My Friend Becky

The other day when Donald picked me up from work (November 4th, to be exact.  4:15 p.m., to be more exact).  I was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat.  I had, after all, signed my retirement papers that morning (remember!?).

Donald and I can get more tickled while riding in a car than any two people I know.  My mother is hesitant to ride with us 'cause she's afraid we're going to run off the road during one of these giggle fits.  We have, more than once, had to pull off to the side of the road until we were able to get a grip.  And many a day I get to the office with mascara running down my face from laughing so hard.

Well, this day (November 4th, to be exact).  I started singing the old Donna Fargo song "I'm The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA"  Remember it?!

And while I was singing it, I had one of those wonderful flash memories that can make you just laugh out loud.  As clearly as I could see Donald sitting next to me, I had a flash of my friend Becky (usually known as Becky Honey), sitting across from me in Al's Pizza in Decatur, GA singing along with Donna Fargo.  Loudly.  With head thrown back and a laugh in her voice.  And me on the other side of the booth singing right along with 'em.  Loudly.  With my head thrown back and a laugh in my voice.  Until we both just collapsed into laughter and tears.  And then we'd put another quarter in that little jukebox on the table booth and play it again.  And again.  And a few more times.  Interspersed with Lynn Anderson's "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and a few country cry in your beer songs.  And we sang along with every one of them.  (loudly)  Becky and I have never been known to do things quietly, especially laugh.

When I started telling Donald these little stories about me and Becky and Al's Pizza, he got just as tickled as I did, until we both had tears just rolling.  BIG ol' belly laughs.

It's one of the things I love best about my Donald.  The laughter.  The unharnessed, from the soul, laughter.

And it's one of the things I love best about Becky Honey.

Meet my friend Becky -

No, I didn't know her when she was this itty bitty little thing, but I have known her since 1972.

and we've been laughing together ever since.

The first time we went out for one of our many Girl's Night Out evenings, we went to The Leather Bottle in Atlanta.  We had so much fun we decided to stop at Underground Atlanta, and the very first place we went it just so happened that Percy Sledge was on stage and had just that second started belting out "When A Man Loves a Woman."  wow.

And a friendship was sealed as solid as any friendship on God's green earth.

Since then we've been to a few more concerts (The Beach Boys and Willie Nelson pop into mind).

We've been to the Indy 500 together a few times - 

We've sailed at Hilton Head a few times -

 

We've made several beach trips together (and worn silly things on our heads) -

We've skied together in Aspen - 

(that's our dear friend Michael - more about him another day)

Actually, in the spirit of truthfulness.  We didn't really ski "a lot."  We did give it the ol' college try.  We were asked to leave our first ski class (the instructor was gorgeous, but didn't seem to have much in the way of a sense of humor).  He didn't think we were taking it all seriously enough, and suggested because we looked so cute in our ski outfits, we might be better suited hanging out in the ski lodge.  imagine that.

The second day we tried lessons (from a different very handsome instructor), we got tickled and froze on the lift.  Just didn't ski off like you're supposed to,which resulted in the lift being stopped and some confused (some unhappy) people dangling their legs wondering what was going on.  Becky skied off (somehow!), but I was scared to death.  Somehow, she convinced me to jump.  Jump!  I landed in one of those little kayaky looking things that the ski patrol rescues people in.  People who have injured themselves on the slopes.  Not, usually, on the lifts.  The nice (gorgeous) guy who helped me out of the rescue kayaky thingie didn't have much of a sense of humor either.

Anyhooooo - it was a fun trip.  We ate well, we shopped, we partied and we even found John Denver's house.  But the guard at the gate wouldn't let us go in.  Although I'm sure if John had known we were there, he would have invited us.

But.  I meander  - - - -

We've gotten all dressed up for holiday parties - 

(that's our friend Dindy - more about her another day (heh heh heh)

We've gotten all dressed up for Halloween -

We've gotten dressed up for backyard bbq's -

 

(that's our friend Nan - more about her later, heh heh heh)

and we've danced at a few -

We've dressed up to go Christmas shopping at The Omni Hotel, stuck around to have our hair done, have lunch at Maxim's and ended it juking at Burt's Place

We've dressed up to meet friends at The Downtown Marriott, The Ladybug, The Pewter Mug and The Beer Mug.

We've dressed down to meet friends at The Airport Holiday Inn, Sargent Pepper's and The "Farplace" - that would be "Fireplace" to those of you who haven't done any bar hopping in South Atlanta.

We've even ridden (well, one of us . . . ) one of those mechanical bulls.  Wearing a dress.  At Flynn's.


Mostly, though, we've laughed.

 

 

And, this dear woman, stood by my side on May 11, 1986 when Donald and I got married.

 

 

(this is our friend John - LOTS more about him; later . . .heh heh heh )

Still laughing.

we're still laughing.

AND, we're still rocking . . . 

 

Becky Honey - this one's for you.  I love you, girl, sister of my heart.