Recently I found an old friend on Facebook. Nancy and I worked together at International Furniture/Schnadig Corporation years ago. This was a time when her husband was in Vietnam and I was planning a wedding. Nancy and I enjoyed life to the fullest as we worked together in the office of Schnadig. We found humor in everything. Sometimes our humor erupted into uncontrollable giggles.
I want to bring to your attention that the two of us were not the only ones who participated in our GiggleFest. There were others working in our office, but Nancy and I were the instigators. Everyday at 10:00 a.m. we had break. I am a coffee drinker; Nancy loved her soft drinks and potted meat and bell pepper sandwiches, and we all shared cookies, potato chips, or any of many different kinds of snack foods. It was a one-for all and all-for-one break. We shared our food, but no one wanted the potted meat sandwiches. We had read the ingredients on the small can.
One year the owner of Schnadig was coming to the Cornelia plant and our office supervisor gathered all of us together to give us instructions on how to act like ladies while the owner was visiting. Looking back on this office meeting, it was Nancy and I to whom this lecture was intended.
Our supervisor looked at Nancy and said, "Nancy, you have a musical laugh," and then to me, "Linda, you do too. When the two of you get together, it sounds like a carnival has come to town." She didn't have to say anything else. We both knew. We were to be on our best behavior! This was not going to be easy.
A few days later the big bosses visited, and the two of us made it through without reprimand. It was not as simple as it sounds for two nineteen year old girls with the humor bug. What were we thinking? We both just loved life and found the funny side to every situation.
We had our teased hair, cute clothes, uncomfortable heels, and fancy purses. We weren't the only cute ones working in that office. Our other co-gigglers and stylish friends were Brenda, Judy, Shirley, and Carol. These ladies just knew when to quit. Nancy and I didn't.
Some of the best times of my life were spend in the office with the above ladies. We celebrated weddings, new births, and birthdays. It seems like only yesterday we were taking a break together, telling jokes, and enjoying each other's company. It was a time when the young men in our lives were in the military. Vietnam was real and the stress relief we used to deal with the strain of not knowing what each day would bring was humor. If often looked like immaturity, but it gave Nancy a few hours each day to try to forget the worry she had for her husband. The others followed suit. We needed that stress relief. Nancy did for sure. During this time, a young wife never knew when she might get a notice that she was a young widow.
I like to remember the late '60s, but I wouldn't want to go back to relive them. Those are the times better left in the past. I love remembering my friends made in a family-like office where young girls shopped during their lunches; celebrated birthdays with cake, laughed and cried together; and Nancy ate potted meat and bell pepper sandwiches at 10:00 each morning.
It is me again, Lord, thanking you for good memories of friends from long ago.
A little Georgia Wisdom: Remember to "make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other gold."
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