My Best Girlfriend (November 18, 2005)

Celebrating Helen's Birthday (February 2005)

High School (circa 1960)

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Seventh Grade

August 8, 1964

Infusion Center (11/05/2010)

     When Helen moved to Davis in 1949, she started school at Central Davis Elementary in my first grade class.  I was very excited to learn she only lived a block away.  We became best friends that year and have remained best friends for 56 years.

     Helen had Goldilocks hair and was slender, while I had limp brown hair and was pudgy.  But, at age 7, who cared!  We both wore our hair in braids.  I still remember picking her up for school and getting there early, while her mother was still raking the comb through her hair. 


     “Ouch, that hurts!” she howled.  I could relate as I had just undergone the same experience at home. When we got older, we spent hours brushing each other's hair and loving every minute of it!  Funny how time changes our views.

     Helen moved into a two-story house on University Avenue. An enormous expanse of green lay between the house and the sidewalk. It had a wonderful full front porch, perfect for playing games.  We spent hours doing the hula there, wearing my grandmother's girdles, while we dreamed of sandy beaches. Instead of porch supports, we envisioned stately palm trees swaying in the breeze. There were green vines growing all around us, and we knew we were in paradise.

     The most direct route back and forth from her house to mine was cutting through the vacant lot behind my house and climbing, rung by rung, up and over our six-foot lattice fence.  It took about three or four years, but it was a sad day when the builders arrived and started construction on our beautiful play land lot, where we had spent many wonderful hours as Laura and Mary Ingalls in our make believe House on the Prairie.


    If we didn’t feel like climbing the fence, we could cut through the alley.  Only one house separated Helen’s home and mine from the alley that ran between our houses. Another alley (aka “our forest trail”) ran right behind Helen’s house. There was an alcove outside next to the house and the alley.  We built many wonderful clubhouses there with ropes and blankets and greenery from the vacant lot behind the alley. We made a lot of mud pies and grassy delicacies in that imaginary forest!  We also stored real food supplies for a rainy day.  Milk bones were one of our favorites.  Lulu, my cocker spaniel, never seemed reluctant to share her dog treats with us.

     When we weren’t playing behind Helen’s house, you might find us in the big closet off of my upstairs bedroom.  We had a trunk full of dress-up clothes, high-heeled shoes and jewelry.  The closet was a castle, and we were royalty.  Our daughters, Ginny Dolls, wore beautiful closes we made out of felt.  When they were tired of playing in the royal garden, our daughters napped in a beautiful pink cradle.  If they were fussy, we would put them in the gray stroller and take them for a walk. 

       Every morning I would head to Helen’s house and we would trudge off two blocks to our beloved elementary school.  We were very lucky to be in the same classroom three out of the next four years.  What a wonderful beginning to a lifetime of friendship!