These Happy Golden Years

Friendship is a sheltering tree. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

We met in Johnson Hall, the year 1991. I lived on the third floor and she lived on the second.

She was still my friend after I dyed my hair black. I was still her friend after watching her perform countless interpretive movements on stage!

She helped me carry my books when I sprained my ankle by jumping into an orchestra pit while practicing an REM song for a talent show. That's right. I rode to Ohio with her and wandered aimlessly around her former high school.

We shopped at the Gap outlet and bought cheap pants just to cut the legs off and make shorts. We made headbands with the leftover leg parts. No, it probably didn't look cool even then.

We majored in theatre together and I watched every show she got a role in, which were plenty. And she tried to watch the one show I had a role in - but it was the only snowed out/cancelled performance in the college's history. It's true.

We worked at TV-3 together and neither of us were deemed "pretty enough" to be the anchor for our small college's news program. I'm not making this up. So we covered sports and movies and changed VCR tapes a lot. Thanks Sam McGill.

We moved off campus into a blue trailer with astro turf on the porch and orange and green decor. We shared a room and even a bed, for about a week. The entire room served as our walk-in closet. (The Gap outlet had really great sales and we loved bib overalls.)

She watched Kevin propose to me. She drove to Virginia for my wedding. I drove to Ohio for hers.

She has visited every house Kevin and I have ever lived in - and it's more than seven!

Along with Gretchen, we were the Beth babes - and now we all have Beth Babe daughters - The Second Generation. (Could this be a WB show?)