The Rodney Vista Gang

This writing thing is really weird. I have never in 65 years felt so compelled to pour my soul out to a very diversified audience. So much of my writing has been playing around with no real taught skills emerging.. Yes I did have fours years English in high school and more in college but, did it soak in? I was more of a "fun haver" than student. I'd appear with my hair just so, in just the right cloths and try desperately to look smart and not be called on. In the sixties, life was so much less complicated. I emerged an old hippy with great memories to grow old with. My aunt Dorothy always said I was the storyteller of the family and I trusted her judgement since she taught English all her life. Maybe storytelling can be inherited like all the rest of your genes and sooner or later they come to the surface to drive you crazy. Just as Parkinson's and RA hit me late in life, so did writing and when I die people will find reminders of me on envelopes and scrapes of paper everywhere. Tonight's collection of nonsense is about some very dear friends whom I have literally loved all my life. We grew up, next door to each other, in a very unique and never to be experienced again neighborhood. Without my friends I would have never survived. Me and four to six guys spent every waking hour of the day together. We wandered from house to house eating whatever each mother or grandmother would put out for us. We attended every vacation bible school in town. One week we were Methodist and the next Catholic.....just who ever would come pick us up and bring us back. We played outside til all hours of the night catching lightening bugs and playing hide and seek. There was no fear. We were safe in our own magical world. Most of the time we were barefoot but wanted for nothing. I never remember a reference being made to me being the only girl in this pack. All for one and one for all....rather like Spanky and his gang. I'm sure the independence and respect for another human being has carried us through many a trial as we grew older. Thank you guys for all the love you gave me then and continue to send my way............love ya, Pokie