The Thompsons showed us the sights of TULSA back in the 60s. We went to a Mall, drove about the downtown area where there were tall buildings with their lights on. Mr. Thompson was in the oil business which was what took them from our small town of Liberal, Kansas to Tulsa. He'd show us his office on a upper level of one of these skyscrapers. At that time, I had no idea that one day I'd live in the TULSA area where my husband would work downtown. I can't remember which oil company he worked for. I remember him being a very nice man though.
One of Mrs. Thompson's friends had a Volkswagen and she took us downtown in her tiny car. Nancy and I sat in the backseat cramped, but could care less, we were tiny then and could roll up into little balls of humanity visiting with one another about little things that were important to our young lives.
Hey, we were girlfriends and that was all we needed to be at the time to where we talked about what mattered to us as children. Like candy, clothing and Christmas coming to town. I don't think school was mentioned or that one day we would get married and have children of our own where our homes would be a place where we'd eat bologna sandwiches, filling our mouths with greasy potato chips and sipping on sweet tea. Giggling...now this was the stuff that was important to two hungry girls squirming about in the back seat of a tiny Volkswagon traveling down the streets of Tulsa with our Moms and Mrs. Thompson's new friend who was driving us around the city.
I lost touch with the Thompsons when I was in High School. Nancy and I had so much fun together as children. I don't remember how we met though. Might have been that Mom knew Mrs. Thompson. The Thompsons had two girls, Nila and Nancy. Nila would dance and sing to the tune of DOWNTOWN sung by Petula Clark. What a hoot. She was overly dramatic pretending to be Petula Clark singing the popular tune. I remember playing on their front porch in nice weather. I was blessed to have a enjoyable childhood where I could sing and dance on a front porch with girlfriends. The innocence was a blessing.
Nila passed away from meningitis. Unbelievably sad. I don't remember if there was a funeral or not. Shortly after this happened, the Thompsons relocated to Oklahoma.
On our way back from Tulsa that Christmas, it snowed as the sky turned grey. The headlights beamed before us as we returned to Kansas. I wonder where Nancy is today.
Whenever I hear that 1964 tune, DOWN TOWN, it has the power to take me back to that day where we sang and danced on the Thompson's front porch in the little town of Liberal, Kansas as a eight year old child. A snap shot in my memory.
I was blessed to grow up, find romance, fall in love, get married, build a HOME together, have children, navigate through rough waters, swim to the shore of God's embrace and reflect about the important things in LIFE.
~d
