Looking up my Past

 I loved seeing my friends when they visited.  The Hills were friends from our two years in Alabama, and Zell adored Gary.  She was a redhead herself, and she wanted kids so badly.  Eventually I think she had a little redhaired boy herself, and she was so thrilled.  Bill and Zell were younger than us, but not by much.  They loved taking us places on the weekends.  Zell was very pretty with her long hair up in a bun, and Bill was equally adorable.  I can’t remember what they did for a living, but I know they lived nearby, and were easy to reach.  Boaz was a small town with not much going on to do.  When my parents could get a sitter, they would go out in Huntsville or some such place, and otherwise they did things on the weekends with The Hills and us.

I I’ve never forgotten them, though I think they didn’t visit us after we went to San Mateo and then Virginia.

To me they were perfect friends, and their lives would always be that of young lovers.  I did see pictures of them later, so they most have least sent cards.  How they have lingered beyond belief.  Their focus was on Gary, not me, but I think I just liked their youth and enthusiasm.  Does that say I was not very focused on myself?  Maybe. But I just generally loved them both.

Those are the only people’s names I remember from Boaz.  I had an older friend on the block that I adored, and, because it was a small town and we felt important.  I was in kindergarten and then first grade.  My brother had really learned to talk in Alabama, so when we moved to San Mateo, he had a southern accident that made him take speech therapy when he was in kindergarten.  Oh, well.  It didn’t stop him talking, not for a minute.  My brother and I were both talkalots.

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