Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
The scalloped hem of the dress in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt reminds me of a dress that I once owned.
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| That's MOI - first on the left |
I don’t remember this dress. I don’t remember the party.
Heck, I don’t even remember the balloon.
The photo is not mine. In fact, this is really a photo of
a photo, but the story of how I came to have it is telling of the times in
which we live.
In July 2015, my response to the prompt photo of unsmiling
students was a post entitled Friends Side By Side in which I featured two
newspaper clippings: one of my dad standing between two of his friends and one
of me standing beside my friend for a kindergarten graduation photo. The “cute”
connection between the newspaper articles is that my dad’s friend Jimmy Stewart is my
friend Melissa’s father.
Several readers asked whether Melissa and I are still
friends, whether we keep in touch. My response was this:
No, I don't know Melissa anymore. I don't know if she
moved away or just lived in a different school district. I guess my parents and
her parents drifted apart too, so after a time, I didn't see them.
Now fast forward to April 2016. I received this Private
Message request on Facebook:
Dear Wendy, if you are Wendy Slade of Cradock … we knew
each other as kids! I went to Mrs. Newton’s kindergarten. My Dad is Jimmy
Stewart, we lived in Brentwood. Am I on the right track? …. I hope this is you,
so cool! Melissa
How did Melissa find me? Well, Facebook, of course! A
mutual friend LIKED this shared photo:
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| The Allen girls and me 1961 |
Melissa recognized the girls and neighborhood. Curiosity
drove her to my website where she even read OUR story and apologized for the
part she played in breaking my nose. (It was an accident – no apology
necessary!)
A flurry of PMs followed along with promises to get
together over lunch. (She lives about 5-minutes from me!) But a different
reunion opportunity presented itself. In his younger years, Melissa’s dad Jimmy
had been the golf pro at Bide-a-Wee. As part of the golf course’s 60th
anniversary celebration, Jimmy was invited to perform the golf equivalent of
throwing out the first pitch: a tee shot or putt.
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| Jimmy, MOI, Melissa |
So on a crisp morning in April 2016, Bide-a-Wee witnessed
two major events: Jimmy’s celebratory putt and a reunion of friends (ok, so
that second one wasn’t really major to most people). Melissa and I were both
only children when we were childhood friends. Now she has five brothers and
sisters! What a difference %&# years can make.
Oh, and that dress? I wore it to Melissa’s birthday party.
She and I can’t agree on how old we were. Too bad she doesn’t have a picture of
her cake with candles. Who knows - maybe someone else at the party has a photo.
IDEA: we should post this on Facebook!
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| From the left: Me standing next to Melissa How is it I'm the only one with a balloon? |
You’re invited to a reunion of blogging friends every week
at Sepia Saturday.
Wendy
© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
It’s nice to read about one of the great features of Facebook at a time when the company is being reviled. I’ve enjoyed reconnected with a few people on the site too. I’m amazed you got a match for the scalloped hem! What a cute dress. I have a friend with a neighbor named Rod Stewart and another William Shakespeare!
ReplyDeleteI've never met anyone with the last name Shakespeare. Stewart, a few, Shakespeare none.
DeleteWhat a great story! A true melding (welding?) of the blogosphere with social media to reactivate an old friendship. And no Russian hacker was involved either!
ReplyDeleteCute scalloped-hem dress. Perhaps the balloon was a party game prize?Reuniting with old friends you'd lost touch with is the best! I've been lucky several times with that sort of thing. Fortunately I have not lost touch with a few friends I used to play with when we were prior-to-school age. Rather remarkable and really special.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post and photo! I, too, have reconnected with neighborhood friends through FB. However, my blog has been better for cousin connections. What did we do before the Internet? :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun story of friends reunited through photos posted here and elsewhere on the net! I love that your scallop skirt is actually and over-skirt. I wonder if you remember the color of the one below which really makes the scallops stand out. I know, that's asking a lot! It's sweet. And that is a rather strange way to hold a balloon, if you ask me! more like a football, but we know how unlikely that would be!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story - happy the two of you connected!
ReplyDelete