Sepia Saturday: Friend Bait

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.

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:

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 60^th anniversary celebration, Jimmy was invited to perform the golf equivalent of throwing out the first pitch: a tee shot or putt.

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!

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.

Sepia Saturday: Friends Side by Side

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo of a group of unsmiling students is similar to quite a few old photos in my collection. Amidst the pictures of family portraits and school photos are two newspaper clippings that alone are nothing out of the ordinary, but paired tell a story of friendship.

My father was a proud graduate of the University of Virginia as were some of his best friends. They were members of the Portsmouth Cavalier Club of UVA, which was most likely just a social group, maybe even an alumni group. Apparently they hosted dances at the popular Suburban Country Club in Portsmouth.

Suburban Country Club in Portsmouth, Virginia

In the photo accompanying a brief announcement of one such upcoming dance, Daddy was standing between two friends, Jimmy Stewart (not the actor) and Jimmy Boggs. Jimmy Stewart held a higher position on the friend chain, I suppose, as he was selected to be my godfather. The three couples were good friends for a long time.  As a child, I often played with the Boggs’ son Mark and the Stewarts’ daughter Melissa.

My dad Fred Slade is on the top row, next to last.
Flanking him are Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Boggs

In fact, Melissa was somewhat of a “best friend” probably because I saw her so often, not just when our parents got together for an evening of cards. She and I attended the same kindergarten: Newton’s Nursery and Kindergarten. Here we are standing side by side posing for our graduation photo. (I find it amusing that Daddy and I both were standing on the back row with our best friend standing to our right.)

Melissa and I are standing on the back row.
I'm third from the end; Melissa is to my right, 4th from the end.

Memories from kindergarten have long faded except for one: the day I broke my nose. Melissa and I were holding hands and running in a circle, fast, faster, faster still. Then without warning she let go. I went flying face first onto the linoleum floor. The next thing I knew, one of the teachers picked me up and rushed to the bathroom. She held me over the trough sink and did what she could to clean me up but was obviously losing the battle as blood just seemed to pour.

I don’t know if my mother was called away early from Cradock Elementary School where she was teaching or if she came after school, but I remember the look on her face. I must have been a frightening sight. We went to the doctor for a diagnosis and instructions. Yep, broken.

Nightly seemingly forever, my mother applied HOT, I mean really HOT, towels soaked in some kind of salt solution. My precious little face was black and blue and swollen. Not a day went by without multiples of people staring and asking, “What happened to YOU?” Today I’d probably respond, “You should see the other guy” but when I was 5, I was totally humiliated and just wanted to stay home, not even go to school to play with my best buddy Melissa.

Yeah, I was probably scarred for life.

Please visit the smiling group of bloggers at Sepia Saturday.

© 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.