Chris Pietsch, Marianne and Bill Love, Julie Knox, Glory Whittaker and Rick Moseley.
Yes, we had too much fun, but that's the way it was supposed to be.
After all, we were celebrating events from yesteryear, actually 50 yesteryears, to be exact.
Actually, Chris can only claim 49 years and Rick just got started hanging out with this zany crew.
As for Julie, Glory, Bill and me, though, we have now lived a half century of reminiscing the "too much fun" we had when I first met Bill and his friends at Farragut State Park back in the summer of 1973 and then arranged dates for my students and for his friends.
That task included Bill and me.
Yes, as a teacher, I would have been fired in this crazy world where we now exist, but that was then and this is now.
Both are two dramatically different eras of thought, culture, expectations and behavior. There was a lot more wholesomeness and trust back in those days.
Julie worked on my yearbook staff, while Glory performed with the high school drill team (Ponderettes) along with a few other young ladies, including Glory's sister Holly.
We also played softball together, and when I came back from a day of interviewing prior to the beginning of the 1973 National Boy Scout Jamboree and told my younger friends about the good lookin' Southern gentlemen I had just met, their eyes lit up.
All of our eyes lit up for the next couple of weeks, as young men met young ladies in the summer of 1973 and had loads of fun making trips back and forth to the Jamboree.
Readers will remember the claim from my mother at the time that it was "just a summer romance" when she learned I was actually traveling on to Louisiana after a trip to Dallas and met Bill's family.
He returned to Idaho that December, and he's been here ever since.
And, so, the purpose of our get together on the deck last night was to reminisce and to catch up and to get to know Rick of Rick and Julie.
Glory's hubby was home entertaining company.
So, why the heck was Chris (be sure to note the Peechee shirt) involved in this gathering?
He took Bill and my wedding pictures the following summer. Twas his first major professional job.
Fifty years later, he's still photographing national athletic events and general happenings in the Eugene, Ore., area---often winning impressive awards for his work.
Julie, a proud grandma, works at Bonner General HR, while Glory is a retired speech therapist from Lake Pend Oreille School District.
After several years at Daher Aircraft Co., Rick now works as a para pro at Kootenai School.
Bill works and retires and works and retires as a forester, while I hang out here at the LOVEstead doing all my fun stuff and taking care of the animals.
By the way, Glory's husband Jim does amazing woodwork, which you can see below. His workplace at Hope is known as Noncompliant Studio.
After the deck party, some of us continued on to Farmhouse for dinner where we met the Young Love's. The men sat at one end of the table, talking sports while Debbie, Julie and I hit a lot of high spots about our lives in Sandpoint.
The evening turned out to be everything Bill and I had anticipated when we planned it rather spontaneously last week while doing our own reminiscing.
Both of us expressed what a blessing it has been for nearly 50 years of marriage and for the joy of maintaining these long and much appreciated friendships.
It was definitely an "It's a Wonderful Life" evening with dear friends and the Young Loves.
Happy Saturday.
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