Best friends

Debbie and I were born four days apart and lived four houses away from each other. My older sisters played with her older sisters. We were best friends from the beginning.

On Saturday mornings, we walked downtown together. We headed straight for the pet department downstairs at Grant's and endlessly debated which of the fish was most beautiful. Then it was on to the paper dolls or to spend our precious allowance in the candy department there or at Green's Drugstore.

We loved our cats. Hers was Pandora--Pandy--a pretty, soft tuxedo cat who once gave birth to a litter of kittens on the skirt of Debbie's nightgown. Mine was a calico named Chi-Chi, who I found in the woods when she was just a few weeks old and nursed with a doll's bottle. We each had a slider turtle in a plastic dish with a plastic palm tree on our dresser, and we both had a rabbit. Together, we established a cemetery for the occasional dead bird or other critter we would find.

Debbie and I also had matching Suzette dolls. Suzette was a fashion doll like Barbie, but her figure was a bit less improbable. We would make clothes with scraps from Debbie's mother's sewing and enact great dramas. Debbie also had an elaborate set of plastic molded farm figures and structures she loved, and we would set them up on a chilly little enclosed porch at her house to play on rainy days. We had a sleepover every Friday night, alternating homes, and watch our favorite TV shows, which included “The Flintstones” and “77 Sunset Strip” (Kookie couldn't comb his hair enough!).

Another TV show, “The Roaring 20's,” inspired us to learn the Charleston, force our moms to make us flapper dresses, and sing and dance our way through a year or so. My lovely Aunt Marion invited us to give a memorable performance to her “girls night out” group from Dupont at a restaurant I think was named Lanza's. I was always a bit of a ham, but looking back, I am surprised that the shy Debbie was willing to do it.

Each May, Debbie's German grandparents arrived from New Jersey to help out during Memorial Season. Debbie's father owned a monument company—he made gravestones—and every family wanted their loved one's plot marked in time for Memorial Day. Both of her parents worked almost around the clock to make it happen; when they were at home, everyone was expected to be very quiet. But there was an upside. Grandmother Grund made the most amazing potato doughnuts. Grandfather loved to garden and would let us help him prepare the ground and plant seeds. I don't think either of them spoke English, but I always looked forward to their visits.

When I started junior high, Debbie and I went to the same school for the first time. We walked to school together every day, were in the same classes, and made the same friends. But junior high is a cruel time. Our friendship shattered, never to be revived in meaningful fashion.