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(Okay…I’m several days behind on my Jamboree-related blog/notes…I will catch up!! *smiling*)
This note has been written four times now and every time something happens to where I lose the note before it gets posted.
I spent Saturday morning swimming and then going to Golden Corral to eat before driving up to Washington DC. I wanted to do a “recon” of the Parade route. I got to see a LOT of Scouts and Scouters all around the town, enjoying the capitol city of our nation.
I also had plans to visit Brenda Kay Vockery Jones also…it was several dozen years since we last saw each other and it was a good time to visit with her and her family to “catch up” and “fill in” the many gaps in our lives when we were in high school…
 These are black and white versions of the high school photos from our 1977 yearbook. The beautiful young lady here is Brenda Kay Vockery (now Brenda Kay Vockery Jones). I carried a crush which probably was so massive and all-consuming toward Brenda. We made plans to see each other at Eastern Kentucky University, where her father would be working as the Associate Professor of Military Science. Her family moved to Richmond; she went up the road and attended Morehead State University. She later married and moved onward with her life – she invited me to her wedding; I couldn’t keep my emotions in check. So I wrote her a letter I never sent. I moved onward with my own life. In the spring of 2004, I received a very special and treasured email message from Brenda. I spent years hoping to hear from her by phone, to apologize for not attending her wedding as well as to finally tell her what I was working up to try to say but never did. I finally got that opportunity to share with her electronically what I felt about her. She is happily married to a University professor, with children and living in a suburb of metropolitan Washington. I hope to visit with her, almost 30 years later. That’s how life goes, you know…
See, I had a BIG CRUSH on Brenda…everyone knew it except for Brenda. There’s a lot of stuff in that backstory, and most of it is explained on my Gather page if you’re interested.
The visit was EXCEPTIONAL. In previous versions of this entry (all which were lost), there were words about how we filled in the various gaps between our memories and what happened…there were words there which again expressed my personal apologies for being a) jealous of every other guy who even looked her way; b) stupid, for the puppy dog way I was trailing around her until November when Susan Pennington changed the direction of my life; c) SELFISH – that I was a big time Scouting/Exploring leader instead of just being a kid wanting to stay in town, take a pretty gal to his Senior prom and learn from my Homecoming Dance mistakes; and d) anything else that I did or said or wrote which embarrassed her.
She accepted all of those apologies and even offered an apology for not really knowing how much I really felt about her all of those years back then. We had lots of laughs and lots of somber momments as well as we shared our family experiences since the last time we saw each other at Morehead State University in 1979.
I thanked her ever so much for finding my website — and my “Patches and Pins” entry about her and me and an unsent letter and an email from her which had me smiling for an entire week!! That’s how we reconnected!!
 Some guy who had a crush on the Brenda Kay woman…
We had dinner together with her son at a local eatery…which also was great, as well as the General Store downstairs and to the side. We had to explain to Travis how things were back then at FKHS in the 70s…no “PDA” (that’s “public displays of affection”, not “portable digital assistant” *smiling*), no “black-white relationships” (“interracial relationships” were not allowed until my Senior year of high school), and all of those other rules which forced some students to other schools or in the case of some gals who got pregnant, out of the school SYSTEM at Fort Knox…yeah…there were some weird things back then…)
As I left that evening, for the drive back through Rhode Island Avenue and back through the District and onto the Interstate — I could not help but to think “Chuck Jones is an extremely lucky man…”
That he is… and Brenda Kay is still as intense as she was back in high school. And still as beautiful as ever!!
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Settummanque is writer, military officer, dad, friend, traveler, public speaker, webmaster, Eagle Scout, and/or “sweetie” (LTC) Mike Walton. South Lake Minnetonka area, Minnesota. http://www.settummanque.com |
More on “Filling the Gaps” and “Closing the Loops” (24 Jul 10)
About Mike Walton
Take your standard Oliver North. Add strong parts of Bill Cosby and Sir Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of Scouting). Throw in Johny Bravo without the "hurhhs!" and his pecks. Add a strong dose of parenting, the sexuality of a latin lover, and Mona Lisa's smile. And a 40 year old's body frame. That's me basically *grinning*Connect with Settummanque
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