Two Old Gals in PJ's

It Was Another Pajama Party…46 Years Later!

One of my best friends from high school, Janiece Duke Kelley ('71), just celebrated her birthday with a great BIG FAT ZERO on the end of it.  Those in our class know which number that would be.  Our paths crossed in our early childhood as I shared classes with Janiece at Elm Street Elementary School.  

Janiece & Pat in 3rd Grade
Mrs. Newton's Class | Elm Street
We were not friends yet, but would be!

In junior high Janiece invited me to her 14th Birthday Pajama Party. Even though it was her birthday, attending that slumber party gave me a gift I had never had before:  a best friend.  It was the beginning of our life-long friendship.

Fast forward to now.  I’m still younger than her…just saying, Janiece.  At my age, I'm planning on having all the fun I can while I can.  Surprisingly the outgoing, vivacious best friend of my youth was reluctant to go along with my idea of another pajama party.  She balked because I wanted to go to a public restaurant in our pajamas!  Instead of jumping on board for the fun, Janiece was running the other way with me hanging on to the back of her shirt.  I was like a dog with a bone and didn’t let go until she agreed.  It was just like old times, arguing with each other until I won. 

Janiece (left) & Pat (right)

No photos of our first pajama party, but 

documented this one 46 years later!

The PJ Party at a table in corner at LaMarie’s (Broad Street, Rome) included a special lunch identical to ones we once enjoyed as teens in her Mama’s kitchen.  Banana sandwiches, potato chips, Kit-Kat candy bars, and ice cold Coca-Cola in a glass bottle.  For more authenticity, we deliberately talked about boys. Those boys must be, well, our age by now! 

I think that we may have had more fun at the 2^nd Pajama Party than we did at the first one.  Of course, my memory fails me at times so can’t be 100% sure.  

Time changes some things.  Like my brain drain.  Our hair is white and the wrinkles are creeping in.  We weigh, oh, a pound or two more.  Yet other things never change.  Some things are steadfast.  Like our friendship and the fact that I will always be youngest!

Glad I Didn't Miss Out on the Fun!

This is an open letter to my OLDest friend, Janiece.  But if you are not her, you can still read on without guilt.  This is a mini-dissertation on a forty-six year friendship.

OLDest on the left | YOUNGest on the right

Hello, N-Poo aka Birf-day Gurl!

My first instinct was to get overly sentimental and tell you how much the double-significance of your birthday means to me.  

I thought about what my teenage years would have been like if you had not invited me to your 14^th Birthday Pajama Party.  Or if in my bashfulness, I had decided not to go. If we had not become fast friends, I would have missed out on so much teenage fun.

The Three Mus-ka-teers might not have come together to create mischief.  I would have missed being a part of that trio of friends who got into some mischief, but not too much thanks to Debby-Do, our cute, short-in-stature, big-in-personality, level-headed pard’ner!  

I would not have gotten to know and love Cotton & Agnes, who were like 2^nd parents to me. There would have been no evenings spent at Bud’s store, warming our backsides in front of the heater and drinking cokes filled with peanuts. No cruising Shorter Avenue in your parent's big green Dodge.  

No trips to Florida riding in the back seat, giggling to the point that my parents wanted ear plugs!  No rodeos in Montgomery with Cotton, in our Levi jeans and western shirts with our boots kicking up dust while we gawked at those cowboys!  Still like doing that, how about you?

I would not have known the fun of weekend trail rides and buckin' horses or seeing someone thrown off at the "No Dumping Sign".  I would never have gotten the nickname, "Whoa Doc", or known the need for baseball bats on our saddle horns.  There might not have been any missing saddles and or me shaking in my shoes with a detective knocking on your door.  I think that one was YOUR idea.

Would have missed being pulled behind your Daddy's truck in the snow, sitting next to you in an upturned 1940's car hood, screaming with joy.  Never would have known how delicious a banana sandwich, Kit Kat, and a bottle of cold coke could be.  Would have missed those evenings sitting in the swing on your front porch, talking about boys and discussing other important things like...well, boys.

The great memories go on and on.  Wait!  I also would have missed all that fussin’ and fightin’ like we were sisters, with Debby always being the peacemaker.  Hey, we still do that!!  Which is what snapped me out of this sentimental mush.  

Sooooo, happy birthday with a great BIG FAT ZERO on the end of it!  You are my OLDest friend, oh yeah, my OLD friend for forty-six – count them – 46 years!!  But I’m still younger, na-na-na-nah!  

I have a big, smug grin on my face, which I thought I would mention since in your dotage you might not remember I always do that when talking about your age.

Some things never change.  Some things are steadfast.  Like our friendship and the fact that I will always be youngest!  Love ya, girl!

2012 Merry Christmas!

Greetings from Monty & Pat

Merry Christmas everyone! 

 We hope that this most blessed of holidays 

finds each of you well and happy.

Instead of inserting a newsletter with our Christmas card this year, we decided to share a link to this blog post where we have recapped our year [2012] in photos.  

Highlights of our year together

Click on any photo to see a larger view.

Our anniversary on Sanibel Island, Florida

Monty takes down a dead pine tree.
He used the backhoe to push it over
after making the cut.

We enjoyed a Celtic Woman Concert
at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.

Our Valentine grandbabies, 
Shepherd & Ella

Pat's Mama passed away in March

Charleston SC with friends,
Marci & Glenn.  Pat & Marci did 
a walking photo tour.

Sweet Cousin Suzanne went 
home to meet the Lord

Shepherd & Ella came up
to Bucks Mtn for Easter

Never too busy to have a little fun
with granddaughter, Ella.

Monty the Beeman
was busy this summer!

Monty is tedding hay.  We keep two tractors
running in the field and work together as a team.

Ella's first dance recital!
We were so proud!

South Dakota in the Badlands

Nebraska at Carhenge

Snowy Pass in Wyoming
No snow!

Birthday weekend in the Smoky Mountains

Ella & her Mommy on her
first day at school!

Our new little canned ham!

Shepherd is now 2 years old!

Gigi and Ella had breakfast together
at her school for Grandparent's Day!

Halloween Fun!

Rodeo at the Kentucky Horse Park
Lexington, KY

Our grandchildren, Shepherd & Ella,
always enjoy a visit to the farm!

We love a stroll in the woods
around Bucks Mountain!

Ella is now 5 years old!

Pat's image made the cover
of NW GA Living Magazine!

Ella thinks that her Poppy gives

the BEST rides ever on the farm!

She's pointing "up" to tell him that

she wants to go higher!!

This past year was filled with a mix of great joy and deep sorrow. Such is the measure of all our lives. We hold tight to our wonderful memories of those who left us behind in this earthly world and we look forward to the day when we will be reunited with them for all eternity.

We feel extraordinarily blessed that 2013 will mark our 26th year of being together.  We appreciate all the more how precious love is.  Not only the love we have for each other but also the love for all of our family and friends.  

"Three things will last forever - faith, hope and love - and the greatest of these is love." 

[1 Corinthians 13:30 NIV]

As you leave 2012 and move forward into the next year, our hope for you is to find joy and peace during Christmas to reflect on the birth of our beloved savior, Jesus Christ.  
He is the reason we celebrate now and throughout 
the entire coming year!

"For to us a child is born ... and His name shall be called 

Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, 

the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas!

Monty & Pat

Brothers & Sisters = Love and Thorns in the Side

Today I am thankful for my only sibling - my baby brother - Garry.  In our mother’s last years we became a team to lovingly care for her until her life on this earth was over on March 5th of this year.  During our childhood and adult years, both Garry and I had seen families (including our own) sometimes splinter and fracture over family funerals and their aftermath.  I am so proud to say that Garry and I stood together - once again as a team - to make it through the difficult task of handling Mama’s funeral and estate without disagreement.  I will be forever thankful to him for that.

New Arrival   I am also thankful that when I think of my childhood, he is there in my memories.  I still remember climbing up on the rail of his baby bed, peering down at that tiny four-day-old baby boy, and wondering to myself what all the fuss was about.  You see when he came home from the hospital, he was responsible for redirecting the path of my little life.  His mission, if he decided to accept it (and he did) was to make sure I did not become a spoiled, only child who was the center of attention of both her parents.  Um, thanks, Garry.  (Wink)

New Baby Brother

Dollies   One summer day when Garry was a cute little two-year-old with a mop of cotton-colored hair, I realized that he was the exact same size as my life-sized doll.  Barricading both of us on our screened-in porch, away from Mama’s ears, I proceeded to force my new live wriggly doll (Garry) into a pretty pink doll’s dress.  It was a perfect fit on a crying baby boy.  Although I tried to hold him down, he eventually ran to Mama for rescue.  To this day, he loves to tell this story and say that it damaged his psyche.  I beg to differ.  I think he would have turned out the way he is no matter what. (Wink, Wink)

Me and my life-size doll

A Thorn in My Side!    On another morning when Garry was about 8 years old, we were standing together in front of an antique dresser mirror.  He had recently become fixated with looking at himself in the mirror.  Being taller I stood behind him, looking over his head as I combed my hair.  He picked up a comb with an impish grin on his face and began slowly running the comb through his blond hair in greatly exaggerated movements.

Out of the blue he said, “I sure am good looking."  Then his blue eyes stared at my brown ones in the mirror as he continued without a beat.  "What happened to you?  Are you sure you aren’t adopted?”  I was so mad that steam must have been coming out my ears.  He just laughed and with even more conviction began to tell me all the reasons that he was sure I was adopted.

A few days later Mama caught me rummaging around in the dresser drawers in her bedroom.  “What are you looking for?” 

“My adoption papers.  I know I am adopted.” 

Mama laughed right out loud and told me I most certainly was NOT adopted.  “It’s okay, Mama.  I know I’m adopted and it is okay.  You can show me the adoption papers.” 

It took me a long time to accept that I was not adopted and Mama wasn’t trying to protect me from the “truth”.  Bummer.  I thought it would be cool to be adopted and also it would explain what Garry had pointed out.

Touche, Baby Brother.  I received my payback for that pink dress.  But you have to admit, you were cute!

Now I must lick my finger and with gusto draw an imaginary check mark in the air for my side.  These days Garry doesn’t have enough hair to run a comb through. 

I love you, Garry B!

Me and my brother