Remember Whensday

Me on the left, Donna on the right in 1995

I met my friend Donna, in 1964 or 65, when we were in the 8th grade. I was the new kid, having moved from Austell to Douglasville, Georgia, after school had started for the year. We were inseparable in our early teens, spending almost every weekend at her house.  We helped each other through our first marriages, having our children, and through the divorces that followed. 

We visited as often as we could over the years, but it never seemed like often enough. The photo above was taken in May of 1995, when we drove to San Antonio, Texas together to take a bassinette to my son and his wife for their firstborn child. We decided that since we were close enough, we would just drive down to Mexico for one day before returning to Atlanta.  

Donna bought a longhorn steer skull, with a horn span of what seemed like six feet. If it had been one more inch, we would have had to have driven all the way with the rear windows rolled down so they could stick out.  A few years later, when I hit the road for my life as a gypsy, I lost track of her. We haven't seen each other in almost 10 years, maybe more. But, I found her on Facebook this week!  I hope we can get together when I go home to Douglasville over the winter. 

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A Visit With My Friends

Phyllis and Wanda are my two best friends in the world. I have known them for more than 16 years, having met them when I worked at BellSouth in Atlanta. We used to go to lunch together every day, sharing our joys and our heartbreaks over some of the best food in the south. We always went to Mary Mac's Tea Room at least once a week when the weather was nice so we could walk it off coming back up the hill on Ponce De Leon to West Peachtree Street.

I was the first one of us to become a grandmother, so when Michael made his entrance into the world in San Antonio, they made the road trip with me over those 1,000 miles to go hold my grandson for the first time. How could you NOT love friends like that?

Here we are at the Riverwalk in San Antonio in October, 1996.
(Phyllis, Me, Wanda)

When Jim and I sold our house and hit the road, I was worried that I would never see my friends again. I shouldn't have worried about it though, because these girls have shown up in some interesting places. I don't see them as often as I would like to, but they are just a phone call or an email away. And we still sort out all the worlds (at least OUR worlds) problems whenever we get together.

Here we are sneaking across the border to Mexico in 2004.
(Wanda, Me, Phyllis)

They came to visit us on Saturday at Uncoi State Park in Helen, Georgia. Not a very long road trip, but they do live a couple hours away. We went to lunch at the lodge, where they have a buffet three times a day. After that, we acted like tourists in Helen, going to Nora Mills, Mark of the Potter, Serendipity Stained Glass, then coming back to walk around town looking in all the shops. Dinner was at the Troll Tavern, right down on the Chattahoochee River. (mmmmm, German bratwurst platter!) All too soon it was time to say goodbye, but not before we made plans to meet again at least one more time before we Jim and I leave here at the end of March.

Here we are after lunch at Unicoi Lodge on Saturday
(Wanda, Me, Phyllis)Yeah, we did let the guys come with us. Here they are, checking out the trout in the Chattahoochee at Nora Mills.

Rick, Jim, Jeff