The Girls

I still cannot exactly figure out how our group got together.  Betsy, Kathy, and I were friends from elementary school.  Anne, Susan and Kathleen knew each other from junior high.  I knew of Anne because she lived across the street from my cousin and was the ace swimmer at the Tennis Club.  We did not belong to the tennis club, but my neighbors did, so when they would take me with them, I would hear her name called . . . Especially during games of Marco Polo.  I was not very good . . . She was.

So in tenth grade I heard she had biology down the hall.  I decided to go meet her.  We liked each other and began to do things together.  Then we got into volleyball and basketball . . . Susan did, too. Susan was good . . . I was not as good.  But we began to do things together, too.  Some of us participated in Student Council, others yearbook, others sports, but we started to eat lunch together and socialize.  Our senior year, we connected with some boys, and the ten or twelve of us would get together on Friday nights and go bowling or meet at each other's homes.  We would sing to Mike Schingle's guitar playing, eat, talk and generally have fun.  Innocent, yes.   Never considered drinking . . . It was not a part of our make up.  We were what one of our classmates called the teen queens . . . The ones who studied hard, had school spirit, and had fun within the rules.   We loved high school.

We kept up with each other from then on.  Our group yielded one doctor, one physician assistant, one nurse, one business consultant with IBM and now Toshiba, and two educators.  One of the men is a judge, one a college professor, one a helicopter pilot, and we have lost track of one.  Not bad for a group of nerds from Albuquerque, NM.

It is always fun to get back together to see what everyone else is up to.  It is as if we have never missed a beat.  These women will always be a part of my life, and I am grateful for their friendship.