Friends for Life - Laura and Sandi with an "i"

 

Laura is my best (non-husband) friend.  We met during 8th grade.  She had sat down in the science class and a few of my friends; Wendy, Sheila, and Kathleen asked Laura to save a seat for “Sandy.”  I came in late and found that empty seat next to Laura.  Laura had moved to Escondido from Arizona where her father had been stationed in the Air Force.  Laura was so much more worldly than me; she had lived and traveled all over the world including a time in the Philippines.   In a few months was her 13th birthday and she asked me to go to Disneyland with her.  At some point, Laura decided that she would like to spell my name with an “I” so that she could make smiley faces or hearts from the dot.  To this day, Laura and I are close and my name is now Sandi with an "i".  We email weekly to stay in touch better since neither of us likes to travel.

Laura’s family were sort of like Ward and June Cleavers of Leave to Beaver for me. Their home at close to Glenview in Escondido was my image of an ideal home; tastefully decorated, organized and clean.  The yard and lawn were manicured.  Her mom was a professional woman; she worked at the school district, dressed well, spoke softly and again, my ideal of June Cleaver.  Her was like any typical 1960s family; with the dad, always in the garage and grunted most of his answers.  I loved how he talked to Laura with his deep voice, calling her Laura Lee or Laurie.  I was so envious of their lifestyle.  Laura’s older brother, David was highly intelligent and talked down to us, but thankfully ignored us.  I think he ended up being a professional student, so rarely at home. 

Laura (on the left above) was very involved in the yearbook in high school and was named the editor for our senior year.  She named me the photo editor which was lots of fun.  I would grab a staff photographer and go to events or advertising engagements and get to set up the shot.  We do have one claim to fame our senior year.  For years we had belonged to the Pep Club and painted these huge posters that the football team runs through.  Nobody seemed to appreciate them.  The pep club president, Sheana had attended a college game where the sign said “Screw Navy” (not sure of the actual team) and had a cute little guy with a screw going through the middle.  We thought it was funny.  For the big Escondido High vs. Orange Glen game, we made a similar sign that said “Screw Escondido” and a cartoon character with a screw through him.  When we put up the sign, the cheering crowd was silent.  Unexpected results.  The team ran through it unknowingly, and then the principal ran down on the field and rounded the 4 or us up.  We were in big trouble and were told to be in his office Monday morning.  That morning, he looked at us and said, “I should suspend all of you for this, but between the four of you, most of the student clubs and organizations would shut down.”  He went on to say that with Laura running the yearbook and having upcoming deadlines and with me being the assistant treasurer and responsible for paying all the student club bills, he couldn’t suspend us. Over the next few weeks, we were shocked to realize that this is probably a record number of letters to the editor – all fully against one thing.  We had united our mostly Republican town against a common enemy; that horrible sign!  When I took the yearbook picture of our principal, the theme was to something with our hands.  I asked him do that and he is pointing at me and saying, “Don’t you ever do anything like that again.”  Nobody probably knows that except me.  The picture still makes me smile.

The top picture of Laura and me is from grad night - 1972 at Disneyland. We had decided to go with each other instead of having dates. I was worried about staying up all night, so my drug-dealer brother gave us some speed which we had never taken before. Needless to say, it made us sick and as we entered the park, we were in bad shape. Two very cute guys saw us and we explained what happened. They offered to escort us around until we felt better and Laura and I ended up having a great time. Unfortunately, I think we ended up running into every guy who we had turned down for dates that evening and each thought we were lying when we said we wanted to go without a date since we obviously had these "dates." When we got home, we decided to sleep on the beach. I snuggled down into my sleeping bag and because of the drug, I didn't wake up until later the next day. Laura was next to me in her bikini - sunning and stunning on the beach. I was a human burrito and a mess!

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