Great Visit

Yesterday was really nice.  I got into a little nasty weather on the way to Westlake, but it didn't last too long and then it was pretty much smooth sailing. My sister and I had a nice time talking too, and just enjoying the day. 

A couple of my elementary school classmates were at the reunion committee meeting last night and it was really good to see them.  One of them asked us, "Did you ever wonder why there was one bathroom stall in the boys' bathroom?"  I didn't know having no experience in that particular part of the school.  But the other fellow said, "Yes, I did."

And the questioner said, "Because my uncle built it there for me."  And then he turned to me and said, "I wore diapers in school.  Do you remember that?"  Well, I did and said so, but also mentioned that it never bothered me or became an issue so far as I remembered.  And I asked him, "Did anyone say anything to you about it?"  And he said that no one had ever bothered him about it.  To be sure, his particular medical problem didn't last for too many years, and after some surgeries to correct his problem, he was much better.

There are a couple of really neat things about this whole episode.

1. We were just little kids and no one talked to us about our friend's situation and yet no one said anything to him, no one questioned him, and no one made fun of him.
2. His uncle was allowed to go into the school and erect a bathroom stall.  I bet there weren't any formal arrangements other than perhaps the school board OK'd it.  I can't imagine such a thing happening today.

As the evening went on and we spent some time calling our fellow classmates on cell phones, more information started pouring out, stuff I never knew.  One of the two guys said that his father beat the ___ out of him regularly.  He said he got used to it.  The other one spoke of some really awful situations of violence, threats, and dysfunction in his household.  And they referenced another high school classmate who recently said that his father had beat the __ out of him regularly.

Wow.  And I thought my household was screwed up.  It seems as though a lot of us kids were coming to school with more baggage than I ever dreamed possible.  And NO ONE talked about it to anyone.  We all suffered in silence. 

We met at the childhood home of one of our classmates.  Her father died about four years ago and her mother passed away just a couple of months ago.  She and her two sisters are readying the house for sale, and thought it would be fine for us to meet there, since it's in Fairview, easy to find, and has good cell phone reception (for our calls).  One of the guys on the committee mentioned that Susan's father was a plasterer, and a good one it seems.  He fashioned crown molding in each of the rooms with plaster, and put cornices in the dining room.  The ceilings were perfectly white and smooth, all plaster.  He created built-in shelving out of plaster.  The exterior of the house is plaster.  The kitchen is large and welcoming.  The home has huge plate glass windows letting in a lot of light.  Susan's nationality is Swedish, I believe, and the use of light blue fit right in, as well as the delft plates on the wall.  It was so nice of her to let us use the house and she prepared dinner for us to boot.  We all told her that the house would sell very fast!! 

So I left at around 8:45 for home, since we had to give Sassy her medicine and made it back a bit after 10:00. 

I'll do it again in May, June, July, and August and then we're set for the reunion in September.

Talk to you tomorrow then.

Karen