THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND...

PHOTO: The Fab Four who gave my teeny-bopper life its music...

THE LULU CHRONICLES

LuLu-ism # 23: If you think paisley bell bottoms were to die for, paired with ‘Beatle boots’ and a guru shirt no head was left un-turned.

The reunion with my childhood friends has gone great. Last night we sat on the couch and went through all of our childhood/teen photo albums together. It just doesn’t get any better than paisley, madras, surfer shirts, white jeans and ‘Beatle hats’. If nothing else the three of us were certainly trendy in our fashions. We laughed at the times we ironed our hair on an ironing board with a real iron and taped our bangs to our foreheads. Another beauty aid was to sit in the sun with real lemon juice on our hair to lighten it. I don’t think it ever made us ‘blond’, however, we did smell a tad like a fruit bowl at the end of the afternoon. What a bunch of goobers we were.

Then we started all of the “remember when’s”. Good thing there’s three of us, because what I couldn’t remember someone else could. We probably had one complete memory between us. We have chattered non-stop for about 24-hours now and my sides hurt from laughing at my goofy friends. They, of course, have absolutely no reason to be laughing at me because I was the picture of decorum and sophistication during my teen years. Those blue pointy glasses did too make me look so mature and wise beyond my age!

Then we got serious and today, we got out all of the pictures of the husbands, the grown children, the grandchildren, and anything that would bring us up to date on each of our lives. After all, we haven’t all been together in the same room since 1970. I, of course, showed off pictures of LuLu as if she was my most favored child. My friends are pretty impressed with her sleek frame and shiny basket. But what they’re most impressed with it how good I am getting around. They knew about the Fake Knee ordeal and half expected me not to be able to get out of the car when I drove up into the driveway. I’ve given all the credit of my new found mobility to LuLu and our 12-mile bike rides.

We discovered a black and white photo of the three of us at about age 15 standing together wearing our madras Beatle hats, hip hugger jeans and laughing—laughing only the way fifteen-year-olds can— nothing held back, future all out in front of us, and with a look in our eyes that oozed dreams and hopes and adventure. What a gift to once again see myself through those young eyes.

I thank God for today and my sister/friends, for the way He has protected us and brought us to this moment of reunion and restoration. How He must love us.

Later,

deb