random nostalgia
I just realized that I've never been to a wedding. I've been to a reception for a civil marriage thing, where the couple just goes to the courthouse gets married and throws a party later. Even then I was 8, and it was my best friends mom getting married. And I was too distracted by the fear that Bonnie wouldn't want to be friends anymore because her new stepsister was our age and really cool.
Turns out I was right. After the wedding, Bonnie and her mom moved away to madison, onnly 30 minutes away. But she only invited me over to play twice after the move. Both times, Laurel wanted to do something different. I would want to go for a walk in the woods and look for faeries and crap like that. Laurel was the kind of girl who wanted to go shopping or make friendship bracelets. I wanted to build houses for trolls down by the creek. luckily after Bonnie moved over to the dark side, I found a friend in Elizabeth a few years later. I told her about the borrower houses. She loved building Borrower houses. (What we called the little miniature houses, tents, and caves we furnished all over the farm and inside the house. They were for the "borrowers," the little people.) I found a kindred spirit.
Liz and I actually used to steal potatoes from the kitchen, stuff them in a backpack, and walk down to the creek. We'd make a little campfire in the woods, roast poatoes in the coals, burn our fingers on them, and stuff our tummies. We'd grab mason jars and pickle jars and fill them with random bits of leaves and rocks and rose petals and bury them underground or hide them in trees. I can't remember why. We once spent an entire afternoon one fall, running around on the east field by the fence, catching sycamore leaves before they could hit the ground. It was the best game ever. The two of us lived outside, riding bikes to eachothers houses everyweekend. She'd come over to the farm friday afternoon or saturday morning, but we'd always end up back at her place to watch BBC comedies on sunday night. Elizabeth was a tiny skinny litle thing. She must have been about half a foot shorter than me, and almost frail looking. She had long dark hair, always in a ponytail. Her skin was so pale, she had huge blue circles under her eyes, but she was strong as an ox, and not afraid of anything. I was tall and big boned, I hit a growth spurt early, not yet fat, just kind of... big. With freckles and pink cheeks and curly brown hair. We made a very odd pair. Personality wise as well. Believe it or not I was the even tempered one, and she was the bossy little firecracker. I think I learned my bossy ways from her. She used to get in knockdown drag out fights with her mom and sister. I used to just sit in the kitchen, staring at my iced tea, while she and rebecca fought over whose turn it was to feed the chickens.
She was a good friend though. We went to different schools, none of our other friends were welcome when it was the two of us. It was Kate and Liz, or it was Them. We didn't ever talk about our social lives or boys. We'd talk about the cool stuff we learned, she was very smart.
She showed me computer games and I showed her arts and crafts. But mostly we stayed outside. We spent three days damming up a part of the creek to swim in. We spent nights up in the woods, armed with horseblankets, a box of matches, and our pocketknives.
We treasured our pocket knives. mine was a gift from my dad. We made "hunting spears," and shot at the canadian geese with my bb-gun.My parents and I taught her how to ride horses, but she never felt comfortable up on a horse, so we mostly kept on foot around the farm. We'd set up hay bales in the barn, and build forts and castles, until the dog would knock them down. We built firepits and roasted marshmallows on black birch sticks. Black birch trees were specifically reserved for smelling and marshmellow sticks. you could break off a twig and peel back the skin and it smelled like root beer and spearmint gum. In the winter we made snow cones from snow, honey, and mint we dried from the summer before by hanging it in bunches in the shed.
Then highschool hit. I decided that having a learners permit and a car was awesome, and that punk was better than classical and country. I started growing my hair out, liking boys, wearing skirts, and having a Charlottesville life, instead of a Free Union life.
I haven't seen Liz in probably 8 years. Its a small town though, so I know she's in Veterinary school at VAtech. I really hope she's happy and doing well. My childhood would have been very different without her. That day catching leaves is one of my favorite memories.
Turns out I was right. After the wedding, Bonnie and her mom moved away to madison, onnly 30 minutes away. But she only invited me over to play twice after the move. Both times, Laurel wanted to do something different. I would want to go for a walk in the woods and look for faeries and crap like that. Laurel was the kind of girl who wanted to go shopping or make friendship bracelets. I wanted to build houses for trolls down by the creek. luckily after Bonnie moved over to the dark side, I found a friend in Elizabeth a few years later. I told her about the borrower houses. She loved building Borrower houses. (What we called the little miniature houses, tents, and caves we furnished all over the farm and inside the house. They were for the "borrowers," the little people.) I found a kindred spirit.
Liz and I actually used to steal potatoes from the kitchen, stuff them in a backpack, and walk down to the creek. We'd make a little campfire in the woods, roast poatoes in the coals, burn our fingers on them, and stuff our tummies. We'd grab mason jars and pickle jars and fill them with random bits of leaves and rocks and rose petals and bury them underground or hide them in trees. I can't remember why. We once spent an entire afternoon one fall, running around on the east field by the fence, catching sycamore leaves before they could hit the ground. It was the best game ever. The two of us lived outside, riding bikes to eachothers houses everyweekend. She'd come over to the farm friday afternoon or saturday morning, but we'd always end up back at her place to watch BBC comedies on sunday night. Elizabeth was a tiny skinny litle thing. She must have been about half a foot shorter than me, and almost frail looking. She had long dark hair, always in a ponytail. Her skin was so pale, she had huge blue circles under her eyes, but she was strong as an ox, and not afraid of anything. I was tall and big boned, I hit a growth spurt early, not yet fat, just kind of... big. With freckles and pink cheeks and curly brown hair. We made a very odd pair. Personality wise as well. Believe it or not I was the even tempered one, and she was the bossy little firecracker. I think I learned my bossy ways from her. She used to get in knockdown drag out fights with her mom and sister. I used to just sit in the kitchen, staring at my iced tea, while she and rebecca fought over whose turn it was to feed the chickens.
She was a good friend though. We went to different schools, none of our other friends were welcome when it was the two of us. It was Kate and Liz, or it was Them. We didn't ever talk about our social lives or boys. We'd talk about the cool stuff we learned, she was very smart.
She showed me computer games and I showed her arts and crafts. But mostly we stayed outside. We spent three days damming up a part of the creek to swim in. We spent nights up in the woods, armed with horseblankets, a box of matches, and our pocketknives.
We treasured our pocket knives. mine was a gift from my dad. We made "hunting spears," and shot at the canadian geese with my bb-gun.My parents and I taught her how to ride horses, but she never felt comfortable up on a horse, so we mostly kept on foot around the farm. We'd set up hay bales in the barn, and build forts and castles, until the dog would knock them down. We built firepits and roasted marshmallows on black birch sticks. Black birch trees were specifically reserved for smelling and marshmellow sticks. you could break off a twig and peel back the skin and it smelled like root beer and spearmint gum. In the winter we made snow cones from snow, honey, and mint we dried from the summer before by hanging it in bunches in the shed.
Then highschool hit. I decided that having a learners permit and a car was awesome, and that punk was better than classical and country. I started growing my hair out, liking boys, wearing skirts, and having a Charlottesville life, instead of a Free Union life.
I haven't seen Liz in probably 8 years. Its a small town though, so I know she's in Veterinary school at VAtech. I really hope she's happy and doing well. My childhood would have been very different without her. That day catching leaves is one of my favorite memories.