once upon a time, there were a bunch of kids who hung out quite passionately, out of which there was a core group, four kids, who were best friends and also boyfriend/girlfriend, and this lasted quite a good long time, for the junior high/senior high kids we were.
now, at the end of the sophomore year, one kid's parents moved him to LA to get him away from the bad influence kid. another's mom sent her to boarding school in france for cryin' out loud, again to get her away from this naughty child, who i may or may not have been, and in all honesty most of the influencing was truly mutual, but everybody's gotta blame somebody, and i'm generally handy when things happen. the other members of the group drifted apart, which would be the end of our story, if it were not for the internet, specifically classmates.com. three of the four of us have connected under the auspices of that wonderful database, (and one of them even occasionally writes for surreally!), but one remains at large.
now, this girl, Patty, was my bestest friend. we're talking from grade school on through the france incident, and lingering on afterwards, although some bad vibes what with me dumping her husband's brother and all (if it wasn't best friends, it was brothers for us, you know?). anyway, her husband (if they are still married, and they probably are) would hate me, and there is no doubt that her mom doesn't much care for me either.
and the only way for me to find her is through her mom. see here? scroll down, that's the sweet little old lady that chased us up over the sidewalks in her butterscotch colored datsun when we made a break for it against her wishes. looks harmless right? well, maybe she's mellowed over the years.
calling that number to see if she's still around, is my only way to ever hope of finding Patty again. and i have fierce nostalgia these days, and it seems important to do so. however, chances are, it's a dead end -- a hang-up, with maybe some yelling beforehand. and if i get past mom, there's hubby.
it's a dilemma. if i do it and it fails, that's pretty much it for that. if i don't do it, it's always there for me to do, if she doesn't find classmates soon (you'd be surprised how well represented my classmates are). face failure or live with possibilites. and fierce nostalgia, either way. hmm.
Um, she'd look harmless except for all the freaking knives...
hahaha -- i hadn't even thought of that. and you know what else? she's from Romania. Transylvania, Romania. or maybe we just all believed that when we were growing up, i don't know.
but i get scared just looking at her.
I think... I think, I would go for it. Drink a lot of wine, move the tables and give ol' gal a call. You already know the worst that can happen.
which ever way you decide kd, I hope it works out well.
it has to be in the daytime, during business hours. and i am figuring that either this week or next, would be good, what with the holidays coming up and if ever kids were going to be in town, that would be the time.
i've had the number stowed away in my cell phone for a good week now, i'm only just now even posting about this, and slowly, slowly, i'll work my way up to the actual calling.
i did call it in the evening over the weekend, when i knew no-one was there (and yeah i was drunk). the number is still in service, and has no answering machine. this tells me old people still run the place, yes? none of that newfangled techno-gadgetry answering the phone.
Chances are real good she won't even remember you all that well, unless you were really bad. ;-) But more than likely she'll figure that was then and this is now, and even if you were "wild" then, you'd be calmer by now. I think most parents realize all kids go through stages but that they do eventually grow into decent adults. Besides, how could she not love you?
well, as bad influences go, i turned in a stellar performance or two in my day :)
hopefully there won't be any twenty year grudges, but then again, you just never know.
call her. she may yell and hang up on you, but that can't be worse than her getting all pissed off at you in her knife shop. stick to the phone.
you can't ever go back
but you can go forward with the same people you were once back there with.
I always knew you were trouble. ;0)
Wasn't there just a movie out with Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn with similar themes?
dunno. not into the chick flicks myself :)
but it does have lifetime channel movie written all over it, huh?
Good luck, KD! Go for it!!
You might as well, if only so you won't torture yourself over it.
Monkey -- Promoting Low Standards is our Specialty
did you say Lifetime movie? can you hurry and call and let us know what happens?
i do have to say that bobby g has a point- things are never the same- althought i guess that could be a good thing, too!
Make the call. If you make the call, there's only a small chance you'll get to her - but if you don't make the call, there's no chance at all.