Golden Girls

We revisited our old haunts today.  The Little Red Store

MTF incognito...preserving her identity

smelled just the same as it did when we were in Junior High, trying to look old enough to buy cigarettes.  We knew that they'd moved the counter to another corner

Walking in felt just a little bit off.  The new owners were as interested in our old stories as we were in their new one.  It was disappointing to find no Pixie Stix filled with Lik'm Aid powder nor candy necklaces we could eat off our necks, but we got over it quickly.  We drove past MTF's parents' house, and her aunt's house, and her grandmother's house and her elementary school

and the car was filled with her squeals.  I know, she's really too old to be squealing, but this was her first visit in 40 years and we love her so we made allowances for the noises. 

Our high school has been expanded and there's a fancy digital sign out in front but the inside was dingy and dusty and dark.  None of us know the demographics of the neighborhood these days, but I can't imagine that G'ma, in her various PTA presidencies, would have allowed me to go to a school in such a state of disrepair.  Actually, as I type that I realize that it's not so much broken as untended.  How can you learn if the environment displays such a lack of interest by the people in charge?  One wonders.

Today was the last day of Summer School, and the pale and pimply kid walking out the main doors behind us was on the phone, proudly announcing to someone on the other end of his cell phone that he had just graduated from high school.  We applauded and smiled and he seemed to grow an inch or two as he returned our congratulations with a smile.  Eavesdropping on good news seems to be acceptable to the cell phone generation, I guess.

G'ma and Daddooooo's old house has been resided and the windows have been replaced and there's a fence where, formerly, the carport made a friendly connection to the neighbor's driveway.

There's a single woman living there now and perhaps she feels the need to be protected from interlopers.  Perhaps she got a deal on white plastic fencing.  The changes made me sad.  What was ours is now hers and she altered the space without consulting us.  I know that it's her house now, but the reality still pricks at my heart.

Nathan's was our lunch spot, and two hot dogs, french fries and a Coke later

we could barely move ourselves to Roomie's car for the trip to Kennedy Airport.  The distances which had seemed so great when we were young were covered in no time and all of a sudden we were in the departure lane, taking my suitcase out of the trunk and tearfully hugging goodbye.  We'll see each other again, I know, but for the moment, I am feeling bereft.  I love my Tucson buddies, but, as the old Girl Scout song says

Make new friends

But keep the old.

One is silver

The other gold.

I love you, my Golden Girls.