Reuniting with old friends

By Maria Bailey

Some things in life you never forget like the name of your first grade teacher, the first boy you ever kissed and your best friend from grade school. Just for the record, my first grade teacher was Mrs. Block, a tall, somewhat large woman with a huge head -- I mean no disrespect because it probably only looked huge when it was hanging over my desk.

The first boy I ever kissed, and I mean really kissed was Charles Dasher. Who could forget Charlie, we kissed everyday at recess under the concrete bleachers and I ended up with mono for two weeks.

My best friend was Toni. She was the new kid from Chicago when we were in the fourth grade and other than Terrance Gilliland, she was the only African-American student at our school. Color never mattered to us. We listened to Lionel Richie at her house and Peter Frampton at mine. We were inseparable from the first moment we met.

Her parents owned McDonald restaurants and on the weekends we would unofficially work in the store. We'd shuffle fries or dispense milk shakes. We were both to young to be employed but we love to help out. To be honest, we were playing McDonald's crewmember before there were even McDonald's drive-thrus, if that's any indication as to how long ago Toni and I enjoyed our friendship. She was smart and beautiful. There was always a line of boys waiting to talk to her on the playground and many more when we got to high school.

We both decided to join the band as freshman but played no musical instrument so we let grumpy, old Mrs. Whitaker talk us into learning the trombone. I don't know about you, but the trombone is not exactly the instrument I'd select for my daughters. But our ever-patient mothers agreed and we pursued our musical career together. Two lone trombonist struggling through Band 101, marching every Friday night but refusing to fully become band-geeks. Toni and I were too rebellious to be called band-geeks. We refuse to attend concert practices and faked our parts half the time because we never practiced.

We conspired against boys together, cover each other's back and once in our senior year we even ran away from home together. I can't even remember our justification for doing so but I do remember our fathers found us about 8 hours after we officially flew the coop. Yeah, that was a great idea, I got grounded for a month and couldn't go out on a date until the Senior prom. Well worth the effort....NOT!

We graduated together and then mysteriously separated to find our place in the real world. I went to Florida State and she to Xavier. Why all this reminiscing about old times? After 16 years apart, I reunited on the phone tonight with Toni. I happened to be on BlueSuitMom.com last night and noticed an ad for Classmates.com. When I clicked over to review the list of Bishop Kenny alumni, I never expected to find anyone I cared about.

But there on the list was Toni. I couldn't get my credit card out fast enough! I sent an email and got a response that included a phone number. I quickly dialed the number. Within seconds, her familiar voice filled the line and all the missing years disappeared. We exchanged stories about our children, past careers, lost loves, weight gains, weight losses and former friends. The details of our lives could not be spoken quick enough. We even joked about all the trombone duets we faked together! We were the same crazy, free spirits we had been since the fourth grade with one small exception: now we were mothers.

In between the stories we told, children in the background were fighting their bedtimes. Seems that although Toni and I traveled a different road after high school, we'd each reached the role of mother. We laughed at how strange we sounded as moms and how we said the same things our moms had said to us on so many occasions. It became apparent very quickly that the years had not broken our bond of friendship.

I regretfully ended the conversation in order to allow her to tuck in her son but I look forward to rekindling our friendship. Just think how much fun it will be to rediscover my old friend! It won't take much effort because there are just some things in life you don't forget.

Share your thoughts on our message board or email Maria.

Also see:
• Week Thirty-Six -- Tips for managing a large family
• Week Thirty-Five --Fulfilling my dreams
• Week Thirty-Four --Parenting approaches
• Week Thirty-Three -- Combining a business trip with spring break
• Week Thirty-Two -- Making Spring Break plans
• Week Thirty-One -- Importance of a Support System
• Week Thirty -- Life is good
• Week Twenty-nine -- My nine year anniversary
• Week Twenty-Eight --Does birth order matter?
• Week Twenty-Seven -- Things we take for granted
• Week Twenty-Six -- My youngest turned two
• Week Twenty-Five -- Losing someone you love
• Week Twenty-Four -- Where's the romance in Valentine's Day?
• Week Twenty-Three -- The call I've been waiting for
• Week Twenty-Two -- Where did the weekend go?
• Week Twenty-One -- Business trip challenges
• Week Twenty -- Girl Scout cookie time
• Week Nineteen -- Thoughts on motherhood
• More diary entries

Maria Bailey is the CEO and founder of BlueSuitMom.com and a mother of four children under the age of seven.