CLAY AND WATTLES

Old Friends

Sunday Paul and I went to Frank and Martha's 40th wedding anniversary reception in Southaven. It's as if we've never been apart when we see each other. We all double-dated way back when, and Paul and I spent lots of time at their first home on Snowdown Road after they married.

I recognized Matt right away - he looks just like Frank. Martha's sister Linda was not hard to pick out, either - they look a lot alike. Nichole favors Martha quite a bit and is quiet like Frank. We also got to see Don and Delton, Martha's brothers. Bobby was not there; he drives for Greyhound and was on the road. Matt and Lynn have two children, and Nichole and Adam have one little boy.

Speaking of marbles (earlier posts), I have to get our Wahoo game out and the marbles that go with it. We used to play this all the time. Paul made the boards - they had one and we did. He thinks he made them when he practice-taught at Okolona. Now they have "cloned" theirs and their kids have Wahoo game boards, hand-made of course. We have probably not had our boards out since the last time we saw Frank and Martha almost 20 years ago! (That's shameful, to live this near each other and not get together! Martha and I have stayed in touch by email, though.) Paul and I need to take up this game again. I'm not sure I'd remember how to play, but it was fun. Martha said they took their board with them on vacation to Florida one year, forgot it, and traced it down and paid about $35 shipping to get it back! "Too sentimental to leave," she said.

It was great seeing them. Reminds me of who I am, really. That young girl, that young boy. Those young kids. How and why we fell in love and that beneath all the years that have passed, we are still who we were all those years ago.