I still have four bosom friends from high school. Back then, the SC, as we called ourselves, short for Social Club, started a tradition of gathering for round robin dinners. The idea is that each person is responsible for part of a meal. You go house to house and dine and drink. In high school, we actually did the house-to-house thing because we all lived closed enough to each other. Our parents got a great kick out of it.
As we got older and moved away from each other, we started giving the dinners themes. The best ones had natural fours to them: For example, the elements
Lisa –earth, Mississippi mud pie;
Sue – air-puffed cheese filo triangles;
Judy – water-homemade soup;
Me – fire-flaming shish-kabab.
You get the idea. Other themes we’ve used include the seasons, colors, numbers, cities we currently live in, countries, holidays, movie genres, festivals, years in high school (for our 10-year high school reunion). The list is pretty long.
We have gathered around the country for over 30 years to celebrate birthdays and pregnancies, marriages and jobs, often, although not always, creating these fantastic meals (except for theme Terribly Tacky, bleh, Jello with carrot bits) for each other. Tasting together, preparing for mutual piquancy, sourness, sweetness, even bitterness, they’re the metaphors for our long relationships, which have had their ups and downs as any long-standing friendship does.
We planned to meet this summer to celebrate double nickels, 55, in Lake Geneva, WI. Talking about whether or not to gather has caused us to video-conference from the four states we live in: Rhode Island, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota. Gathering in person this year seems hard though. Wearing masks while we cook for each other, staying 6 feet from each other in a rented condo, two of us flying to get to our destination.
Whether or not we gather this year, I realize how hard it would be for a group of friends in high school to create such a tradition in a pandemic. Yes, they can do it virtually, but how to taste each other’s food. High schoolers are looking forward to finishing for the summer, some finishing their high school careers under pretty lousy conditions.
Yet what I find from the flashes sent to me is that there is a pretty sophisticated understanding of our current situation from young folks. They’re putting up with, getting on with, taking advantage of, empathizing, lamenting, thanking, and dreaming. I wonder if I would have been as mature.
Here are youth flashes from Clarksburg, WV; Norman and Oklahoma City, OK; Cleveland, OH; Skowegan, ME.
–KLB
