Page 47 - Philly Girl

Philly Girl 31

and then we would pull and pull until the cup went all the
way over to each other’s windows. It wasn’t easy to get this
to work though. We created quite a stir among the neighbor-
hood kids, who watched us patiently dropping the rope from
her bedroom down to the ground, then try to toss it up two
floors to my bedroom window. It took us about 30 attempts
to get the rope up through the window. Later, we graduated
to toy “princess” phones which, in effect, were walkie talkies.
We loved talking before bedtime, sharing secrets.
And we could entertain! Barbara played the accordion
and I danced. We called ourselves the Rosey Roses. We per-
formed live with our parents as the audience. We would cre-
ate little menus listing “appetizers” and descriptions of our
songs and dances.
Anne helped me plan my Sweet Sixteen party. She helped
me pick out my dress. I would wear that dress today if I still
owned it. Silk, bright Kelly green, long swirling skirt cut on
the bias for dancing.
I have white Caesarstone countertops because of Barbara.
She has exquisite taste, and always finds exactly what she is
looking for, no matter how long it takes. When I remodeled
my kitchen in 2011, she helped me see the benefit of white
versus dark countertops—and she was so right. The last time
she visited me, she brought one of her beautiful acrylic paint-
ings. I had kept my walls bare for six years, because I liked
the tranquility and the lack of visual noise. But that painting
became part of my kitchen décor, a symbol of the first friend
in my lovely life.