#34...... THAT GIRL.... Walking down the street..... "Vicky L."

VICKY (selfie)  stolen from her FB page...

Because I don' t have many photographs from my being a baby,  childhood nor the  teen years -  not like all my friends have .... with all of the memorable trips, holidays and special times etc due to several factors in my life

• fire burning a lot of my personal belongings / photographs
• being somewhat of a gypsy for many years
• and relatives not sharing with me what they do have... (this is not to mean the KAY FAMILY who has been very generous with their family photos...but others

I don't have any photos of Vicky and I together, although I know there were some in existence from that place in time.    My family did not see the importance of taking photos or memorializing my life through photographs or writings.  So I will piece my life together now...while I still can , in hopes that my children / grandchildren will find them interesting.  

If I did have ALL of them I would be able to provide you with more photos of me actually taking silly photos, going on walks to the park and swims at the pool.   I would have photos of us being with our respective boyfriends for at least one summer.

That summer, I do believe, was 1976 ...if it wasn't , I am close.

I watched "that girl" walking down the street.   The cul de sac wasn't very large.... she was going in and out of a tri-level two doors down.   Chip & Chad lived there,  the sons of Jan and Dan Duff.  I loved their house, they had beautiful sons and smiled and laughed!  ALOT!

I watched her walk up and down the road.  Back then we didn't have cell phones but it is my guess that if we did...she CLEARLY would have been carrying one if not talking on one.   She appeared to be about my age....and .......she was BEAUTIFUL.

She had long gorgeous blonde hair, looked older than me with her body which was perfectly proportioned and had some blue eyes that I could see through the screen on the window that my face was pressed against.    I did not own a camera at the time with any Zooming capabilities so I had to zoom with my mind.  If I took a photo it would have been with a 110 or a polaroid.  I am sure that I did...but if I did it is long gone and blurry and probably faded by now.

My bio-mother asked one day why I did not go out and introduce myself to her as I had not met anyone in the neighborhood of Chestnut Oaks except for 3 boys.... thats it.... I wondered if I should but then convinced myself that she had a marvelous life and enough friends and didn't.  After some weeks of watching her through the window, one day I walked outside to the porch and sat down.... she looked over with her beautiful blue eyes , take her hand and flip her hair and look upwards and walk in the house.   I thought .... "oh boy just what I want to do , introduce myself to someone that is "stuck up."  ...

BOY WAS I WRONG....... her older sister, Jan, called  and said that Vicky wanted to meet me.  I was thinking ... uh no..".the adults think we would be great friends and most of the time they are dead wrong"?   But the person that was wrong was me... Vicky only had a few friends and none in Chesterfield.    We were two like connected at the hip the rest of the summer.  

She met my boyfriend, I met hers and they met each other.... all a perfect match....great adventures would begin... .exploring our teen aged worlds and selves together in that summer of 1976.  Our memories of that summer.   We laughed and had a bit of a coming of age experience that summer with each other.   

Vicki was staying the summer with her older sister, Jan, to help keep an eye on Chip and Chad.  Vicky went to school in Highland Springs and her boyfriend,  Varina.   I went to school at the time in CLoverhill and my Boyfriend,  Huguenot in Richmond.    We both were very much in love and had our entire lives planned out with our respective boyfriends, right down to what we might name our children we would eventually have with each of them.

It's amazing how our imaginations were on SUPER CHARGE..... we could clearly dream, and see them actually happening because as smart as we were in school, we were very naive about life and how quickly and often things could potentially change.    My mind at that stage of the game didn't figure in the "outside world" at all....just the fact that we were all in love and best friends and "NOTHING" would ever change that.   That summer lots of promises were made between all of us.... that we were excited about, believed in....and then the coming of age part kicked in and reality set in, EVERYWHERE.

After many years of separation , one day I was having a yardsale.   I saw a familiar face in the crowd,  we both had gotten married to other people than we dreamed about that summer and our lives were miles and miles apart.   I didn't know what to say....except for the normal "we should get together" that never happens for one reason or another.  Inhibitions that we did not have as teenagers were quite evident between us as young adults.

After that ,  her brother in law, Dan , sold my house and found the house for me that I live in now.  But Vicky and I?  our friendship dwindled as she went back to Highland Springs and I Went to New Orleans.   I always thought about our summer.... together and our unique friendship that I will always treasure.

Both of us have had a few moments of fame in our lives while we had been living our separate lives.... for different reasons.....  I read about hers and maybe she read about / watched mine.  I don't know but I do know ..I don't have a single photo of that group, of us all together in our TIME .... I am very sad about that.    We had a bond that could transcend time and decades just in the memory factor alone..... we were children together....I wish I had the photos to document that time... that very special fun time in my life...

I do have FACEBOOK and am allowed to remember and even "chat about old times" with her VICKY ....but because she doesn't get on much not at all we have of yet...... I got a message from her the other day....sounds like we will meet and talk and catch up on each other......   this year 2015....

I kinda wanna press my face on a screen and get ready..... first ..... but ..my heart is chomping at the bit to "see" what spark of our coming of age time... that either one of us can conjure up a memory about.    She still looks like "that girl"  walking down the street, confident, beautiful and like she doesn't need a friend like me...she probably has it "all together" or that is how she appears from afar though that screen my nose is pressed against. 

I shameless took the photos you see here of Vicky, from her FB page......   maybe?  I am hoping ...she held on to her childhood better than I did mine...and we come across one of us together!!  Or maybe her sister, Jan, has one?  I dunno but... .can't wait ...for old times sake....to see "THAT GIRL"

shamelessly stolen from her FB page.....here is VICKY