A Lot of Been-Ship

There were times when I complained about being alone and saw myself isolated from others; viewing myself  being one of the legendary loners, sans much of a legend, of course. If I had visions of the stoic cowboy riding off alone into the sunset, they probably concluded much like that Geico Ad with me smacking into the The End credit. The reality is I always had friends from the beginning to the end, even if it was a shifting cast of characters. I was never truly alone

The girl and I sitting on the pavement (I being
the one on the right with the longer hair) were friends almost from birth. Her name is Sandra "Sandy" Yarnell and we were baptized together at the Grove methodist Church on hot summer day in 1941. Her and her brother, Billy, and assorted other Yarnells remained friends through those toddling years, then somewhere when school age came we disappeared from each other's lives. (That is Billy in the photo to the right and again I am to the right with the longer hair.)

Close to the heels of Sandy came Iva Darlington.  I apparently enjoyed female company early on. Iva and I started out as redheads; she remained ginger, but I turned a dark brown, that usually photographed as black.  Iva is in the center of the back row within this giggle of girls at one of my birthday parties, proving again my early preference for the fairer sex. However, I did spend most my playtime with the two boys in the photo, Billy Smith on the left and Tim Mahan on the right. I am kneeling between them.  (In the baseball photo to the right, reverse that order, Tim  on the left and Billy on the right. I'm still between them, squatting this time.)

I had several other friends in those World War II, pre-school years,
 such as Billy Griffith, with me on the swing, and Bobby Lukens, with me smoldering rifles and ready to fight back any Nazis or Japs (I know that is now politically correct, but that's what everyone called them during World War II or worse.)

I started school with some of these initial friends, but then we moved during first grade and it would be a time when I was somewhat along for real and then a transition back to town and a whole new lot of BFFs, although the final F did not quite live up to what it stood for.