I've been talking with a couple of chippies this week, two girls I grew up with, and we've been friends since we were like 9 and we lived on the same street. One of 'em lives near Milwaukee and one near Boston, and I live, well, here. In the same damn place where we were kids.
{note to self: find 1982 photo of us to post here} OK.
Prompted by Milwaukee, we were answering one of those "get to know ya" questionnaires that the internets sends around. Like after 30 years, we needed to. But this was about Christmasses past and present. And here's what I learned.
- Garrett's Popcorn in Chicago is the shit. Actually any can with three different flavors of popcorn will suffice at this point.
- Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses is one of our favorite xmas songs. Still. [and I have to say we would each do much better than the singer in Glasgow!]
- Misty of Chincoteague is still in high demand with girls today. What is it with little girls and ponies?
- H O T T boot, now "vintage" (this is similar to Boston's, yes?)
- If you have kids and are keeping the Santa dream alive, what works best is to give each of your kids one unwrapped gift from Santa - then the wrapping paper or handwriting on the tag won't throw them off and you can live with the fantasy one more year if their friends don't blow it for them. Because we each believed in Santa until we were about 7.
We loved making ornaments, making cookies, making fools of ourselves (or maybe that was just me) and finding gifts for each other. Even if the gift recipient explicitly stated, "No More Smurfs!"
It occurs to me sometimes that not everyone grows up and keeps her childhood friends. Our parents chose to live on the same little street, we were about the same age, we became genuine friends and not just kids from the 'sac. Now, separated by states and each with different lifestyles, we're the same but different. We don't pick up where we left off, like some people say they do. No leaving off, no matter what. To me, Milwaukee and Boston are constant. And I count that as one of the joys of the season.
I'll bring this slightly sappy post to an end with a great movie quote: "Stay gold, Ponyboy." Which has little to do with my girls except that we liked S.E. Hinton books. And....scene.
The Outsiders is still one of my top fav movies.
No stationery either!
Posted by: Beth! | 05 December 2006 at 06:11 PM
I've tagged you for a meme, if you're interested.
Posted by: Jane | 06 December 2006 at 07:54 AM