A beautiful quilted patchwork of friendships

I am blessed with a beautiful quilt of friendships. This weekend I'll be wrapped in it! Friday night, college friends gathered at our new home in West Des Moines. Kay Wilt was driving through with daughter Alyssa on her way from Chicago to her Mom's in Audubon. She contacted Paul to say we should go out to eat. We decided to make it a mini-reunion!

Catching up

Way back when, Paul met Kay even before I did - during our early years at Iowa State. I didn't get to know her well until her "Moose" years. Kay is married to Steve "Moose" Wilt, who coached our dorm floor flag football team my sophomore year. I've been friends with him ever since then. Oh it's really a patchwork thing - Paul's friends and mine all stitched together.

We were a little fuzzy at this point - must be the photographer (Paul)

 Kay lived with Mary Mormon in Willow Residence Hall at ISU. She dated one of Paul's friends. And I lived in Maple Hall on 6th floor with Jane Flack. Eventually, after college, Jane, Mary and Kay lived together in a house Mary's brother owned in Des Moines. I stayed with them one night when I visited the Capitol City for my job with Gamble Robinson. They were visited by a bat that night, and farm girl Kay took care of the thing efficiently. It was quite exciting!

It was fun having the gals over. Poor Alyssa, who will be entering her sophomore year at Minnesota, just got to mostly listen to our tales of yesteryear. We walked down memory lane, discussing people from college, events and the time period that Mary, Jane and Kay lived together in the mid 80's. It seems so long ago - but sometimes, really not so much. We can't really be this old, can we?

Our discussion briefly turned to Long Term Care insurance. Paul and I have been pricing it. Jeez! We just can't make ourselves pull the trigger on something so expensive and distasteful. It's a very volatile market. WTF. I think we'll wait for a conference with our pals when we head to the Lake of the Ozarks in August. That sounds like a good topic after several drinks...Donnie - we need your deep thoughts.

One of the nice things about our new home is the proximity to I-80. People are more easily able to visit. So we need to get better at entertaining! I didn't get that gene like the rest of the sisters did. We muddled through though. It helped that Mary brought a lovely fruit salad with flowers and Jane brought cake. Too soon, Kay and Alyssa had to head out. It was fun having everyone at our home. I hope it happens often!

I love the window art at the Wave!

I couldn't get Paul the Cheesehead Packer fan to stand under this sign...

Jane took this shot

This morning, we had breakfast with an old friend, Jane Buck - who I know from Atlantic. Bucks were neighbors, living near our home at 202 Crombie. Her daughter Linda was a good friend of my sister Susan, so I became pals with her son Tom. I liked Tom's boy stuff - he had a huge array of army men. We took Jane to the Waveland - or she took us, as it was her treat! She's active in historical issues around town - she's an Altoona gal. At age 82, Jane is sharp as a tack. We talked about all things - from current events to historical buildings. The food was good too. We may just have to make breakfast with Jane a periodic event! It was nice to see her in person, she's such a great supporter on Facebook.

Tonight we will host our Crestonian pal Mary Faber. She transplanted to Emmetsburg years ago, but once a Crestonian...in fact she often tells us local C-town news. The girl is "in the know". Mary can try out our new bed. We got new mattresses and box springs delivered yesterday. I blogged about Mary recently - how she is one of those people who makes everyone feel like you've known her forever. Paul and I are looking forward to seeing her tonight.

Sometimes - like this weekend, when different friends are visiting, I struggle to determine if the various friends we're seeing know each other. It seems like they should! But we are really the only link. Except with Facebook today - some of them know about each other! I told my friends last night that we were taking Jane Buck to breakfast and some of them knew of she was because she posts on many of my blogs and updates.

The friendship quilt stitches tighter and I enjoy it.

Amy update: Amy has been ill with a sinus infection and sounds ready to come home. She flies out of Nicaragua tomorrow for New Jersey and will arrive in Iowa on Monday morning. I can't wait to give her a hug!

Forget Kevin Bacon

Jane Buck and me

A couple degrees of separation from...me! Monday night Pablo the Poolboy and I dined with an old A-town (Atlantic, Iowa) pal, Jane Buck. Jane and fam lived in our neighborhood when I was growing up. I liked hanging out at their house so I could play with her son Tommy's army men and other boy toys. We reconnected on Facebook a couple years ago since she lives here in Des Moines...I kinda do.

Monday night we chatted about a lot of stuff. The subject of Southwest Iowa came up. (I know - scintillating topic!) I'd forgotten that her beloved spouse Bill, who passed away in 1982, grew up in Mount Ayr, Iowa. That's not too far from Creston, our home.

• Mount Ayr happens to be the home territory of our dentist Dr. Dave Buck.

Hmmm same last name.

• Dr. Dave and lovely wife Gwen (now the Director of Nursing at Greater Community Regional Health Center) were two of the first people we met when we moved to Creston 25 years ago.
• I asked Jane if she happened to know Dick (now deceased) and Phyllis Buck - Dave's folks. Nice people - just like Dave and Gwen.
• Yes, she said, they're relatives of Bill's! (I don't quite remember the connection, I must admit when Jane said she knew them I was reveling in the coincidence of the whole thing and forgot to listen...) She said something like their dads were brothers? Cousins?
• I didn't think of it until later - but Joan McFee Bentley, my Des Moines roomie, is married to Billy Bentley from Diagonal. Billy is also related to Bucks - through Billy's mom, Barb, who I think, who may be Dick's sister. (Okay I didn't listen that well to that information either)
• It's a big circle and everyone's related-
• I'm listening baby - okay maybe not that well.

Jane, John and Nicks



Me with Jane, Monday night

I had supper with an old friend tonight - Jane Buck from Atlantic. Pablo was there too. She's the mom of one of my Atlantic classmates, Tommy Buck. Back in my tomboy days, I loved going to the Buck house - down the hill and around the corner from ours, to play with Tom and his guy toys. (green plastic army men - he had a million of 'em) My big sis Susi and Linda Buck were friends in high school.

I quit hanging with Tom when I discovered I was a girl, and I lost track of Jane after I graduated from high school. Like many of the men who worked at Walnut Grove animal feed, her husband Bill Buck died too early of cancer - lymphoma Jane said, when he was only 57. So tragic. That was the year we got married, 1982. Jane moved out of Atlantic soon after that, settling into the Des Moines area in various locations through the years.

Then Facebook was invented and Jane and I reconnected. We've seen each other a couple times the past three years - most recently last summer during the All School reunion in Atlantic. When Paul and I knew we'd be living up here I thought it would be a good time to catch up with Jane. She's fun to talk to and frankly, I miss hanging out with that generation - especially since Dad died.

The cool thing about Jane is that she doesn't act 80. She lives in a "retirement" complex, but doesn't have much time for old folks. Jane doesn't wish to eat supper at 5 p.m., much less arrive early for it at 4 p.m. like some of the residents do. She stays up until midnight, and has a computer that she must be fairly adept at. I know she's going to read this...and I don't want her head to get too big, but to me she seems to be pretty sharp. And I'm not even going to say "for her age" because I'm the chick who ordered the same book twice for book club.

We went to John and Nick's out in West Des Moines for supper. It's an offshoot of Chicago Speakeasy, an old fashioned steakhouse. While we ate we had a little gab-session - chatting about Atlantic folks. Jane keeps up on people, and I miss the gossip now that Dad is gone and I don't talk to his friend Kay Harris much anymore.

We had a great time. Even Paul was able to follow the conversation - since he's an honorary Atlantic person now, since he's been around me so long. All too soon it was time to say good bye. Jane tried to talk us into coming up for a cake she'd baked, but I was stuffed already from Prime Rib - with leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I aim to have Jane's attitude in life - keep learning and don't act your age! Words to live by. As soon as she sends me the picture Paul took of us tonight, I'll post it here proudly. (She sent it Tuesday - it's at the top of this blog).