Almost Fifty Years Later...

...Clare (tookie) and I finally met!

Thanks to Phil (Pilipo), who took this photo for me, the flute player (me) and the oboe player (Clare) on the double-page spread photo in my 1965 high school yearbook we're holding met in person today, thanks to Blipfoto.

As we followed each other's Blipfoto journals over the past couple of years, we gradually realized that we grew up in the same suburb of Cleveland, Ohio; attended the same high school; and played in the band together! There were many students in the band, and we were two years apart in age, so we never got to know each other in band rehearsals -- but we certainly made up for it today!

Clare and her husband, Big R, drove up from Bellevue and met me at the monthly winter farmers' market about 11 a.m. We enjoyed a stroll through the market and the juggling and patter of one of the buskers, and just as rain began to fall, we headed for my home, where Phil was waiting to greet them.

A leisurely local foods lunch and sharing of stories from our childhoods to the present made for a memorable afternoon together. One of the positive points about getting older is that everyone has a wealth of stories from their pasts, and there was a lot of laughter around our table as each of us told a few of ours!

Once again, the connections made possible by participating in Blipfoto have amazed me, and have brought my past into my present. As we said "goodbye for now" to Clare and Big R, the smiles and hugs we shared made a bright day out of a very wet one!

Click on tookie in the first sentence to see her account of our historic meeting!

(An additional delight today was being notified that my blip for yesterday reached the Spotlight! Thanks to all who put it there.)