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| Taken in Elizabeth's front yard 1962 Meadowlark Drive Sierra Vista ,Arizona .Our second posting together after France Her bedroom was the window right behind us and looked directly across the street into mine She is on the Right I am on the Left |
Elizabeth June Ullman was born March 3,1955 , Ft Lewis Tacoma Washington. Being “in route” to their posting in France with the US Military her parents gave their permanent address on her birth certificate as “ The Circle K-O Motel. Washington State. Her maternal grandparents home.
I came along 6 months later Susan Nedra Parker August 4 1955. Orleans France. My parents having lived in France just a short time gave their permanent address as 4824 Montgomery Lane Bethesda MD. My maternal grandparents home.
Both of these seemingly insignificant facts have served as double metaphors
1. We have spent most of our lives feeling as if we were just passing through ” On our way to somewhere else”.
and
2. Whatever anchored us in our parent’s various military postings & our own wandering has been , “The mother line” and with that has come a decidedly feminine point of view long before that phrase “feminist” was ever coined.
Our moms met and became the best of friends shortly after the Ullmans arrived in France. and we (Elizabeth and Susie) got two moms in the bargain. One my mother, Caroline, the elegant and somewhat shy sweetheart , an Artist , consummate wife, and homemaker. A lover of all things beautiful both in nature and man made. introduced me to everything from the names of flowers and birds to the world of Art, theater, music and dance. She gave me a deep appreciation of literature and of History both Global and personal. She taught me that letter writing, meant staying connected to people and what mattered (even through all our moves) and to never underestimate the power of a heartfelt Thank-you Note. The other, Elizabeth’s mother ,Doris or Didi , a woman who could hold an entire room in the palm of her hand talking about, well, anything ….a, poet, ex marine , air traffic controller , screen writer, a political activist. with an inexhaustible sense of righteous indignation on behalf of the underdog , and who eventually introduced me to my first martini. Didi could always make my mom laugh, and Didi liked to say my mom made her “behave” except that Didi not “behaving” was the very thing that made my mom laugh. It should also be noted that on paying my mother what she considered to be the highest of compliments ( lest anyone think her friend was a “pushover”) Didi once said “ That Caroline is always a such a lady but she is also about as helpless as a Cobra “
I know that Elizabeth shares the sentiment that we were blessed in those earliest years to have our first impressions of what it meant to be a women ,shaped by these two remarkable friends. So different in style but not in substance. Not where it matter, not where their families were concerned , especially their girls.
Elizabeth soon became “Lala” as her first words in France were..... “ oooLala” I stayed “Susie” until years later when my career choice necessitated that I legally change my name and take my college nickname.
Lala has since changed her name to Jadis...(I’ve yet to ask why or what it means for that matter) and since one name change was enough for me well....
We have always in whatever "incarnation" we have found each other in our times together excepted it all just knowing we are always there for each other has been a sustaining thing in our lives,and part of our "Army Brat adaptability means we try to go with the flow" So you would think accommodating her name change(s) and she mine would be easy ( after all a Rose by any other name :) ,But no matter how hard we've tried and how little patience we have for anyone else calling us “Susie” or “Lala” , we still slip in and out of our current incarnations with each other, and then settle back into who we "
were". It is clear ,this is who we will always be to each other.
Approx. A Year and 1/2 before I'd ever heard of Saint James or Spain
