Every morning, without fail, the ladies show up for tea. They wear frocks that are kind of drab. Tea has been going on for awhile, so they don’t feel the need to dress up. I also think they’ve been together for most of their lives, so impressing each other is just passe. I think that because I have wonderful friends who don’t feel the need to wear fancy colors, big hats, or uncomfortable shoes just to sit for tea.
Anyhow, each day one can almost set their clock by it, the gals congregate. They nod, they talk quietly, and abruptly leave, only to return in a few minutes, something I cannot understand. Of course, I’m on the outside looking in, not having ever been invited. They also like to be relatively alone….and move in unison when something or someone comes into view. I’m thinking they discuss things that are strictly intimate because their actions dictate complete privacy.
And then…as quickly as they’ve assembled, the tea is over. It’s like someone is calling. One thinks maybe the kids have come home from school, but the ladies must have teens by now. Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. They speak their own slang, their own language, and even tho it is beautiful, it something I can’t seem to grasp.
Only later in the day do I see each of them again, returning for a simple bath, a quiet time, maybe before starting supper for their brood. They nod to one another, and get a little flustered if the area gets crowded, however all irritations seem to dissolve in the fluttering bath of my tea ladies, the finches who share my yard til they vacation south of the border.
The little one next door (1 1/2 yrs) doesn’t mind a an imperfect cookie…or fudge with a few ‘chewies’…..his eyes sparkle as he holds out his little hand for a cookie corner.It is the simple things that make us continue to wonder, isn’t it. There truly is joy in the smallest of things. We must merely open our eyes and hearts.
Friends….they come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and years. I find in my case, most of my friends, didn’t start out day 1 being, what I call, a ‘friend’. I knew them in grade school. Their desk was beside mine. It didn’t matter if they were male or female. Either we clicked in second grade, or we didn’t. Maybe we shared recess and that was all…..never knowing anything else about each other. It wasn’t really important, was it? Maybe we played musical instruments together in the band….remember those ‘flute’ things we all started on…..before choosing the ‘instrument of choice’. Maybe we walked to school together and then went our separate ways to different classes. I remember how we would meet “at the corner’ and share our lives, as we knew them, til we got to school. Yes, we did walk to school, a mile one way, and we came home for lunch too. How wonderful it was, and still is, to grow up in a small town.
My grade school friends have become my life long friends……there were birthday parties, slumber parties, and chili suppers, and basketball games. We marched together in the band on the coldest of football Fridays, and sweat up a storm in the July 4th Parade.
In our neighborhood we had all ages of friends….some were 5 years younger and some were 5 years older. We all had come to the neighborhood at the same time when the little National Homes were being built in the early 50’s. Everyone had younger brothers and sisters, who were definitely in the way, so we girls had our private times sitting on the curb under the street light, taking walks around the block, sitting under the maple trees catching lightning bugs, and laying on a blanket underneath the stars before the dew fell.
From late spring til late fall we played ‘kick the can’ until our parents called us in…..or in my case, rang the bell. My mother had a school bell and we all knew that when the bell rang, that ment ‘come home and come home now!’ I think if someone would ring a school bell now, at age 68, I would suddenly become 12 again.
Later on the friendships seemed to solidify, and we all felt comfortable venturing outside our town to Girl Scout Camp for 2 weeks and then to church camp for a week where we met ‘boys’. I don’t know who was the most scared. Oh, thank goodness for friends.
As I continued on this journey, thru school, and jobs, and marriage, and kids, and divorce, etc, etc…..there are many acquaintances who have come and gone. The neighborhood I grew up in, transformed to the first apartment, and then house I shared with 4 other girls. My marriage brought me to a new town with our first home, and, as if in some large orderly plan, a friendly street, where my children would come to repeat the process. And so it goes.
My Christmas card list is full of friends. Even today there are those I meet who may become part of this precious list. As I address each card, thoughts of how we came to share our lives, some by mere coincidence, come to mind. Our babies are long gone, our work in the Jaycees, long forgotten, our church suppers and Sunday school teaching, turned over to the young adults, but our friendship, our memories, our defeats, and our successes, remain as bright and clear as if it were yesterday.
Friends…….I am so blessed they came to enrich my life….
seriouslyscorpio 