Alison’s Mind

Strange how things all seem to happen in threes…..
1. I get on Facebook from an invite from an old friend
2. Begin to reconnect with classmates from HS (Good ole’ class of West Side ‘95′)
3. One of my oldest friends (not in age but years known) contacts me through Facebook

Ahhhh…and then again the memories come flooding back to me……(imagine wavy lines and some cool flashback music playing softly)
Picture this….Boys & Girls Club mid to late 80’s, a group of kids sits clumped together on the first day of summer camp. We are of all kinds of backgrounds and no one seems to know the other. I am a pretty awkward kid (in my mind at least). I am sitting amongst a group of kids I do not know, at a place I have never been before, wondering what we will be doing. The counselor comes out and begins to call roll…..(I don’t remember names really so I am just using random ones to make the point)

Timmy….here
Sean….here
Mary….here
Susie…here
Alison…..here….here (now I am thinking “hey, that’s my name”) so the counselor clarifies by calling last names and we each respond “here” when we hear our respective last name, but from that moment on we were bonded, this other Alison and I.
So after roll we go to our assigned area for the morning and the “other” and I drift over towards one another. We both say “Hi” and act awkward and uncomfortable then one of us (not sure which as my mind has faded over the years) says to the other, “so how do youspell your name?” The other replies ” A..L..I..S..O..N…” a look of WOW crosses ones face as she realizes that this girl spells her name the same exact way (now to many this may not be so wonderful, but when you grow up with a name that EVERYONE misspells and you can find no cool little trinkets with your name on them, this is like winning the lottery) So the next inevitable question of course in “what is your middle name” (why this was such a big deal as kids I never quite understood) in reply “Marie.” NO WAY, same middle name too! Then we both figure out that our last names are 1 letter off from each other.
Needless to say from that day on we were known as Ali and Alison (me being Alison as my mother would NEVER allow for me to be called by a nickname). We did everything together that summer and from then on.
As we grew up we still hung out with each other, had sleep overs, talked on the phone for hours about boys, music, school, you know all the usual stuff. But along came graduation and college…Ali went down to Florida for school, I took a year off…she came home that first year, then her parents moved down there…I started at AIC in Springfield…essentially we lost touch.
We did reconnect for a bit again and I went down to visit her in Florida and had the grand idea of transferring to a school down there…but that didn’t happen…then we lost touch again…until she did a search of my name on Facebook and PRESTO!!!…there I was! Now we chat online, we have spoken on the phone once (and ,yes, it was for hours) and we are re-learning about each other again while still holding on to what and who we were those many years ago. So, Hello Alison, same middle name, do you want to be my friend?

A