminded me of my growing up with my best friend Linda. You owe it to those good times to just touch base and see how she is. I bet she remembers u fondly and would love to reunite.
Thanks for such a nice read before work!
xox

Linda Jacobs said...

Wouldn't it be something if she read this?

I don't always read the longer prose posts but this one pulled me right in and I enjoyed every word.

You bring the two girls to life. Keeping my fingers crossed that you reconnect!

Queen-Size funny bone said...

wow, it sounds like you guys had a great bond. I bet she would love it if you found her and made contact. I always knew you were a man magnet.

Sandee said...

For a bit there I thought you were going to tell us that she went to prison for shoplifting. Glad that wasn't the case.

Why don't you sent her a letter? She might be thrilled to hear from you after all these years.

This was a very well written story about your friendship. I enjoyed it very much. Have a terrific weekend. :)

Mary Bee said...

What a fun reading. Isn't it amazing how much we can remember so far back if we focus on wanting to remember.

Hugs,
Maryellen

floreta said...

oh that would be really cool to find her by way of blogging. i liked your story. well-written post!

Mary Timme said...

I had a friend in college that was close to me. I've lost track of her and she was so talented and blessedly shorter than me! (my high school friends were all skinny and tall and gorgeous to look at!) I remember her getting a standing ovation with no lines at all. She was in a play with a walk on part and stole the show! That's how good she was. I've googled her and find nothing. I hope she is well and very hopeful for I can't and won't imagine her any other way! Nice musings, thanks.

Granny Smith said...

I envy you for the chance you had for a longtime friendship. My father's work took us from town to town, in each of which I would acquire a bosom friend who I would have to leave behind as we moved again. I loved this post with its picture of girls at various ages - very individual girls who shared some things and disagreed on others.

Great Post!

paisley said...

oh i just love this post.. i never really had a best friend,,, the closest i cam was from 8-10th grade,, i had a friend named monya... and she looked then very much like your friend toni... i think of her all the time.. have talked to her once about 10 years ago,, but our lives were so far away and long ago we immediately lost touch again.... oh it was nice to have this opportunity to share this story with you... i just loved it.....

Anonymous said...

I loved reading about everything you shared together. Even though you do not know what she is up to now, I think that memory is something to cherish forever. I never had a friend for so long!

Anonymous said...

I too grew up with a best friend. Right through childhood and our teens we did everything together. But when we got to about 20 we went our seperate ways. Then last week we met again after almost 40 years and guess what? We no longer have anything in common at all!

lilly said...

that was beautiful.

Tumblewords: said...

Great post! I loved the way you described you girls and your excitements! :) What fun - hiding behind bushes, downing vodka - thanks for sharing this...

LA Nickers said...

Great fun - old school, memorable, fun!


Hey, today's prompt at MEME EXPRESS is PHANTOM.

Feel free to stop by and leave a comment with a link to your post today!

Blessings,
Linda

MEME EXPRESS – daily blog prompts

danni said...

about 3 years ago i quested till i found one of these mischief pals from years gone by - we've been back in touch and e-mailing regularly ever since after 40+ years of no contact --- she is part of my memory for lots of things that i've long since forgotten and has been a tremendous support in my autumn years because she knew me so truly and so well as a kid --- the tone of your post really resonated with me!!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your memories. I'm glad you found her. It's so hard to find women, especially if you don't know a married name, etc. Touching and moreso, I think this is well-written. I identify with remembering close one's birthdays, even those I lost touch with. I hope you two reconnect. Maybe she'll see this! (Is there a place to register your schools to find each other?)

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