Longtime Friends
After two long years away from the Washington area, Steve and I returned in June to visit longtime friends–friends who are not necessarily old, but esteemed, valuable, and irreplaceable!. And not all are human beings. They include a church, four museums, and restaurants like Cafe Oggi, Carlyle Grand, and The Italian Store. The weather was glorious; I walked old and new trails. Steve got to play the golf course he knows best, though he found it completely re-designed and challenging.
The first two days I
spent with my friend Carol Starr, who had tickets ready to the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, and the Phillips Collection. She showed me all the artworks she has produced in the last fifteen months (see some of them here). We caught up on family members and friends we had shared for 58 years. A delightful surprise was a visit by her daughter Lizzie and granddaughter Maggie.
Next I spent two days with my friend Sharon. We walked along the Potomac River, ate Chesapeake Bay seafood, practiced favorite duets and recorded Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn, and Dvorak”s Slavonic Dance. Ahhh! What pleasures!
Steve flew in from a tournament in South Carolina on June 14. Our hosts were Gay and Bill Yelverton, who live near Washington Golf and Country Club, where Steve and Bill are both members. Gay and I were in a vegetable co-op together in 1976, but Bill’s career took them to Darien, Connecticut, while we stayed put in Arlington. Now we spend cold weather months in the same community in Boynton Beach FL.
A friend we four share in common is Arlington Icon Nellie Grant, who will turn 100 years old on July 11, 2021. Gay and I got to celebrate her milestone birthday three weeks early! Click here to see photos from both June 17 and July 11. Nellie showed us several of the Winnie the Pooh characters she has recently made and presented us with take-home boxes of her famous chocolate toffee. A bonus was being with her granddaughter Carol and her great-granddaughter Shelby. I told her I hoped I could be like her when I grow up.
Reading Friends, the evening book group I’ve belonged to since 1998 and had Zoomed with during the pandemic, had its first in-person meeting of the year on June 15. Kelley led an interesting discussion of Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities and we talked of books for next year. The best part was hugging friends I hadn’t seen in two years. Look at the joy on these faces!
Though I had missed the first in-person meeting of my morning book group by a few days, Gay and I got to have lunch with four of them. This group has been meeting together for about 60 years; their faces and their book recommendations are very dear to me.
What fun I had at lunch with my Wild Rice Women–classmates from Rice who settled in Washington. Elizabeth, Carolyn and I have been friends for 59 years; our children grew up alongside each other. Our daughters are “Sprouts;” our sons, “Shoots,” and the grandkids, “Seedlings.” Five of us met at the Tabard Inn in DC. Glad to be released from their COVID cocoons, Lisa and Kirsten related the creative ways they had addressed childcare and schooling for their seedlings. Shelby and Lilli couldn’t attend, but subsequent email exchanges nurtured plans to assemble everyone in the near future. Hope so!
Cherrydale United Methodist Church was the place I saw the most friends. This album shows some of the longtime friends who welcomed me at the two services I attended. On June 20, Pastor Singleton’s sermon topic was “What is Your Anchor?” Clearly, Cherrydale is one of the strongest anchors of my life. I treasure the Cherrydalers I got to see, whether in the sanctuary or at their homes.
In hopes of seeing the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gay and I drove to the Washington Mall and got in line for passes that are sometimes distributed to lucky people at mid-day. Alas, no passes and a long line. Imagine our delight when two local women saw our plight and offered us their passes! We learned a lot visiting every floor. 
Houses in Arlington continue to fascinate me. Gay took me to see the houses where she had lived, both as a child and as an adult, and the three houses our family had occupied in Arlington. Lilli’s first house, a rental on 23rd Road, is relatively unmodified. The first house we bought and brought David home to on 24th Road has been transformed. Our last house on 36th Road, that was Shelby’s first home, and where we lived for 38 years, has been torn down and replaced. Arlington’s real estate market seems to be booming.
Thank you, Arlington, for your beauty and your vitality. I regard you, too, as a dear friend. Click here for more photos of longtime friends in the DC area. I didn’t get to see everyone I had hoped to, but I love you all!
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