"Cheryl, up to age 18"

Kit wrote these memories of me and I thought I'd share them:

We probably met at the pool as we went to different schools. I remember Cheryl's great tan and her happy smile.

Cheryl's mother was beautiful. Many heads turned when she went into the pool or if she just walked by. Her mother smiled as much as Cheryl.

Cheryl's family lived in the cleanest house I had ever seen. Six people lived in it, but it appeared to be a model home. Everything was in its place. Cabinets and chairs were wiped down constantly. As Cheryl's mother cleaned, I would ask her how often she cleaned things. I found out just about every surface was touched daily.

Cheryl and I tried out for the Bowie Boys Club Cheerleading team. The cheerleading coach made a big deal of pointing out Cheryl's smile - and told us that NONE of us were smiling - that we should remember to smile - and if we couldn't - to just look at Cheryl as a reminder.

Because Cheryl had uncles who owned a GAP-like store, she was able to buy corduroy pants in every color. You couldn't be more stylish than that. I am pretty sure Cheryl also owned Fry boots. If she didn't own the boots, she should have as all her outfits were hip.

Cheryl loved folk music, bicycling, homemade bread, pottery.... anything natural.

I remember she made Challah bread which required the expensive spice Saffron. It came in a tiny white envelope in a McCormick's spice jar for $7. It was so expensive, it could have been cocaine.

Right after high school graduation, Cheryl had the great nerve to drive cross-country with 3 girlfriends in a very tiny car, on a very tiny budget of maybe $4 a day . Fortunately, all of them were slim, so they fit in the car and managed to live on their food budget. They also camped at campgrounds where they had no protection from predators. I thought she was nuts and said so many times.

At the end of the summer, Cheryl made it back alive and entered Towson University for her freshmen year.

What struck me after reading this was that I never knew I was known for my smile. When I said this to Kit, she said, 'look, you're smiling now'.