I never made it into the "cool crowd," but I did somehow get accepted by the "semi-cool crowd" at Emerson after a girl named Ellen saw me do a one foot scratch spin at the ice rink in Santa Monica on a Saturday afternoon. Wow, getting accepted by the "semi-cool crowd" made me happy! The "semi-cool crowd" was a happy and accepting crowd and it was so nice to have a group of friends at a time in my life where being accepted at school was so important. One of the friends I made from that "semi-cool crowd" was Bernadette.
Bernadette had long blond hair that was parted to the side, was very beautiful, and she had a perfect body. She seemed so confident too. As time went on the two of us might have become best friends, but I think Bernadette may have had a lot of friends (including boys), so I may have considered her my best friend at Emerson even if she had other friends that were closer to her than me. Even if she did have a lot of friends, she always seemed to like to "hang out" with me. We'd hang out together at lunchtime mostly, but I also remember going to Bernadette's house.
When we first met, Bernadette lived with her single mom and brother in an apartment in Westwood Village, but just before 9th Grade, her mother remarried and so the blended family moved to a plush house in Brentwood.
I remember spending the weekend at Bernadette's house once and eating in the family's fancy dining room, but I also remember Bernadette's mom giving us bus money and food money to go to Westwood Village on a Saturday afternoon. But....we did not take the bus! As soon as we were out of her mom's sight, Bernadette announced to me that we would hitch-hike to Westwood instead!
I was scared to death, but of course I didn't want to tell Bernadette I was scared, so we stood on Sunset Blvd. somewhere and put out our thumbs. It didn't take long before a young Asian tourist picked us up in his van. Bernadette sat in the center front seat and I sat in the passenger seat as the tourist asked for directions and handed Bernadette a map. She was very sure of herself and confident and gave him directions to his destination and then he dropped us off in Westwood and we said our good-byes.
Bernadette's mom had given us coupons for a new sandwich at McDonalds called "The Big Mac," and after we walked around Westwood Village for a bit, we headed into McDonalds and ordered our "Big Mac" hamburgers. (Remember "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, all on a sesame seed bun?") My family never ate anything except the little tiny McDonalds hamburgers, so eating such a big sandwich was a new thing for me.
At the end of 9th Grade, Bernadette wrote following in my 9th Grade Yearbook in 1971:
After graduating from Emerson, I went away for the summer to Squaw Valley to skate and Bernadette and I kept in touch by writing letters. As the summer concluded, I was terribly worried about going to a different high school than Bernadette since she lived in Brentwood which meant I would be at University High School since I lived in Belair and she would be at Pacific Palisades High School, but instead I ended up at Hollywood Professional School after pleading with my dad to go there to relieve some of the stress involved with being a competitive figure skater I was experiencing at the time.
I remember spending another night at Bernadette's house after that summer in Squaw Valley and as we laid awake in the twins beds talking in Bernadette's pretty Brentwood bedroom, I told her about the boys I met during my summer away. Bernadette asked me if I was still a virgin, but I had no idea what a virgin was and answered "Yes." I always think that memory is so funny, since all I did was hold hands with a few boys that summer! I guess I was telling her the truth even though I didn't understand what she asked me...
When my family moved away to Arcadia in the middle of my sophmore year of high school to be closer to my Dad's job as the head of the Department of Pathology at City of Hope Medical Center, I kept writing Bernadette letters, but her replies were not as frequent and eventually stopped altogether. I really missed her, so once when we were in Los Angeles doing something, I asked my mom to drop by Bernadette's house and I knocked on the door, but sadly there was no answer. I have this vague memory, of seeing Bernadette look out the window when I rang the doorbell...perhaps her parents did not allow their kids to answer the door when they were not home or something? I remember telling my mom I was so sad to lose touch with Bernadette that day.
Many years passed and my life went on, but I never forgot my special junior high friend. Decades passed and my junior high school days became just cloudy memories.
Then, in 2009, I joined Facebook and shortly after I joined Facebook, I searched for Bernadette and there she was on Facebook! She looked exactly the same too!
After we connected via Facebook, Bernadette and I had a long talk on the phone and caught up on each other's lives. I learned she had married young, but was now divorced and had a son who she had helped get his GED to graduate from high school. I learned her brother had died in a car accident. I learned that her mother had taught her to invest wisely and that she had a happy life that was quite near to my family's vacation home in Long Beach.
On one of our family's vacations to Long Beach in 2010, Bernadette came to Belmont Shore and hung out with us on the little beach at the Bay and took a stroll with us on 2nd Street during the Stroll-and-Savor event and ate at meal with us.
After that, almost every time I visit Long Beach, Bernadette and I get together. She is an athletic person who does long distance bike riding, but I'm not a long distance bike rider, but we've gone kayaking, scootering, hiking, swimming, and we've walked around the beach and Belmont Shore and Huntington Beach, and we've ate meals together. We talk about our lives and goals and the fun things we like to do. Both of us enjoy skiing, so someday we hope to do that together too. We also continue to keep in touch on Facebook.
We picked up right where we left off in 1971. A childhood friendship has become a lifelong friendship. How wonderful and "majorly cool" is that?!
(By the way...the only time I ever went hitch-hiking in my entire life was with Bernadette!)
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| Bernadette wrote the above in my 7th Grade Yearbook - 1968-69 |
Further Reading:
