and shortly after yesterday's post went out and grabbed a bottle of Lancer's rose and headed off to try a cold call to an old classmate to thank her for a comment she made at Christmas time 1976.
I just knocked on the door and we recognized me immediately and invited me in. I gave her the bottle and we chatted.
In school she was quiet and had somewhat of an angry air about her and that was long gone. I found out that it was something we shared. Neither of us liked school very much at all. Neither of us wanted to be there. On top of that we shared one teacher we had in common that we truly respected. He taught history IIRC and he was the one that tried to teach us to actually think which was rare among teachers even back then.
She had morphed into a warm, charming woman and when she referred to herself, tongue in cheek, as 'an old broad' I knew she was a member of the 'old broads club' which isn't very easy to get into. One has to land on their ass hard a few times and come back up without losing their sense of life. Old broads can generally be expected to land in a pile of $hit and come up smelling like a rose.
What a wonderful woman she turned out to be!
I'm glad I took the leap and did that because it settles the books and I think I made a friend. I owed her a lot more than a bottle of wine.
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One thing I wish I had told her was the time I was fishing in Alaska and we got dumped on by a freak wave. The entire back deck was clobbered and I was underwater and fighting for something solid to hang onto and managed to find something and sat there hanging on for dear life underwater.
Slowly he deck cleared itself and I was battered and bruised and looked over at Blaine, my shipmate. When the deck was somewhat dry again I spoke to Blaine. "Well, that certainly keeps a man interested, doesn't it?"
"Don'tcha wish you'd married a nice Irish girl and got a job selling insurance?" he replied.
I had a quick mental picture of her and replied, "I know a pretty Irish girl," I said. "But I think she has a brain in her head and wouldn't touch an insurance salesman with a ten foot pole! At least it's interesting here!"
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Lancer's is a good wine. I wish the PA LCB stores would carry it. I can't even get them to special order it for me, and instead I either go to Ohio, or pay $$$ to have it shipped to my door.
ReplyDeleteThey used to until a few years ago. They kept it chilled, too!
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