There She Was

Sharen found her on facebook.
Our old neighbor, Barb.

Sharen, Mary, Barb, Me, Barb's baby sister Donna - who we mostly ignored, and her big Bro Jim (affectionately known as Jungle Jim).

She was "our" best friend. She was the other end to our jump rope. She was our outfield when we played kickball and wiffel ball in the street. We would spend hours everyday climbing the weeping willow in her yard all the way to the top just to sit and talk. We played holly, red rover, I draw a circle, Hope to see the ghost tonight, old maid, war, 4 square and of course Barbies.

We got caught stealing green apples from the neighbors tree, almost burning down her father's garage, got sick from eating "giggle gas" (a mixture of green apples and green grapes in salt water that we thought was delicious). We rode bikes, swam, fed the ducks and the deer, and played in Lords Park. We always had some kind of "fort" to hide in, hanging blankets from the swingset to the grapevine to the sand box. We rode roller skates, and homemade skate boards around the block. We took the same block walking on stilts and walking around wearing funny costumes.

As this picture proves she was the middle to make us complete!

Her Mother was a short very Italian Mom who would hang clothes on the line everyday. She taught me how to properly hang everything from shirts to socks. She would hang pasta over all the chairs in the house on homemade pasta day. She would iron all the family's clothes on a padded iron press. She had a garden with tomatoes and lettuce that we would steal and make huge salads and eat with our fingers out of the same bowl. I am pretty sure Ma Franz knew about the garden thing because she always had homemade Italian dressing in the frig. She would pay us 10 cents to weed the garden - which we did happily so we could go the the corner grocery store. Max's Grocery's.

I'm not sure her Father was a big man, but he had a very big presence. He drove a VW beetle and had miniature dogs for pets. He was a photographer and had his own darkroom in the basement. He later built a bedroom into a bigger darkroom and gave us the basement room. He handed over his leftover film, papers, and old cameras so we could discover the wonder of pictures. He would take the time and show us how to use the big enlarger and carefully helped us mix all the chemicals. It was always thrilling to slowly watch the picture come to life in the developer. And then the rinse and yes we even hung them on the line to dry. All the trouble we would get into this is one thing we NEVER would mess with. Old man Franz's chemicals.
I wish I had more of our pictures we took.

Me and Barb smelling the flowers. I am not sure why we are in our swim suits.

Us borrowing the car for a run down.

She was even there with us on vacations.
I think Sharen  was more interested in getting a view of the lake than me and Barb.

We went out for a fish fry and stopped at this monument. I am sure Mom did this to torture us.

She was a year younger in school and as we got to middle school we each had our own circle of friends (even Sharen and I had our separate group) and we grew apart.

She became a barber and later a hairdresser. She cut mine and Mike's hair for awhile and then she broke her back and had to quit so we lost touch again.

Fast forward to Dec. 2011. Sharen looked her up on facebook and friended her. She answered in less than an hour and we have been emailing back and forth ever since. She works part time as a photographer. Her Dad would be so proud.

We are planning a get together this summer. She has a house on a lake and invited us there. Really looking forward to it.