Reminiscing…

The other morning my office mate/ best friend Brenda and I were talking about how we have changed “just a little bit” in the almost 28 years we have known each other.  We first met in 1991 when we began working together as pre-school teachers in our local Head Start. Let’s see…I would have been about 23 or 24 years old.  My first priority was to be a good wife and mother, but my second priority was definitely to have a good time!

We had so much fun.  Back in the 90’s , I was going through a phase where I only listened to country music. One of our favorite things to do was to attend every country music concert we could find..but we didn’t stop there.  We didn’t just want to watch the concert, we wanted to meet the entertainers and get a picture taken with them. Somehow, we usually did manage to meet them.  No..we weren’t “groupies”.  My then husband was usually with us, along with other friends.  A few times we somehow got backstage passes. Since this was the early 90’s, many of these names won’t sound familiar now..but those we met included Brooks & Dunn (chased them to their hotel), The Judds, Aaron Tippin, Sammy Kershaw, Diamond Rio, Pirates of the Mississippi, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Billy Dean, and Sawyer Brown.  I know there are more, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.

Sawyer Brown was a great story.  We tried to follow them after the concert, but they lost us.  We gave up and went to eat at Bennigans restaurant. It was almost closing time and we were just about the only ones still in the place.  Lo and behold, guess who walked in the front doors? Sawyer Brown, the whole band. I thought Brenda was going to puke, she was so excited.  We ended up hanging out with them for a while. My husband was very outgoing and started chit-chatting with one of them in the bathroom and the next thing we knew we were at their table with them.  We got a LOT of pictures that night.

One of my favorites at the time was Kenny Chesney.  My friend Brenda didn’t really care much for him, but she went with me everytime I saw him ( two or three times, I think).  The first time we saw him, we had backstage passes.  Brenda and I really weren’t heavy drinkers, but we got to the venue very early and decided to have a few beers.  As we were drinking our beers, we came up with a plan.  We decided that when we got back stage and it was time to take a picture, we would count to three and each turn and give him a kiss on the cheek.  Well, as you can see in the following picture, one of us backed out of the plan.  I heard Brenda counting to three, but I just couldn’t do it.  The next couple of minutes were a blur…she was kissing him on the cheek, he was trying to jump out of the way because she startled him, he almost knocked me into the table behind us…and I just stood there and smiled.  🙂  The camera caught Brenda just as she was puckering up!

We didn’t just go to concerts.  We camped, we partied, we went to every festival around.  Our lives were constantly busy. One time several of us decided to make an impromptu trip down to Nashville, just for fun.  There were so many of us we had to take two separate cars. After a stop at a Kansas City Royals game (one of my friends sang the National Anthem for them), we headed to Nashville with no real plan (or motel reservations).  We learned quickly that it probably wasn’t the best idea to head out with no reservations, as we could not find a motel with vacancies anywhere between St. Louis and Nashville. We ended up sleeping in our cars in a parking lot.  It was an adventure, for sure! We did find a motel in Nashville after the first night, and spent several days seeing the sights and having a wonderful time.

Things are a little bit different now…

Why am I taking this little trip down memory lane?   Well, as I said, Brenda and I were discussing how we have changed over the past 28 years.  We still work together, although at a different job. We used to share a classroom, and now we share an office.  We used to be carefree, and now we worry constantly. Our kids are older now than we were back then. Wow. I wonder if my mom worried about me back then like I worry about my kids now.

I remember when I was a kid and my mom would get those silly Christmas newsletters from her friends.  I would always laugh at the obligatory listing of current health problems between her and her friends. Trips to the grocery store with mom would usually consist of her running into acquaintances and comparing ailments, while I stood aside and rolled my eyes.

Yes, times have changed…

As we do every morning at work, Brenda and I shared a greeting and then proceeded to tell each other about all of our new aches and pains.  We used to talk about our weekend plans, or discuss what exciting things we had done the weekend before. Now we talk about her shoulder pain, or my recent cortisone shot in my knee, my back issues,  or our stomach issues resulting in either constipation or diarrhea, depending on the day! We used to sit on the floor “criss-cross applesauce” with the kids in our classroom…now we can barely get back off the floor if we bend over to pick something up!  

We used to make Friday night plans that would begin at 9:00 pm.  Now we are in bed before 9:00 pm on most Friday nights. I used to throw big New Years Eve parties with lots of people, stay up all night, and eat breakfast the next morning.  This year I struggled to make it up until midnight, and vowed that next year I will greet the new year in my dreams.

This is the first year in over twenty five years that I am not having some kind of small Super Bowl gathering.  Okay, I admit that this has nothing to do with aging.  I’m just pissed because the Chiefs should be there!  Back then I still would have had a gathering no matter how pissed I was, because it was an opportunity to party!

As I said before, we used to go to every concert we could afford and make a point to stay around and meet the entertainers.  I still go to concerts now and then, but now I try to leave before the encore is finished to beat the traffic. For the last two years our little town has hosted a large music festival at our lake with thousands of people and big name entertainers.  I would have been in heaven if this had taken place when I was younger, but now I stay as far away from the lake as I can on the festival weekend. The thought of fighting those crowds makes me feel physically ill.

How did this happen?

Geez, how in the world did this happen?  In my heart I feel like I’m still twenty something..but my body and my brain have to keep reminding me otherwise!  My mom “retired” at age 51. I was in high school at the time, and I thought my parents were old. Guess how old I am now? Yep, I’m 51..almost 52.  Aches and pains are just a part of life now, I realize that. I think the key is to keep moving, to keep having fun..even if the “fun” may be a bit different than it was back then.  

My friends and I still act silly. We laugh, a lot.  Granted, we may pee ourselves a little when we laugh TOO hard..but that’s all part of the fun, right? Speaking of peeing myself, I think it’s time to end this post, as the bathroom is calling my name….and when I get back I might just start composing my Christmas newsletter for next year!