Julie called me at the beginning of the school year when I was in 11th grade and asked me if she could ride home with me in my 1979 doo doo brown Pontiac Catalina. We were both new at West Charlotte High School, a place where it seemed we would be swallowed by the large and colorful sea of students. She confessed later that she had to lock herself in the bathroom and force herself to call me because she was so shy and scared. She was tiny and timid back then, weighing a grand sum of about 95 pounds. We rode home from school together every afternoon, making polite chit chat on the freeway. I had a habit of waiting until the last moment to change lanes once we were off our exit and in a spot where the lane ended. One afternoon, she abruptly demanded: "Why don't you just change lanes sooner!!!" It shocked me so much that I just laughed and laughed. After that we were inseparable friends. I think she spent more time at my house than hers for the rest of high school. We rocked our own straight edge scene, not giving a fart what anyone thought. Our adolescent humors evolved side by side in a rather twisted fashion (which, come to think of it maybe hasn't changed much...) Our houses were a 12 1/2 minute walk from each other (if you cut through the Bill Minor Memorial Walkway to cross neighborhoods- which we did 'cuz William Minor was her grandpa.) Many a morning and night we met halfway at the cul de sac and took it from there. One evening we met at the cul de sac at dusk, and, lacking anything better to do, we waited quietly for the cockroaches to come out of the sewer and by the light of the street lamp we threw rocks at the critters. We could make fun out of anything. Literally. Anything. When it came time for me to go to college, we sat at my house and cried and cried and cried. Julie had made me a really special helmet with all sorts of wacky shit (shit as in things) and she embroidered "deez nuts" on the back. I wore it as we sobbed.
That was in 1994. We have seen each other through everything since then. This blog is not the place to tell the details of our lives and friendship, but I will say that to have a true friend must be one of the greatest things about being human.
As I sat with Julie and Jeremy (her husband and my friend) this past weekend, it hit me hard how precious a friendship is. It was the last time I would ever spend with Julie without kids. I thought back on our rides home from West Charlotte that year and everything that has happened since.
So much has happened.
We have both witnessed so much. I would have never ever ever thought that she would be a mother to twins. And here it is unfolding.
There must be so much more to come that we don't know about. It is such a deep comfort to know that as long as we both walk this crazy planet, we will be friends. And continue to witness each other move through our lives.
Here's to my dear friend and the health of her soon to be born babies!
2 comments:
Love and luck to you, Jules.......I'll be thinking about you. Can't wait to see 'em!
Dana & Julie, what a pair you two made! I'll never forget all the rides home from school together in the Brown Rocket; listening to Dinna Ross & Cindy Lauper, holding Tiger out the window to roar at the jocks and "normals" in their cars trying to make it out of the parking lot! What a riot! Y'all were the only thing that made high school bearable, and I was so sad when you graduated a year before me. It wasn't the same after you were gone! Remember y'all telling me that the two of you had a pact; neither of you would clean out your ears until you graduated, you would then Q-tip your ears together and harvest all the saved up wax in tandem! Y'all thought I was going to be really grossed out, which I didn't get, I considered myself the be the grossest of all. What a wonderful time!
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