Childhood friends
My mom began doing home daycare when I was a toddler. One of the first kids that she took care of was right about my age. He & I were friends. We played together all the time.
We’d play this one game where we pretended we were little tiny people who lived in a cupboard. When the imaginary big people would come to get stuff from their cupboard, they would ask us to find it for them. “Could I have a cup of flour, please?” “Sure! I’ll go get that for you!”
We also pretended that there was an owl who lived in an old tree stump in my backyard. We’d go ask the wise old owl questions, from time to time.
Hey, I even remember taking baths with him, sometimes.
But, then, I went to Catholic school and he went to public school. My mom didn’t need to babysit him anymore, but we still saw them from time to time, as family friends. I remember one party where he was upstairs (the grownups were partying downstairs) and he was telling us that his dad had let him have a whole beer.
I remember going over to his house, one time, when we were older. He lived near Wheeler park & we would walk there alone. We’d play in the woods, pretending to be explorers. There was this tacky light brown dirt that we called ‘Indian Clay’. We’d make stuff with it. I also remember sleepovers at his house around that same time.
I looked up to his parents, too. Thought they were cool. His parents looked like hippies. I always thought his mom was a librarian, but I’m not actually sure if she was. They had Simon & Garfunkel albums.
He & I grew further apart, though, over time. And, somewhere in there, my siblings started teasing me, calling him my boyfriend. So, that made things even more uncomfortable.
Then, in 6th grade, I switched from Catholic school to public school. I was very nervous about the whole thing. I didn’t know anyone in public school and the middle school was so big. But, I remembered my old friend & thought, well, at least I’ll know *one* person, anyway.
Can you guess what happened, though?
That’s right, he pretended like he didn’t know me. Oh, I may have gotten a reply, when I said Hello, but there was no friendly help from him at all. He wasn’t mean, he just didn’t do anything to help, either.
Not that I blame him or am angry with him at all. We all do weird stuff when we’re kids. It was 6th grade & boy/girl roles were so important then. And, luckily, two other girls from the Catholic school ended up switching to public that year, too. So, I was covered, anyway.
He & his parents visited my mom about 7 or 8 years ago. Mom called me up all excited - said she had a surprise & wanted me to come over. I did. It was kind of uncomfortable. We had grown so much in different directions. He was career military. I had gone more along the hippie/slacker lines in my life.
Hope he’s doing OK, though.
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This whole reverie was started last night, when Jim & I were talking about how, if my niece moves to West Chicago, Annie & Bryce will be in kindergarten together, and, if we all stay in town, they will probably be in the same class together throughout school. We were talking about how great it would be for them to have this friendship with such a deep foundation (they are good friends, now, already).
After I told Jim the whole story, he said that it was so cool how, even after we’ve been together for so long, we still have stories about our pasts that we haven’t shared with each other, yet. And, that it is so fun hearing them.
When I told the story, last night, it was somehow much funnier and less nostalgic. I know it included me pretending to be myself in 6th grade & saying to him (something that I never actually said, but probably thought), “We used to pretend to live in a cupboard together and now you’re acting like you don’t know me? I don’t think so!”
:D
