Summer days were hot in Kansas but oh those summer nights….
Living on Mechanic Street in Towanda, Kansas was a great place for summer camp outs. Some of my favorite memories were made in the back yard of Lora Gurney. Lora lived two houses down from me with her two older siblings Linda and Larry. Lora’s house was such fun for me, there always seem to have a litter of kittens being born, had copper cups that made the water I drank so cold and have such a great taste. Oh, and the best thing for me was when Lora’s camper refrigerator was full of hot dogs from Oklahoma. What made the Oklahoma hots dogs so tasty? I really don’t know but they were red and chilled just perfectly for a tasty snack under the stars on a warm summer evening.
Our camp outs consisted of flashlights, lawn chaise lounges, pillows and sleeping bags. An occasional bag of chips and maybe a few Ding Dongs or Twinkies would make its way to our camp out courtesy of my dad, thanks dad. Lora and I would set up our lounge chairs side by side in her backyard facing away from her house looking out towards the edge of town where light was scarce and you could see the stars sparkling in the dark sky. We would begin our night talking in a rapid speed about everything and anything that came to mind. As an adult I think back about those conversations I realize laying under the darkness of the sky with the stars dancing in front of us gave both of us a sense of security. Security of the physical kind knowing that God had a perfect view of us with just the stars above us, and that we were under his protection. But more profoundly we shared the security of conversation. Knowing that what we talked about would be accepted by the other with each giving comfort to the hard things we feared or mourned. Caring advice as to how to handle certain situations that preteens go through in life. Dreaming about our future careers, children and spouses, what would it look like to be an adult? We also did a lot of laughing. Oh my I can still feel the pain in my belly from laughing with Lora. Those nights are filled with what true friendship looks like to me.
As the night became late we would drift to sleep with the satisfaction of great conversation with a trusted friend. Around 4 a.m. I would wake up with the cool of dew beginning to fall on any of my exposed skin and I would slide my body parts into the sleeping bag, by 6 a.m. the sun would begin to show its light and cars begin to head to work so I would slide as deep as I could into the sleeping bag and still leave a little crack to breath in fresh air. Soon to wake up with Lora smiling at me with muffy hair and me reflecting that smile back with hair all tied in knots stretching and reminiscing of the previous nights events. “Did we really eat 8 hot dogs a piece?”
Folding up our bedding and lounge chairs we both would head to our own houses for breakfast. My mom would ask, how was your night? I would tell her it was fun and then begin to share with her some of the jokes I learned that night before and talk about the dew that woke me so early in the morning. All was good as it should be after a night with a friend such as Lora.
