Circle of Friends

No, not Maeve Binchy's book.

Rather a paper Lexi brought home that she had done in Guidance. It is a sheet of construction paper with Circle of Friends written on it and a circle of eight people - feet together, hands held, made like you would a snowflake. One person has me on it, and Lexi wrote names of friends on the other seven. Names certainly have changed since I was growing up.

Mother took this picture of the entire student body of Island School that we went to in Minnesota before we left the area to go to Colorado and wound up in Kentucky (That's another story and I still haven't been to CO). I'm in the middle, wearing glasses. The other girls have names like Mavis & Marlys (twins, therefore the ampersand), Marlys Ann, Pearl, Eileen.

From fifth and sixth grades in Lancaster, I remember Sally, Patricia and Mary Jane.

 

And in jr high and high school in Stanford there were Janie, Edna Jean, Helen, Delores (my 'twin' - a few hours older than me), Shirley, Nancy Sue, Wanda, Phyllis, Pauletta, Linda, Patty, Barbara, Bonnie Sue, Ginny Jo, Kitty.

But Alexis's friends are named Jaden (there's another Jaden in the class, but he's a boy) , Guana, Cierriah, Milyeah (I probably misspelled that). I don't remember the other three. Many of her friends are Hispanic, so I expect their names to be different.

This reminds me of a friend whose last name is Wind. At a conference several years ago, a woman ask if her husband is black. "No, why do you ask?" "Well that's obviously a made-up name." Duh!!! All names were made up by someone, somewhere, sometime, weren't they? When I hear or see an unfamiliar one, I assume it has come from some other culture.

I expect Alexis is the only name of the eight current grade-schoolers mentioned above that would have been in the name-your-baby book I had back in my child-bearing years.

Speaking of things from back in 'olden times': Lexi was surprised to hear that we had drinking straws. I told her that we always had them because they were therapy for my brother after his surgery to close the hole he was born with in the back of his mouth. He had to learn to suck. I also told her they were made of paper, not plastic. Even though it was a special kind of paper, it got pretty soft if left in liquid too long.