About Friends and Important Things and Getting Out of Something What You Put Into It...

I think I'll get on a soapbox here and talk about my friends.

The emails and phone calls have been overwhelming. I've heard from people I haven't talked to in years who have called or emailed to say how much they enjoyed seeing everyone and what a pleasure it was spending time together.

When I walked into Dale's, I was late and flustered. (Instead of finishing the name tags early and having a nap and a leisurely shower, I had a family emergency involving a broken down tractor in Colbert County and my day was shot.) I was loaded down...I had the name tag stuff and a sack of papers and a bag with my cameras...I brought four. I walked into the room in a panic, and there you all were and the years just fell away. Everyone was laughing and talking and I think I grinned from ear to ear and just quit worrying.

If you had turned on a tape recorder at any time during the night, you'd have recorded laughter.

Several weeks ago, Robbie and I were having a conversation about y'all and what you mean. We have a friend who has gone through a twelve-step program and some of the people in the program insisted that you have to break ties with all your old associates in order to stay clean. And Robbie and I were talking about how other people don't understand, we didn't just meet up on a street somewhere. A lot of us had parents who went to high school together, and grandparents and even great-grandparents buried in the same cemetery. We have a history.

Some of the comments, I think, bear repeating.

Mary Anne sent me her bean recipe and I'll print it later. In her email she said, "Since I did not grow up here it does amaze me the ties people have with each other.  That is one thing I wanted to give my children, a home where they were able to grow up with their friends."

Randy Harden sent an email that was too sweet, and in it he said, "Thanks for everything, you really made me feel like I was home again." Which is strange, because two seconds after he drove down to the branch, we'd all have sworn he'd never left Killen.

Mary Ellen was talking about the reunion after it was over and she said the same thing. "We go to my reunion and we have fun but it's just sort of 'Hi, how are you'. I wish we had what y'all have."

And most touching, I think, was from Angie. She doesn't talk about it, and you sure can't tell from looking at her, but Angie has had cancer twice in the last few years. She said, "We're not getting any younger and it would be nice if everybody could be at the next one. Whatever their excuse is, they need to lose it. Life is too short not to grab every minute of fun that you can."

The whole weekend was a fuzzy sort of Kermit-the-Frog feel-good thing and I walked away from it feeling grounded...like I belonged somewhere.

If you left that room Saturday night with any other outlook, you have my sympathy. You guys are the BEST!