A Facebook Experiment

I sure hadn't expected to get an ego bump when I posted yet another Facebook quirk. The challenge read:

If you are reading this, even if we don't speak often, post a comment of a memory of you and me. When you've finished, post this paragraph on your own status; you'll be surprised at what people remember about you.

What the heck, I thought. I was very surprised to get a handful of messages right away.

Lynn H
I remember celebrating Grandmother-hood with you by doing a Happy Dance together, long distance! Boy are we good or what!

Lynn is a friend from Flickr. She is also in her third year of doing the "self photo a day" (a project her son started, not realizing how it was going to mushroom!). Lynn takes some of the most inventive self-portraits, particularly her "Me as art" set!

Debra LoGuercio
I remember meeting you sitting across the table from me at a Winters Community Theater production and being glad to be able to put a face to the name!

Debra writes a wonderful column, Because I Say So that appears in the Winters Express and the Davis Enterprise. We've sat together for two different Winters Community Theatre productions now and I always enjoy talking with her.

Welmoed B-S
I remember sitting under a huge weeping willow tree in Hyde Park in London, marvelling at the fact that we had only known eachother via CompuServe, and now we were meeting in real life! Hard to believe that was 14 years ago.

Welmoed is someone I knew from CompuServe and we did, as she says, meet for tea in Hyde Park with our friend Jane, who had been an exchange student living with us. She says our meeting was 14 years ago, but it sure seems like longer ago than that (but I don't doubt her)

Stacy Lynn C
I remember all the wonderful tasty cakes you made for me and all my friends in our younger days in Davis!

I really don't remember making cakes for Stacy or her friends, but in the days when our kids were in school, it seemed that I was making cakes for EVERYBODY, so I'm sure she's right.

Stacy B
I remember the first time that Tater and Tot came to placement at Petco and someone was coming to see them. The person approached me, introduced themselves, and said that they were there to see them. In one of my less-proud moments, I pointed in their general direction and said, "Oh yeah... they're the ones over there that kind of look like oversized potatoes."

Stacy works with Ashley and so, like Ashley she shows up at our house from time to time with either a dog to drop off or a dog to pick up...or to help with some problem I'm having with the current in-house dog.

Kari P
i remember you worked at the secretariet on G street and typed my first post-college-looking-for-a-job resume on a funny typewriter that had an electronic window that displayed a single stream of text (early wordprocessor), and that you were really fast and patient and turned my draft resume into something very professional. and i got the tennis teacher job with the city of davis!

Boy, the things you don't remember! Kari is the person who got me onto the board of the Davis Community Network, but I didn't realize that I had typed a resume for her when I was at The Secretariat, way back in the 1970s!

Jan H
I remember the photo of the lamingtons you made for Australia Day a few years ago. I also remember how you spoke to my friend Gloria on the phone when she was in the US and had lost Mary and Mary's MUM within days of one another.

Jan is someone else I know from the Internet, but have never met. I had totally forgotten about her friend Gloria, and this comment she wrote reminded me to ask her how Gloria is doing.

Joan C
Well, of course, Scrabble on-line and BBB's!

This one is self-explanatory--except for the BBB, which even I couldn't remember...it was "Bush Bashing Breakfasts" with our friend Nancy. (We've had to change the name since Obama was elected and Bush went into hiding!)

Mara T
You, my mom, and Mr. Brunelle in a hotel room in New Orleans after we'd been caught in a bar on Bourbon Street...

Boy do I remember that! It must be said that this particular group of students were all old enough to drink legally in New Orleans (where the drinking age was 18), but the group had been told that even though they could, they were not permitted to by school rules. I will say that my ability to cry on command was VERY useful in dealing with that situation, since I was the one who found them standing outside the bar, drinking a Hurricane!

Mike G
Beer butt chicken in a Houston back yard.

This was for my friend Lynn's (the one who was just here recently) surprise birthday party. She had met Mike the previous time I was in Houston, so we invited him to come to the party, at which her son BBQ'd the famous beer butt chicken.

Karen M-C
We met at DG's house, didn't we? To discuss ways of helping him promote his website when it was in a new and infantile state? Sean was still a kid, and I think Michael and I were still living in Alhambra, so it's been AWHILE!

A lifetime ago. Karen was the first person I ever met after whom a planet was named. The planet Malcor, in the Star Trek world, was named for her. Together we helped sci fi author David Gerrold design his web site. Karen raises Arabian horses and my most vivid memory (other than one of her horses playing with a child's swimming pool, tossing it into the air)...

...is of one of that same horse in the house watching "The Black Stallion" on TV. (He really did it, too! Karen said he ignored the TV until the horse came on and then he watched intently!)

Pat P
When you and I and Cathy met for the first time in Santa Barbara after getting to know each other on CompuServe (is CIS still around?). Photos show all three of us wearing huge glasses.

I remember that. I can't remember how long ago it was, but about 20 years ago. We all felt very brave, meeting each other face to face. Now the CompuServe discussion forums are gone, but Pat, Cathy, myself and several others continue to remain close friends (though separated by oceans, some of us) through Yahoo groups!

Mary W
I think the first time I met you in person was on the train ride from hell. We spent a day in SF and you came in to meet us. Danny was just a little boy, riding on my back. It was a cold foggy day (surprise!) and you very politely didn't comment on our goosebumps.

Actually I remember a lot of things with you over various visits to SF. The time you drove Tricia and me up to Twin Peaks. Standing on the top of Fort Point watching the currents. Eating that divine tofu sandwich at Greens. I'm thinking I need to come back!

Mary is another member of the CompuServe group and, since she is one of the younger ones, I kind of feel like she's the second daughter I never had (and am sorry that my attempts to get her and Jeri together sometime have all failed, since Mary, too, is the oldest sister with four younger brothers--and I know they would have much to talk about!). Tricia, too, is part of the group, but lives closer to me, so Mary flies to see Tricia and they drive to meet me in San Francisco--at least that's how it's happened a couple of times now.

Toni B
Exchanging glances with you as we watched with such affection the way Dick Brunelle sat so proudly on the bus in New Orleans with the huge winner's trophy occupying the seat next to him.

Mother of Mara, above--same New Orleans trip. Yes, watching teacher Dick Brunelle with his trophy was worth everything we went through on that trip!

This really was a fun exercise and brought up a lot of memories of things I hadn't thought about in years--or things I had forgotten. I had such a good time on Facebook, I'll put the same suggestion to people reading this entry--post a comment about a memory of you and me, whether we've met or not. And then, fellow bloggers, try doing this on your own blogs and see if you're as pleasantly surprised as I have been!