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Real Answers™
jd31
Copyright: © ©2006 Jill Darling
700 words

CONNECTING WITH CLASSMATE IS "GOOD MEDICINE"

By: Jill Darling

I hadn't seen her in 34 years. We'd planned to meet at a restaurant at the Denver airport before my flight left at the end of a week-long skiing vacation with my sisters and brother-in-law at Copper Mountain. Since she lived within striking distance of the airport, we made a date.

The last time I'd seen Dani she had long straight brown hair parted in the middle, which was the style back in the early 1970s. By phone, she described what she and her husband Mike looked like and were wearing so I'd recognize them.

"We're a couple of old farts," she said.

There they were standing in front of the elevator: Dani with short gray hair and light brown highlights, black shirt and pants with olive green vest; and Mike with a golfer's cap, full gray beard and red plaid shirt.

It was great seeing her again. Our high school years at Augsburg American High School in Germany seemed like such a lifetime away.

I never thought I'd link up with anyone from Augsburg, since we were "Army brats" and moved around frequently. Typically, friendships ended when our fathers' tour of duty ended. We missed out on the camaraderie that many classmates enjoy when they live in the same community. I often wondered what became of the cheerleaders I practiced routines with after school, the few guys I dated and the girlfriends I laughed with at slumber parties.

Thank goodness for the Internet. Those pop-up ads are annoying, but one day curiosity got the best of me and instead of closing the window, I relented and clicked on classmates.com. I was excited to see AAHS listed and posted my name on the site. A couple months later I heard from Dani. She actually paid thirty-something dollars to get in touch with me!

We e-mailed and then talked on the phone. How weird to hear our voices for the first time since we were teenagers! She told me that AAHS had had a reunion three years before, which she attended. We gabbed for a couple hours catching up on all the classmates and teachers she knew about. I was shocked to hear about several classmates who had died.

Now we sat at the restaurant for three-and-a-half hours, poring over the three yearbooks I'd brought, each of us filling in the blanks of what we could remember. Poor Mike endured all of our reminiscing and chimed in when he could.

Each Thursday after school, Dani and I walked across the street with other girls wearing white blouses, dark skirts and white aprons to work as waitresses at "Steak Night." The bland military cafeteria was transformed into a low-lit restaurant offering sizzling steaks served by high school girls.

Dani and I played on the tennis team together--she played doubles and I played singles. We traveled to West Berlin by train to compete with another American high school team. I remember looking wide-eyed out the train's window as we crossed the Iron Curtain with German guards sternly riveted along the railroad tracks.

At the airport, Dani, the artsy one, gave me a birthday gift. She had knitted a "Darling" pink, purple and black scarf for me using Darling brand yarn, a play on my name. She also gave me a Snoopy gift book on friendship, "Oh Friend of Friends" by Charles Schulz. (Peanuts was a popular comic strip when we were in school.)

Even though it had been 34 years, we were the same people. Dani still laughed easily and we had a great time. She said I seemed more outgoing, which is true.

What a good feeling to make connections with someone from the past! It's brought a deeper dimension to my life to relive memories with someone who knew me then.

To quote Hilaire Belloc in the friendship book: "From quiet homes and first beginning, out to the undiscovered ends, there's nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends."

A quote from Proverbs says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine."

As I age, I sense the value of love, laughter and friends in my life. It's good medicine.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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