Another 60th - And a Stroll Down Memory Lane!

60th birthday parties do this to me – send me on another visit to my childhood.

Friday night was my friend, Gayle’s, 60th party, and of course Phil and I had to be there to celebrate with her. It was a wonderful evening, and a perfect place for a party, at a special events facility on the bank of the Chattahoochee River on a clear autumn evening. Tables were set out on the patio, and we all gathered in small groups and large to chat, visit, and catch up on one another’s lives. There must have been over 100 people at the party – Gayle is very outgoing and caring and is loved by a host of people!

We Decatur folks flocked together to talk, laugh, and relive our childhood and teen-age years together. It was great seeing a few that I haven’t seen since I was 16 years old, and several who have become part of my life since I’ve returned to Georgia. Photos passed from hand to hand as we saw ourselves as kids and teen-agers in old black-and-white glossies, and in yellowed newspaper articles from the local paper. What fun!

One of the highlights of my evening, however, was seeing a childhood friend from elementary school, Dan. He came to the party with my friend Lisa, and did we ever take a stroll down Memory Lane together! Dan lived on Avery Street, which was about a block from my house on Winnona Drive. I only had to cross one street to get from my house to his. We both attended Winnona Park Grammar School, and were in many of the same classes together from first grade through seventh. Dan and I shared many common memories and caught up with each other on the neighborhood – who’s still there and who’s gone – and relived some of our childhood memories. He is one of the few people I know who remember that Margaret Bowen had a roller coaster in her back yard and that Betsy McCammon fell off her shed roof trying to fly, fracturing her back and cracking a front tooth. However, I think the one thing that got to me the most in seeing Dan again was when he gently touched the birthmark on my face, and noted that it’s still there.

My birthmark – I hardly ever think about it anymore, but yes, it’s still there. As a child, people were always either telling me I had a smudge on my cheek, or taking a finger to try to wipe it off for me. It’s a small grayish round mark, about the size of a dime, but as a child it sometimes felt like a huge thing to me. When I was a teen-ager I tried to cover it up with make-up, unsuccessfully, and often felt self-conscious about it. Then, as I grew up, I learned to embrace it and claim it as my own unique identifying feature, and now in my “older” years, I haven’t even thought about it in ages! When I look at myself in the mirror, I don’t even see it anymore. Dan’s small gesture and remark took me by surprise, but it touched me that this was one of the things he remembered about me.

Birthdays and birthmarks. The year of our 60th celebrations is almost over, but birthmarks live with us for a lifetime. And Dan proved to me that friendships can also endure for a lifetime, even when there are decades and miles that separate us. Thank you, Dan.

Reunions can be very, very sweet.