We were friends in high school. We sang songs together, in particular In the Jungle and anything by Santana while we rode around in our cars. We both had short attention spans, we both loved to laugh and we had tons of questions that no one could answer. I don't remember when or how I met Mimi but I was always glad that I had. She drove a gray Tempest that had seen better days and I drove a Chevy Impala Super 8 that if memory serves, I drove rather aggressively and rather fast. There were times that 8 of us would cram ourselves in that car and go...I don't remember where but we went places mainly to a friend's house or our regular hangout whose name escapes me now, but they had the best fries, church, and sometimes even football games. Westbury had a terrible team that year but we went to the games to cheer our friend Marty who was the Adjutant General of Rebelettes, fife, drum and bugle core. She and a few other officers marched and marked time on the sideline while the rest marched and played. So we yelled and cheered for her and as soon as halftime was over, we left. Probably to go get fries. I can't even believe this but because my parents loved Mimi so much they let me go out with Mimi's brother who was 26 and home from Nam. (not to be confused with NAMB) Uh, I was 16. Mimi had forgotten about that and she asked me if her brother had been a gentleman. Yes, and we only went out a couple of times, dinner and a movie and I took him to a Christian coffee house. He told me he knew I was too young to date and that was fine by me. I do know this, the few times we kissed and that's all we did, I knew I had been dating boys before Mimi's brother. That's all I am going to say about that. After high school our group kind of went our separate ways but several of us from church went to the university formally known as Southwest Texas State University. Mimi and I lived in the same dorm. Both of us only went there a year. I was accepted to Baylor but had to come home and go to U of H. Mimi dropped off my radar for forty years. I had heard that she had married and moved to a farm. Somehow wild and crazy Mimi didn't seem to fit the farm lifestyle. I couldn't see her chasing chickens and mowing the back forty. Throughout the years I thought of her often, wondered how she was doing and periodically check Facebook to see if I could find her. Nope, Nada....
But then.... This week I received an email about a joint class reunion of Bellaire and Westbury years 69-73. On the RSVP list was Mimi. I emailed her and she responded. Soon there were a flurry of texts and emails coming and going. She was in Houston on Thursday so we met for lunch. We sent each other pictures just in case we had changed in forty years. For example, I used to be taller. Good try Nancy. Anyway we had a blast at lunch. It was as if we had seen each other the day before. A two hour lunch that went by too quickly without any awkward silences. We crammed a lot of laughter and conversation in those two hours. We found out that our lives in certain things had been almost parallel. Of course we made plans to get together again and we took a picture and sent it to our friend Beth letting her know she was missed at lunch. Beth will be in town at the end of June so we will all get together at some time during her stay. Oh and the part about Mimi moving to a farm? Well, that is partially true but it is more like one of those subdivisions where you have acreage, animals and gardens.
The friendship theme seemed to present throughout the week. Tuesday night I went to a Bible study and the topic is friendships and last night we took dinner over to our good friends David and Emily. They made the move to Rancho De Five. Just down the street 3 1/2 or so miles.
Good friends around a table sharing a meal. Oh so fun and yet oh so biblical.
See, we haven't changed at all! Except I don't wear a cap and gown anymore.
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