Mrs. Teabody Strolls Memory Lane With a Friend


Time flies when you're having a good time. ~ English proverb



Good Morning, Gentle Reader. The clock but new struck five and in just a very little while, the Teabodys will climb inside their ancient motor car and hurtle toward the train station where they will board a trusty Amtrak tube which will deliver them to New York City's Penn Station to begin their three-day sojourn inspecting the wares of the world's cleverest artisans! In spite of a nagging discomfort from an "itis" from which Mrs. Teabody hopes to recover, the Teabodys will do their best to bring home a host of treasures to line the walls of Tickle Your Fancy. Just for you.
On Thursday, Mrs. Teabody wished to commemorate the first day of SECOND year she would not be attending "inservice" day prior to the first day of school. What could be more fitting than to spend time with another teacher who was just as delighted not to be  sitting inside some dreary central meeting room listening to an uninspiring and/ or irrelevant speaker take every drop of joy out of the start of a new school year? No one could be better. A luncheon date was arranged, and Mrs. Teabody bubbled in anticipation. Placing the "sorry we're closed" sign in the window at TYF, Mrs. Teabody dashed--if that can be a word to describe Mrs. Teabody's gait! - - to her motor car and pointed it south and east.
The usually punctual Mrs. Teabody found that all that road-works business just above the hamlet put her a bit behind schedule on one side of the mountain while a wonky parking meter that refused to acknowledge  Mrs. Teabody's deposits of shiny silver coins put her a bit behind schedule on the other. A bit shame-faced Mrs. Teabody entered the bistro, but the sight of her dear friend's welcoming visage put all those fears to rest. A warm embrace and soon enough the two were ensconced in the seats where they would remain firmly planted for the next two and a half hours - - two and a half hours that passed as quickly as twenty minutes.

What is it, Gentle Reader, about  getting together, tete-a-tete with a former colleague, a person with whom you share a long work history, a partner with whom you filtered events of day-to-day life in the workplace with its frustrations, anxieties, humiliations and triumphs? It means the world, let Mrs. Teabody assure you, after one has spent nearly two thirds of one's allotted "three score and ten" working side by side with such a friend. Yet often one passes into retirement with never a backward glance to friendships forged  during the most productive hours of one's day, when all systems were on high alert, when all one's best instincts and resources came into play. Fix that. The power lies in you.
Enjoy your day, Gentle Reader! Mrs. Teabody has places to go . . .




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