Some people just click with me the moment I first meet them and if they want to be friends they must be real. Let me see who they are right off. I have had a handful of friends in my 79 years that made the cut, I mean really stayed in my heart. Real friends.
I called her Annie V. I met her in church when she came over to introduce herself and told me she lived just across the woods from us. Her smile was so pretty. Her teeth were nice and white, her toe nails were painted fire engine red.
I don't know why I noticed that, but there it is.
I found out with time that she was 10 years older than me and would laugh at the same things that I did. In fact, we would see something and burst out laughing--no words were needed. Hand and glove, peas in a pod, that kind of fit.
A fine friendship.
Annie V is gone now for some years, but I think of her and laugh. I see something that reminds me of her and I either laugh or cry.
My " MILLPOND" picture brought Annie V to me a jumbled vapor of time glimpses.
Oh what memories, what fun we had.
My friend!
Annie V.
Before I get to the reason of that memory, I'll give a glimpse of things we shared.
She and I along with Judy and Janice and Jerrie and Barbara and Leona, my other girlfriends took a "leaf peeping" trip up to the Smokie Mountain's in October one year. I was driving our big old Dodge van loaded with the seven of us. When we got to Birmingham and the laughing and over talking was loud and fun, I threaded my way through "malfunction junction" to stay on I-65 headed north. After about an hour of "hell bent for Texas" driving and all the yacking, Annie V got my attention with,
"Earline, I don't recognize anything along here".
I slowed to a boodling.
Annie V clawed out the Road Atlas.
Stopping at the nearest pull off and checking our route, I saw we were near Huntsville.
DANG!
Everybody had opinions, we marked a new route going east and punched it.
Knowing we would need sustenance, bags of goodies, bowls of salads, cakes, cookies and the built in cooler was loaded.
I told my girls that I had already decided that we would eat under shade of some big old trees. I had beach towels, table cloths and probably bed sheets to spread for sitting, resting and eating. They all kept worrying.
Annie V just smiled.
Finally!
I saw the perfect place, a beautiful little country church sitting way off the road, A cemetery with an old section that was shaded with big old gnarly oaks shading beautiful thick, well groomed grass.
There!
Annie V started laughing. The others gasped and couldn't believe us.
Cloths were spread, food was unpacked, we ate and laughed and lay on our backs to laugh and discuss our picnic in the cemetery.
Old girls having fun is always a sight to behold.
No worry of time and space, just enjoying life away from husbands and children and home duties allows the shackles to fall away and their inner child come out to play.
That place of final rest for long gone folks, that cool shade from the old trees and the soft grass was as close to Heaven on Earth as one could hope to spend a detour in.
We relieved ourselves behind the church yard, packed up and headed out.
Y'all, that was fun in spades.
The weekend held so many fun adventures that space and time won't allow here. Trust me. I bet the others remember that weekend.
Now to the pond memory.
Annie V owned a small fish pond on her property where we spent many hours just being friends. Sometimes we caught one, many times not. But we got some problems solved for ourselves and many for other folks. They never ask us to, but we could have helped them had they ask.
We decided we needed to go fishing in the EARLY morning while the water was still and the day was breaking.
I met her there just on the edge of the day where we really needed a flashlight to see how to get into the boat.
Annie V was short and round. She loaded on that boat like a sack of potatoes. I held on to her as she grunted and put those stubby little legs over the edge to grunt again as she slumped onto the seat.
We laughed.
The boat rocked, the water rippled, the dogs barked, the roosters crowed, somebody cranked a truck and I still was standing on the bank waiting to load on myself.
We laughed some more.
I paddled us out to the head of the pond where the cattails grew.
Annie V said that was where I could hook a big old bass. She laughed and talked. I shushed her. She rocked the boat, she laughed and talked. She was incapable of being still and quiet. The water rippled and rippled and rippled and sloshed.
I picked up the paddle and took us back to the landing (pond side).
Annie V asked what I was doing. I told her I needed to have her get out for a moment.
I helped her out. She sat down in a chair to wait and see what I intended. I paddled off to the other side of the pond.
A dead silence settled on the pond just before we both started laughing like hyenas.
We didn't catch a fish that morning, but we both enjoyed a really good time with our friend.
