Southport, NC - 50 Years of Catchup

One of the fun things that we have been able to do on this trip is visit with lots of people we haven’t seen for ages. Like two teachers I knew back when I was teaching in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Today we met up with Dennis and his wife Darla who live North Carolina. Dennis, Gary and I were classmates from 7th grade on. Here we are in our 7th grade home room picture.

Gary is the cute guy with the dreamy eyes - the 3rd guy from the right in the second row with the string tie. Dennis is the cute guy in the second row 3rd from the left. And, I, in all my glory, am in the front row stylishly dressed with my vest, my white bucks and my feet planted firmly on the ground. Usually, when I show people this picture and ask them to pick me out, they pick out the cute little girl in the front row in the pretty little black and white dress next to me. Thank-you, I say but that was Claudia, not me. Even to this day, I can name everyone in this picture. I don't know why this information has stayed with me but it is what it is.

I had gained quite a bit of weight that year as I walked a mile to school in the morning and a mile back in the afternoon. You’d think that with all that walking, I’d lose weight. Nope. There were two bakeries along the way - one a Krispy Kreme kind and the second made the most delicious cinnamon rolls. Two miles of walking couldn’t erase the calories from two stops at the bakeries. My it was a delicious walk to school. Both Jean, who walked with me, and I gained weight. I didn’t lose that weight until my Junior year in high school.

Here are we 3 now. Haven’t changed a bit, you say. Thanks.

Now, I had two crushes on two guys in high school, one of them I married and the other - well, we’re seeing him for the first time since high school - yep, Dennis. So, here we are in Holden Beach, NC. with plans to meet Darla and Dennis for dinner at their home. She has planned a ‘Southern’ dinner for us and we’re excited. We found their home and, though we might not have recognized Dennis on the street if we passed by him, we knew who he was - he was the guy at the door. Big hugs all around. We sat around for a while talking about 50 years. 50 years in 50 minutes. We must have left out a lot.

Dinner was ‘shrimp and grits’ and ‘greens’. Now, in Savannah, we had met a woman who told us that we had to try the shrimp and grits in the Carolinas but we really haven’t had many opportunities. But here was our opportunity. And, collard greens. Wonderful meal and two new things we have not ever had. Not the heavy Southern cooking but the lite and healthy Southern cooking. Thank you, Darla.

Dennis has the neatest collection of antique paper weights. I've never seen so many beautiful paperweights in one spot.

We had out high school year book which Darla had never seen so we showed it to her so she could find us all. And we continued sharing 50 years of life. What a fun evening. It was so much fun to meet Darla and to catch up with Dennis.

The next morning we had breakfast with Dennis in a small town near his house. Darla was not able to join us so we headed on over to a restaurant that could be featured in Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. You know, the down-home cooking. We had omelets, biscuits and hash browns and continued our 50 years. A walk along the waterfront and back to the RV.

We found the beach for a nice long walk along it. Holden Beach, where we are staying, calls itself ‘one of the Top 10 Beaches as listed by USA Today’ and there were a lot of families out sunning and playing. It is still spring break time for many schools and there were lots of tourists around. We saw this kite in the distance and were glad that it was still flying when we got there. It had 4 parts.

Look at this cool lobster that moved its claws quite realistically in the wind and the two fish kites below it. The bottom one looks like it just got caught.

Finally back to the RV to relax and plan our next stop in Cape Hatteras.

‘A computer is almost human - except that it does not blame its mistakes on another computer.’