From Flatbush to a Friendship

It's that time again. Another BFON8 (Best Friend of Nancy 8) is having a birthday. This time it's an oldie but goodie....and I don't mean oldie in that she's older than any of my other friends....I mean oldie in that she's one of my oldest friends since we met in high school.

Enter Ellen, the friend I met when I was a sophomore in high school and decided to take "commercial" courses as opposed to "academic" courses. It was different back then in the sixties. You had to decide if you wanted to be a secretary or a teacher when you were only 15 years old. If you took commercial courses, you learned typing and stenography. If you took academic, it was more of a liberal arts program. Of course I opted for commercial since my mother wanted me to go to work the minute I graduated from school. There wasn't even any discussion of college at that time which forced me to attend at night after I was working a few years. Well, that's neither here nor there. If it wasn't for that decision, Ellen and I wouldn't have become friends.

We met in B9-205 which was our homeroom. Ellen was one of the sweetest and definitely one of the prettiest girls in my class. We had so much in common.....we both liked "boys". We both also liked to write poetry. I'm laughing as I'm writing this because the other day I was going through some old memorabilia and came across my journal with all of my poems. As soon as I started reading them, I thought of Ellen.

Ellen lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which was very close to our high school, Bishop McDonnell which was on Eastern Parkway. She lived in an old brownstone and I loved going to her house. She had (and still has) such great parents. Her Dad was quiet and her mother was not. Consequently, her mother was so much fun to be around because she really told you like it was. Now those same brownstones are worth millions. Unfortunately, they sold theirs before Park Slope became "the place to live" in Brooklyn.

I have so many great memories of times with Ellen. There was our school trip to Rye Beach, our junior year trip to Washington DC, Ring Day, Proms and typing, typing, typing in our "commercial" program. Some of our funniest times were in Spanish class and the only thing we learned there was "Louisa tiene catarro....Ojala que se mejore pronto!!!" Some of these words are probably wrong but this is the way we remember them which is probably why we didn't do that well in Spanish.

This was one of the entries from Ellen in my yearbook. As I'm looking back through what people wrote, there seems to be two recurring themes. One is about boys and the other is about fighting. I guess I had more fights in high school than I can remember. ha ha I had to black out some of what Ellen wrote because my mother went through this yearbook with a magnifying glass every night (after I went to bed). She was quite the detective.

The other thing we had in common was that we were both smart but we really didn't want too many people to know that because it just wasn't "cool" or "boss" back then. So when we made the honor roll, we tried to keep it to ourselves.

As pretty as Ellen was, she was always looking for a nice guy to date. Some of the guys she met on her own left a lot to be desired. I refuse to name any names. lol As a result, she was always looking to me to fix her up. I would then go to my boyfriend and ask if he could accommodate us. Here's a picture of Ellen and me on Ring Day....the day we received our high school rings. The guy in the background was Nick, a blind date for that night and a friend of my boyfriend's. He was thrilled to be with Ellen. One of my better fix ups was a prom date. It wasn't our prom; it was St. Francis Prep's prom. Prep was an all boys school and Bishops was an all girls school. She agreed to accompany one of my boyfriend's friends to the prom. His name was Jimmy O'Brien and he was really cute. Jimmy O'Brien went on to some fame becoming a famous basketball player at Boston College and later becoming their head coach. We called him Obie back then and he'll always be Obie to us. Again, Jimmy was thrilled with his prom date. I wish I had some of those pictures to post but neither of us could come up with any.

Twenty years ago, I moved away from Long Island when we came to Pennsylvania. While it was an exciting time for us, it was also a sad time. I knew that Ellen and I wouldn't get to see each other as often as we did while we lived just miles from each other. We had continued our friendship after high school even going through a pregnancy together and now it was about to be altered. She is a friend who has always been there for me. If she's having a bad day, she insists that a call from me will change all that. There's another thing I love about Ellen and that's the fact that she's from Brooklyn. When I talk to her, it all comes back to me....the accent, the memories and the words we use that all relate to Brooklyn.....not to mention how fast we speak.

I'm going to see Ellen in less than a month when we go back to Brooklyn for a high school reunion. We both can't wait. Fifty or so girls from Brooklyn/Queens all in one room.

So my dear Ellen, you will receive your Happy Birthday phone call from me but I'm hoping this little testimony to you will bring a big smile to your face. Have a very happy birthday and just know I'm wishing I was there with you on this day.