Coming down my street on that beautiful spring day and noticing a strange car in the driveway and two girls on my porch made me wonder who it could it be? Those thoughts run through my head that I didn't have time for visitors, how bad did the house look and various other negative thoughts. As I pulled into the driveway I realized that it was Cat and I couldn't get out of the car fast enough.
Cat, actually Cathie, had been my room mate at Stephens College. Some how through the fifteen since years college Cat, Pam who lived next door to us and I had all managed to keep in touch. I always found it interesting that the three of us did connect in the first place as we were really different personalities. Luckily we were good at letters and long distance phone calls when the need arose so the friendships grew through the years. Now, Cat, who I had not seen since her popping up on my porch in Carrollton, Texas five years ago was sitting was here.
Wally was a little bewildered at all the hugging and carrying on over this person he had never seen at first but became rather smitten when she scooped him up, kissed him and told him he was the cutest thing ever. Wes arrived home from school to find Cat there and instantly grew a few inches taller as Cat hugged him. On the only visit Cat had made five years before Wes had decided, at the age of five, that he was going to grow up and marry "Aunt Cathie". It was a good thing Dennis was out of town as he had a very dim view of my best friend.
So what had brought on this visit. Cat and her friend Elizabeth were on their way to St. Louis to march in a Women's Lib parade in their white dresses. The method of travel for Cat was to strike out to where ever she wanted to go and hopefully find a place to sleep at some one's house. If none could be found on her route she simply slept on a picnic table in a park or a rest stop although she always had a tent in the funny little cars she drove for inclement weather. Perhaps that may sound like a strange way to travel but you had to know Cat to realize it was quite logical actually.
Her current home was a commune in South Texas which is where she had met Elizabeth. In the five years since she had last visited and we took her out for a steak dinner Cat had become a vegetarian. When she asked Wes what he wanted for dinner he announced that a banana split would be good. It was a riotous group that invaded that ice cream parlor that evening. During our two hour stay I think Cat met everyone who worked there or entered the door. With her blond hair and her huge blue eyes people just gravitated to her and she never met a stranger. Our table for five became a table for ten or fifteen as she invited everyone to join us. Even Wes and Wally who finished their ice cream long before we finally left never complained or got bored.
We finally headed home and I got the boys to bed although it was a fight since they wanted to stay up to be around Cat. I don't remember where the bottle of Amaretto came from. Maybe we stopped at a liquor store and bought it on the way home but it was certainly not anything I had or had ever drank before. I did put Amaretto on my list of things never to drink again. The fifth of Amaretto was finally empty about 2:00 in the morning and even though there was a lot more girl-talk we could have done we called it a night.
I was up at 6:00 the next morning with a pounding headache and a slightly queasy stomach. As I got the boys up I realized that I had a small wallpaper job to do that day. I had told Cat the night before that I needed to leave early that morning and to just make themselves at home and lock the door when they headed for St. Louis. The last thing I wanted to do was to go wallpaper and wished I had called and cancelled the appointment. By the time I got to the house to hang the wallpaper my insides were actually shaking. Hmmm....going to be hard to wallpaper so I left the lady who was already at work a note and told her I had an emergency and would be there the next day. Then I called home and Cat answered the phone. She and Elizabeth were ready to go but were going to go to a Mexican restaurant for Chiles Rellenos for breakfast since they were good for hangovers.
I agreed to meet them at a Mexican restaurant at the Plaza as I needed something for my hangover. I wondered on my way to the Plaza how they picked that restaurant as it was a long way from my house but with Cat you never questioned how she just knew things and it was one of the best in town. Walking into the restaurant I suddenly realized how they had chosen it. Sitting at the table with them was Barney. Leave it to Cat to pick up the phone book and call him for advice on where to eat and of course he couldn't miss the opportunity to see her either. I do have to admit that once again the number of people at the table expanded, chairs were pulled up out in the aisle not only with people who were drawn to the laughter at our table or people that Barney knew. By the end of lunch somehow all signs of a hangover were gone.
It was sad to wave goodbye to her and Elizabeth as they went off on their adventure. It has been said that in your lifetime you may only have a couple of real friends, ones that you can share every thought with, ones that stand by you through thick and thin and ones that are always there even if you don't see them for years. I feel very lucky that Cathie, Pam and I have been like that since the day we met.
P.S. One of my very early blogs was about Cathie and her unique way of dancing through life as she was one of a kind. To find it go to the list of my blogs, click on 2015, then click on August and it should pop up with her picture at the top. It is worth reading as she was amazing.
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