grade two

To the filkers out there: Don't forget that the deadline for e-mail Pegasus Award ballots is today. You can find voting ballots here.

The photo above is of my Grade 2 class in Earnscliffe Public School in 1969. You can click on it to see a larger version. There are two children circled: me and my friend Cathy Rutland. My mom made the dress I'm wearing.

I used the class photo in a birthday card I made for Cathy, who turned forty yesterday, and we both spent part of lunch trying to figure out how many kids we could remember. The answer: not many. I remember having a crush on Bobby Faltynek (top row, third from the right, manic grin). I remember, years later, hearing that Chuck Huber (second row, third from the right) had died in the line of duty as a firefighter.

Very strange, looking back at this class photo and seeing it from two perspectives: (1) as a little kid again, clearly remembering these children as my peers, along with the insecurities and crushes and heartache and joys, and (2) as an adult seeing a bunch of little kids who are younger than my niece Sara is now.





Cathy and I took yesterday afternoon off to celebrate her 40th birthday. We had lunch in the Elmwood Spa restaurant, and each had a spa treatment; she had a Moor Mud Wrap while I opted for a Swedish Massage. After our treatments, we spent a few hours in the water therapy section, alternating between the steam room, sauna, whirlpool and pool.

During one of our stints in the steam room, one of the cleaning staff took away our robes, which were hanging just outside. Have to wonder what they were thinking, since they must have heard us talking inside! My glasses were inside the pocket of my robe, and both of us had the combination tags to our lockers in our pockets as well. While Cathy searched the laundry bins in case someone had tossed the robes there, I wandered (blindly) out to the water therapy front desk, to tell them what happened. They got my glasses back, and wrote down our locker combinations on slips of paper. No one apologized, which I found odd.

Of all my friends, I've known Cathy the longest: thirty-three years. Kind of cool, knowing a non-family person that long, because each of us has a longterm context on which to base our friendship, and have seen each other go through many changes in our lives. I also have found that I feel an extra special bond with friends who knew my mother and my brother Jim.

Anyway, it was a wonderful sort of afternoon, lazing about in steam rooms and whirlpools with an old friend.

I'll be working through most of the weekend to make up for my indulgent Monday (spent in Ottawa) and for yesterday, but it was worth it. :-)





Links/News:

Four years ago, Andrea did a Guest Blather.

Five years ago, Jeff met Scott Snyder and Adam English for the first time.