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From: Bill <>
Subject: Little Egypt Heritage, 27 November 2005, Vol 4 #41
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 16:40:07 -0500


Little Egypt Heritage Articles
Stories of Southern Illinois
© Bill Oliver

27 November 2005
Vol 4 Issue: #41
ISBN: pending

Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt,

“..., your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see
visions.” [Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17] Usually this is thought of in the same
breath as that it will happen in “the last days”. Well, I can understand
that visions speak to the future and to the young there is nothing but
the future. Dreams are conducive to remembering the past. This came home
to me while helping to prepare the big Thanksgiving Dinner for family
that would gather here to share.

The peeling of potatoes is a thoughtless task; and my mind always strays
when performing mundane tasks. It started Thursday morning, during the
peeling of a couple dozen potatoes, with the memory of Grandma Oliver
saying that she knew she was aging when she had outlived all her
friends, and though she still had plenty of family, she missed her
friends. Then began the long parade of my friends who are no longer
walking above ground in this plain appearing dream like through my
mind’s eye. My brother passed on while we were still toddlers, but
friends, my high school classmates, began passing with the first year of
the Korean Conflict.

We just had Veterans Day, which is about friends - and a lot of people
who didn’t come back from serving. The school that my Grandchildren
attend had children invite their Veteran relatives – Dads, Moms,
Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, etc – to school for a recognition assembly
program. Each student stood with their “Veterans”, while a narrator read
what the student wrote about the invited Veterans. We who stood that day
on the school stage were the survivors.

Yet we miss those who didn’t survive their service to their country. We
think about them occasionally; we listen for their laughter and seek
comfort in remembering the good times we shared with them. We remember
what they wrote in our senior yearbooks: “Wat u see as truth wat u see
as lies remember that true friendship never dies although we may change
& drift apart, i’ll always value u deep within my heart!”

When we are young many people expect that their friends will always be
there. They expect friendship to last forever. However, a intimate fact
of life is that friendships do end and friends part company everyday.
Unfortunately, even the best maintained friendships can end.

Many friendships end because of a change in personality or lifestyle.
Others simply fade away with time. Distance takes toll on seeing and
sharing those common activities that fostered the friendship in the
first place and the friendship slowly loses its immediate importance and
finally disappears.

There are many lost friends that I think about and I often make an
effort to find them. I’ve not been that successful. One of my close high
school friends went on to higher education, earning his doctorate, and
taught college students before he retired. Our paths went similarly in
that we both taught students but at different levels. We rediscovered
each other after fifty years, but our interests today are so different
that our friendship was not rekindled – we just drifted apart again.

Another old friend from early high school days turned up in my home town
once. We got together for several occasions, but again our interests
were not the same as when we wandered around the swamps of North
Carolina together.

The one I call my “best high school friend” I took for granted and one
day my letter to him was returned “address unknown”. I searched for him
for over forty years – then one day while I was visiting the Social
Security Lists I attempted to find his father’s last know whereabouts. I
was sincerely dumbfounded when I saw two listings for his name and
recognized the second social security number of one – it was just a few
numbers from my own. “Sonny” had registered for his SSI number a couple
of days before I did, thus, his number was just a few less than my own.
Figuring the date of his death and his known birthdate, “Sonny” had died
about twenty years after we graduated from high school together. For his
sharp wit, humor and warm smile, he will be missed the most.

Over the years I have met many new friends and the internet has
introduced me to many more. I find it very difficult to keep up cyber
friendships because I am always researching for my roots. I meet new
people and have a wonderful flurry of correspondence and after awhile we
drift apart because we only have one thing in common – our roots.

Still a few remain and we develop close ties. The trick is to continue
those ties. So I drop a line or two to many of them every once in awhile
just to keep those ties. The trick is to do it often enough to maintain
good ties.

The list of these friends grows large and without a “score card” someone
will be lost in the shuffle. I think back on a high school teacher of my
parents, Miss Gertrude Payne, and remember that during the Second World
War, she maintained a list of hundreds of former pupils in the military
service that she corresponded with regularly. She timed her letters with
as many birthdays as she had knowledge of and holidays for the others.
So many answered her that she always had someone to write to, but those
who didn’t answer were not forgotten – she wrote them for major holidays.

My Dad always sent birthday cards with at least a short letter enclosed
to every niece and nephew and that spread to grand nieces and nephews.
He was “Uncle Bob” and is well remembered yet today, nearly ten years
after his passing.

He once wrote to me that when I was young I asked him: “What is more
important to you, me or your life?” He would answer: “... my life… you
will walk away from me knowing that you are MY LIFE!!!” In latter years
we would talk on the phone more than write, but now that he is gone, I
treasure those letters I still have more than any of the conversations
we had. The conversations fade but I can reread those letters over and
over again.

So since Turkey day I have looked over my correspondence log and have
written several people that I have met due to cyberspace. It feels good
.....

e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da.
(May you walk in peace and harmony) and

Wado,


Bill
-=-

PostScript:

Other sites worth visiting:
http://www.deannedurrett.com/codetalkers.html
PostScript:

= = = =
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html


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