A Long Time Gang found in Oklahoma!

Did that get your attention?

Well today I am going to tell you about the friends that I went to school with. Yes, we were ornery in school. . . . . . . . . Brenda Jean was our ring leader. . . . . . we were a gang of sorts! :)

This picture was taken the last day of our Senior year of high school 1971. It was Senior day....can you believe that, we only got a Senior Day at our school back then! Other schools at least got to go to Six Flags or something like that.... oh, not us, we had Senior Day and we got to go to the City Park and the bowling alley in the next town, lame as it was we accepted it. I can't imagine we would have been a liability to the school, could you?

Look at those sweet children. . . . . .

Pictured are Dorinda, Sherri Sue, Brenda Jean, & me.

I know you can't recognize us in our disguises... oh, and I am sorry we thought we were cool to smoke little cigars , Swisher Sweets, which I have in my hand. That little phase luckily did not last past this photo.

We are in the same order by some fluke a few years later at our annual All school Christmas reunion in 1976 and still full of vinegar!

Then here we are at our class reunion in 1996

Brenda Jean, Sherri Sue, Dorinda, and me.

still cute aren't we?

Then this is the gang girls outing we had in about 2002 and we just went up into Kansas

Antique shopping and ate lunch together on the Yellow Brick road....didn't see Dorothy or Toto.

Me, Brenda Jean, Rita Sue, Sherri Sue, and Francie

This is another girls weekend we had in 2002 where we went to Branson, Missouri.

Hee Haw Capital of the Ozarks....

Me, Rita Sue, Brenda Jean, and Francie

Sherri could not make it to this one. Naturally we are at the dinner table at Lambert's!

This is at Sherri Sue and Joe's wedding reception.
Rita Sue, Brenda Jean, Sherri Sue, Me and my hubby.

Then in Jan 2006 Brenda Jean's daughter got married and the reception was at the Tulsa Summit Club. We had a wonderful dinner and a great time again! The bride was beautiful and so was the bride's mother!

Francie, Brenda Jean, Sherri Sue, Rita Sue, and me.



We even went on a Caribbean Cruise to Jamaica, Gran Cayman, and Cozumel as a 35th class reunion January 2006. This is the class members that went, not that many but we had fun anyway!

Sherri and I are in the middle and Rita is on the outside right. Toni Jean is on the outside left and Judy Kay is next to me on the left.




You know how the story goes, you graduate, get married, move away, have kids, and any assortment of the logical variables. Sherri moved the farthest away, got divorced, then after several years moved back home to start over after her kids were grown. Some of the others divorced and have remodeled their lives, but we stay close and keep tied together. You know life happens in all sorts of forms.


When we graduated from high school "hope chests" were the big deal. I got a set of Noritake china for graduation from my parents. Brenda Jean said I did not need a hope chest because I was hopeless.... I was the only one who did not want to get married to anyone at the time....and it was 13 YEARS before I was to marry my hubby. Brenda, Toni, Sherri, Judy and Francie all got married quickly out of high school. I guess Brenda knew what she was talking about...because I did not unpack the china even when I bought my own house as a single gal!

Rita and I spent the most time together during the post high school years because we both stayed in town and worked for Phillips Petroleum Co. We were both professionals and we were both single the longest, yes a fancy way to say we were the "Old Maids".

This is Rita and I at Gypsum, Colorado for my cousin's wedding over Labor Day 1978

then here we are in 1977 at my apartment

then here we are at . . . . . . .

Uh oh, we are at Rita's Bridal Shower. . . . .

now I am going to be the lone "Old Maid" !

. . . . . . . .which at that point seemed pretty okay to me, because my hubby had not come on the scene yet in my life, I knew him from work, I just did not know I liked him. That would not happen until 1984....still a long way off...

well we look diffrent now, hair diffrent, bodies diffrent... (except Judy...she still looks the same)

but it is still us,

the Wild Gang!

Kansas City girls weekendSummer 2006

Rita, Judy, Toni, me, Sherri




It is truly a blessing to have friends who "knew you when". It is the rich history of knowing all about someone forever that is what makes friendship a lot richer. They "get it" when you have little quirks, or feel blue, and need a chattering release. They ignore you when you are a little too blunt.... , which I am known for....Rita always reminds me when she got pregnant at 40, with her second child, which the oldest was already 12 years old, I said to her "Rita, do you know how old you are?"

she never forgot, but the important thing is, she did not hit me . . . . . .

I wouldn't trade our friendships for anything!


We are still a gang of friends!