An unexpected memory...

I received a call from Lynette the Cowgirl the other day. It seems that her son and father were in the attic of her parents' house installing insulation and found a box of memorabilia with her name on it. There among bits of paper, a t-shirt, photos, faded flowers, etc. was an autograph book that I had given her when she went into the hospital when we were really young. Sixth grade? Seventh?

This exchange was completely forgotten by both of us until this relic from our past was uncovered. Mom had bought me a similar one (which was the reason I asked my Mom to get one for Lynette.) When I saw the photo Lynette e-mailed, I remembered that I was bummed that all Mom could find was a gold one. (Mine was lavender which I thought was a better color.)

In another total piece of randomness, I even remember where Mom bought the thing. A store called, All Occasions--which I used to love when I was a girl. It was a bit of a stationary store and a bit of a party supply store. I remember buying sealing wax there for one of my friends--which we thought was the coolest. It made the notes we passed back and forth to each other a little more secret because they were sealed with a "C" stamped into a bit of red wax. This was made even cooler because we shared the initial. (A random piece of trivia is that I finally bought some for myself two years ago, when I ran across the stuff at a festival in Grapevine that we attended with Jeff and Jill Otero.)

If you were from the south side of Fort Worth circa 1979, All Occasions was located on Trail Lake in a shopping center across from the Baskin Robbins and Colonial Cafeteria (where my parents used to love to eat after church.) None of those businesses are there anymore--though the buildings still stand occupied by other endeavors.

Just like with the sealing wax, the illusion of secrecy was important for all young girl's communication, so we folded the interior pages of the autograph book all criss-crossed after each person signed so that what they wrote was hidden. Most people wrote goofy yearbook type sayings in it. My entry is on the first page of this one where I wrote she was "tops." (Tops? I couldn't come up with anything better than tops?)

The best part was the last page, where Kevin J. apologized for not calling. (Ah, the complexities of relationships in middle school.) Kevin wrote "so when you are reading this 20 some odd years from now...."

Little did he know it would take 30.