The Rerouted Skytress

When I was little my family moved from Butte, MT to Cincinnati, OH. We all thought we moved because my Dad was transferred with his job. Really we got transferred because God wanted me to meet my two best friends, Tara and Shannon. Tara can tell you all about the day we met. Tara is three days younger than me. Therefore, she has a better memory. Shannon and Tara are sisters. Tara is a year older than Shannon. We have been friends for 50 years now. Tara and I will be 54 in November. Yes, we three have been friends since we were wee little ones. Fifty years of friendship makes us sound awfully old. However, we all agree that laughter helps keep a person young. Fifty years of laughter has made us EXTREMELY young! You all can laugh at that comment. We will. It will make us at least a day younger.

Tara and Shannon came to visit us the day we moved into our house. They wanted to see if there were any kids in the new house they could play with. Lucky for all three of us, I was a kid….and I liked to play. The three of us played just about every day. We played with our dolls and barbies. We rode bikes and played with hoopla hoops. We played on our swing sets. We played school. We talked about our favorite Cincinnati Reds players as we hung out at the bar. Seriously, we did. Shannon and Tara’s Dad was the Ticket Director for the Cincinnati Reds. They had a custom-made bar in their house. The stools were made from Major League Baseball bats and bases. The top of the bar had a diagram of Riverfront Stadium inset in the top, along with tickets from All-Star Games, Play-off games and World Series games. We would sit at the bar and laugh and play. When Reds Manager Sparky Anderson came over, we would giggle and spy on him. He was a very kind man. I remember occasions when he signed his autograph on stacks of colored index cards for us, our sisters, my brother and numerous kids in the neighborhood. But, that is a story for another time. Rather, another blog post.

Without delay, I need to tell you about one of Tara’s favorite childhood memories. Actually, Tara would INSIST I tell you this story…..even though she tells it so much better than I do. One thing I love about Tara is, she loves a funny story. It doesn’t matter that it is at her expense, either. That actually makes Tara laugh even more. Who wouldn’t love a friend like that? One day Tara, Shannon and I were going to playing at my house. Tara was all dressed up because she was going to a birthday party later that day. Tara and Shannon were standing at the front door of our house ready to come in to play. My Mom was holding a glass of water when they came to the door. My Mom told Tara she looked really nice all dressed up. My mom then teased Tara that she was going to throw her glass of water on Tara’s nice birthday outfit. Tara and my Mom loved to tease each other, even when Tara was really young. Tara called my Mom’s bluff. She told my Mom to go ahead and throw the water at her. To my shock, my Mom did just that. Water went all over Tara’s party dress. I was stunned. Tara laughed. My Mom laughed. They thought it was the funniest thing ever. They still do. Tara and my Mom have an odd sense of humor. That’s why I love them both so much.

Shannon was very shy as a child. Tara was a great big sister and did most of the talking for her. One day we were at the Cincinnati Reds game. The guys behind us were a lively group. They went on and on about how delicious their peanuts were that they were eating. Even as kids we thought this was rather strange. We gave each other the, “those men are crazy look” and kept watching the game. Then one of the guys dropped his cigar. He asked Shannon to pick it up for him. He keep saying, “Little girl. Little girl. Will you pick my cigar up for me?” Shannon ignored him. The man told his buddies it was obvious the “little girl” didn’t speak to strangers. Well, she didn’t. She barely spoke to people she knew. I’m glad to say Shannon found her voice as she got older. She is a fabulous conversationalist. We talk about anything and everything. Shannon also learned not to be afraid to speak her mind either. She can actually be very feisty. Especially when it involves speaking up for, and protecting her children. She is a marvelous Mama Bear. These days Shannon would have turned around to those men at the baseball game and said something very witty. Those men would have instantly fallen in love with her. Oh, by the way, when we got home from the baseball game and I took my coat off….tons of peanut shells fell out of the hood of my coat. Shannon may have not spoken much when she was younger. But, boy…. she could laugh.

The Farrell’s moved away to Cleveland when Tara and I were in kindergarten. Their Dad went to work for the Cleveland Indians. Fortunately, our parents were great friends, too. Our families would visit each other often. The three of us, along with our sisters and my brother, Sean, would create our own fun. We would have dance contests in my brother Sean’s bedroom. We would put a black light in the lamp and blast the music. The best dancers would win. My brother never won. We girls made him dance with his purple stuffed frog. We also loved to put on a show for our parents. It was usually based on Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. We always ended the show with a dance finale. I know Shannon, Tara and I could still dance the “Locomotion” with very little preparation. Sadly, my go-to-dance moves these days are heavily based on my “Locomotion” dance moves from years ago.

Our families continued to visit each other even after the Farrell’s moved to Atlanta and my family moved to Pittsburg and then to St. Louis. It definitely helped that Shannon and Tara’s mom went to work for the airline. We would spend numerous weekends, holidays and summers together. Our two families morphed into one big family. If we weren’t visiting each other, Tara, Shannon and I would spend hours talking on the phone. We also loved to send each other letters…inside on the paper ….and outside on the envelope. We would write so many things on the outside of our envelopes it was a wonder the mailman could read the address. One summer we decided we would learn to speak Hawaiian. Well, as much Hawaiian as we could learn from the World Book Encyclopedia,…Aloha, Pehea ‘oe?….Hello, how are you? Yes, we were fascinatingly fun young ladies. Well, at least we thought we were. When we were younger we also loved to throw fascinating parties. Especially ones with a fabulous theme. We may not have been formally invited by Queen Elizabeth to attended the Royal Wedding with Charles and Diana. But, we threw a party in their honor anyway. We all dressed up. Tara decided to come as the Royal Tramp. But, a classy one. We celebrated the Americans at the 1984 Olympics, too. Shannon came as an American Luge Olympian. She even wore her socks to look like the booties on the uniform of the Luger. Her socks may not have looked exactly like Luge booties, but I assure you they were extremely aerodynamic. Of course, a party wouldn’t be a party without food. Our party food always included Tara’s favorite….lemon bars…and everyone’s favorite….M&M cookies. Many times we had to make two batches of cookies. The first batch we usually ate so much of the cookie dough we didn’t have enough batter to make the actual cookies. It wasn’t just a life of parties for us. No, when we were old enough to drive, and I visited the girls in Atlanta, we would go to the Atlanta Airport and ride the trains between concourses. Yes, we were hooligans! Tara and Shannon were responsible hooligans, though. They had jobs. They both worked several years at Partner’s Pizza in Peachtree City. We all loved Partners. Any time I would visit and Shannon and Tara weren’t working, we would hang out there with their friends. The pizza was award winning and so were their friends.

You may remember in a previous post that my beloved Ron was adamant that our paths crossed at the beach when we were younger. I know if Ron saw me at the beach…he most definitely saw Shannon and Tara. There hasn’t been a time when I wasn’t there without them. We would spend endless hours at the beach in Ponce Inlet. We would have dinner at Aunt Catfish’s or grouper sandwiches at Our Deck Down Under. We’d go into Daytona to the boardwalk if we were feeling crazy and ride the rides. Again the hooligans in us! We would pick out the less favorable hotels along the beach in Daytona and proudly say we owned them. When we were out driving, we would make their mom sit next to their dad in the car. Then we would duck down on the seats so people would think their parents were on a cheeky date. This was beyond hysterical to us when we were younger. Most afternoons would walk the beach and tell each other how we would redesign the houses we past. We had our own ideas on how to make them more beautiful. Years later, with husbands and kids now part of our lives, we walked these same beaches before the sunrise and admired the natural beauty God placed before us. No redesigns were necessary.

Yes, Tara and Shannon have their own families now. They have amazing kids. Their kids all inherited the things I love most about their moms. Their children are kind, smart, generous, and extremely funny. They also share their mother’s impeccable sense of style….both with fashion and with interior design. When Shannon’s daughter was five, she and I picked out the tile for my new house together. I laugh about this now. But, Ellen was spot on with her design selections. I happily paid Ellen’s design consultation fee with cookies from the bakery. Not surprisingly, both Tara and Shannon’s husbands are as generous and giving as them. They treat their wives exceptionally well. Tara and Shannon have been blessed with marvelous husbands. Ivan and Jay have blessed me with their unselfish generosity many times. More importantly they have blessed me with their friendship. I also love the fact that Ivan and Jay love to host amazing parties. This is a great attribute in all our books. You know how we three ladies have always loved a great party.

A few weeks ago I was making a Kentucky Derby theme dinner. I know this doesn’t come as a surprise to you since you know my love for the Kentucky Derby. Anyhow, I had a Willie Nelson song in my head. I asked our Alexa device to play some Willie Nelson songs. As I was cutting the tomatoes for my hot brown sandwiches, the song “Unfair, Weather Friend” with Willie and Merle Haggard started to play. I never heard this song before. The beautiful lyrics traveled straight to my soul. I began to cry. The song is about life-long friends that are their for you when you need them most. Especially, when life is unfair. I’ve listened to this song numerous times since and each time I cry. Shannon and Tara have faithfully been by my side when life has been spectacular. More importantly, they have been by my side when life has been unfair. They are my, “unfair, weather friends”. When I wrote my blog post about the day Ron died, I mentioned I texted my friends before I got on my plane to go home. Those friends were Tara and Shannon. I turned my phone off because I knew they would immediately be there for me. I didn’t want to reveal my broken heart to everyone in the gatehouse. But, when I got home to St. Louis, they both had left messages. A short time later they both cried with me …and for me …when when we talked more about Ron’s untimely passing. Willie Nelson sings….”Sometimes this whole world is my worst enemy. …And I know where to run when it gets to me….No one else but you can make it all make sense….My come whatever, unfair weather friend”. These lyrics capsulize the power of their friendship for me. My sweet dear friends have gently held my broken heart with me. Their unwavering love calms the erratic rhythm of my heartbeat even now when I have my hard days. Their love and laughter constantly remind me life is still incredible….even without my beloved Ron here with me. Yes, my life is absolutely incredible because God blessed me with Tara and Shannon.

I will eventually tell you more stories encompassing our fifty years of friendship. I’ll fill you in on Tara’s bionic hearing. I tell you about the girls teaching me to drive a stick shift. I wouldn’t deny you the funny story of us teaching our parents how to toilet paper a house. For now, I will leave you with a story that gave the three of us a hearty laugh recently. Tara and her family live in Maryland now. When COVID-19 was new and everyone went into quarantine, Tara used the Grubhub app to order food to be delivered to her Mom in Atlanta. Well, this particular June evening, Tara decided to order food for her family using the Grubhub app. A short time later Tara looked at her app and it said her food had been delivered. So, she asked her son Michael to go get the food on the porch. Surprisingly, the food wasn’t there. Tara checked the app again. Again she read that the food had been delivered. …It was delivered….It was delivered to her Mom in Atlanta! A few minutes later Tara’s Mom called asking Tara why on Earth Tara would order her so much food! Tara texted me right after her Mom called. We both couldn’t stop laughing. Weeks later this story still makes me laugh. I can only imagine the future funny stories we will share in the coming days and years. I know the laughter will keep us forever young. My life is forever exciting with my two best friends in it…..fifty years of friendship has most definitely been a testament to this fact.