Monday, June 24, 2013
Caroline, I could literally write a book of memories for the ones you and I have created together for the past 25 years. We have had so many great memories and adventures together. You were my first real friend besides my sister. I know we used to laugh all the time about the first time we met when we were 3 years old and you were outside playing with chalk and I just learned to ride my bike and rode down to your house and you wouldn't let me play with your chalk and I went home all upset. I'm sure glad our second encounter was much better when you had the largest roll of paper I had ever seen sprawled out all the way down your long drive way and you were coloring an array of thingsI believe you said your grandfather got you that big roll from work, either way it was pretty impressive and till this day I have never seen anything like it, I'm just glad you were happy to have company to help fill up the paper!
Then there was our club house a.k.a. your basement. It only ended up in your basement after we got caught trying to restore the old run down shed that lived in the woods in the back of my house and I got a nail stuck in my foot and rushed to the hospital for a tetanus shot. Our club was short lived and caused controversy on our street and among our 3 members, but I wouldn't change it for the world. 'Fighter Spiters' or how you and I thought 'spiders' was spelled and ganged up on Jaime insisting she was wrong and it was definitely spelled with a 't' and not a 'd' in our minds, thankfully your mom confirmed the correct spelling and we finally got our official club sign (billboard paper) right. It was us vs. the 'Wild Cats'(the neighborhood boys club) haha. And how mad Jaime and I were that we had to pay our 10 cent dues, but we were happy when we all got squirt guns from it! Well the dues and the candy we would sell after we got your mom to agree to take us with her on one of her many trips to Costco to buy our bulk candy. We were so anxious to get home and sell that it felt like the longest day of our life at Costco when your mom had 2 carts to fill upyou always did have a pretty full pantry in your basement though!
And all of our snow-days from school were spent sledding in your backyard or up at the green house and torturing Timmy with snowballssorry Timmy!
And I'll never forget my parents always saying how polite you were (because of the way you called my house 'May I please speak to Kelley or Jaime' and always said 'please' and 'thank you' for everything) and how I need to be more like you!
I'll never forget our two week escapade in church camp that you convinced me wouldn't be very religious! Then when I get there they were dragging me out of the shower for church at 7am! Other than the abundance of church time that went on, the experience was great, the big blobber in the lake (blobber ready??), the raft that we popped when the boat was pulling us at what felt like 100 miles an hour and the laxatives that you bought at the store the one time they took us off camp on a bus trip to the outlets and you somehow managed to get them into the girls rocky road frap that we all hated was priceless!
We were so innocent (kind of) up until high school and college, then the parties, fake IDs, run-ins with the cops, late night sneak outs, and all around crazy adventures and predicaments that we seemed to find ourselves into. Sorry Sheryl for the parties at your house, but Caroline sure loved to throw them and my mother sure loved to call the cops when she knew they were going on!
I'll never forget the one time in our lives when you were more put together in a serious situation than I wasSeaside (pre-Jersey Shore era). When we were getting pulled over by the paddy wagon after leaving the club and I had my wiper on full blast and it wasn't raining out. You calmly looked at me and said 'Kel, turn off your wipers it is not raining' then proceeded to hit on the cops, get their numbers, and get us off scotch-freecouldn't have been prouder! Or the time when we came back from the bar we worked at and had to go through a DUI check and the young cop stuck his head in the car and asked us if that was our 'cologne' he was smelling. I laugh right now thinking about it, we were so caught and he let us go and we laughed about it all the way home!
And the time we left Hops after work when we both had our Saturns and you thought I was trying to race you, you were so determined to have your Saturn take the 'win', but I was really trying to telling you your lights were off and a few seconds later you got pulled overluckily alcohol free this time .
I could really go on for hours thinking about all the great times we have spent together growing up. I know how much you loved to reminisce and tell stories so there are a few just for you! I will forever miss you and you will forever be in my heart. You were truly one of a kind and could always make everyone laugh. There was certainly never a dull moment when you were around always something to talk about or a plan of action you were drumming up. It doesn't get better than the Nancy Lane water. Love you Schwinky, always. K$
