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C. Mercaldi-Cotton's avatar

Thank you, C.J. I still have dreams of her about once a year. She's the only person in my life who has died that I have regular dreams about. She was the closest thing I had to a sister growing up. Thank you again for your kindness and empathy, my dear.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

It’s beautiful when you can feel the love from your memories instead of so much sadness from her loss.  That’s how it should be.

💕😊

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C. Mercaldi-Cotton's avatar

Rosie was caught in the crosshairs of the 50's love of alcohol and the 60's love of drugs. She did too much of both at one time and never woke up. There was a song back then, "She's Come Undone." You don't hear it much on oldies radio. But every time I heard it, I'd think of her.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I’m so sorry for your loss, Carol. It’s so sad to lose someone we care about that way.

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Sharon Hudson's avatar

Clever…𝙖𝙣𝙙 effective!! I never understood how people who ate 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 they pleased, could maintain their slim figures. I just assumed that they were from another planet! 😉

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C.J. Heck's avatar

That’s a great assumption, Sharon. I’d like to think they were from somewhere other than here!

The remaining three of us always thought what we were forced to do bordered on abuse —she left that night to work a flight and didn’t return for two days. But we decided what we did HAD to prove a point and thank God it worked (laughing).

Thank you for your clever comments!

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C. Mercaldi-Cotton's avatar

I like those outfits. I remember around 1963 "straight" dresses were sold with matching scarves very much like the ones in your picture. My bestie and I had matching ones that looked very similar to your uniform but were one piece. I wonder what happened to Darlene...she was a good ol' gal

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Hi Carol. Did you work together? Have you ever done a search for her?

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C. Mercaldi-Cotton's avatar

No, she left high school to go to hairdressing school and I joined the Army. It was just a coincidence that we both bought the same dress and matching scarf and wore it to school on the same day! (We were NOT flight attendants ;-))) She married a military guy and ended up living in Hawaii but I haven't tried real hard to find her. At this point, 60 years later...it's probably best to just wonder...

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C.J. Heck's avatar

I know what you mean. Sometimes, we just outgrow our old friends. There’s an old saying that goes something like, “People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or forever.” It isn’t exact, but it’s close.

I have a friend from way back and getting together with them the last time, we just weren’t in sync any more. We had each gone our separate ways and didn’t click any more. It was sad.

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C. Mercaldi-Cotton's avatar

Yes, it is sad--in so many ways. If you really loved a particular friend, it's even worse. I was one-third of the "Bobbsey Triplets" from grade school through the high school years. I used to dream that we'd rent a big house together one day and...well, they had different ideas. Rosie died at 22 and the other--Darlene, well, I have a funny feeling her story hasn't been a great one, either. The past was meant to be frozen in Time and viewed "Through a Glass Darkly."

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Carol, that really is sad. Was Rosie ill? 22 is so young! So many changes as we age, all things to get used to, like it or not.

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

Well, that was a quick fix. Hope she didn't take more than a day to get on track. Roommates and the living with them never internalized with me. I was probably the Christine with my three roommates in Capitola in 1979. I was so used to living alone, but that was impossible in CA. The rents were sky-high even then and a real estate salesman had to gall to look me in the eye and say, "Well, you'll have to find four or five friends and rent a two bedroom apartment." OY!

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C.J. Heck's avatar

That was exactly the way it was. Rents were high and we rented a two bedroom for the four of us. Chris knew we would repeat the dishes on her bed so she stopped her behavior immediately. No problem from then on.

Thanks for commenting and reading, Sue!

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

By the way, I just got a new subscriber notation from a C.J. Heck with the email address of cjheck60porsche@gmail.com. I checked out their list of posts and found this story on the list, but still wondered if your page has been hacked. Or does such a thing happen on Substack? Hope it was you.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

That’s me, Sue. Thank you for being cautious. I was looking through my friends this morning and realized I hadn’t subscribed to you yet. I had a huge DUH moment.

Love and hugs for your due diligence.

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Simone Senisin's avatar

Cool 😎 C.J, hope she did her turn cleaning the bathroom 🚽 🤣. The uniforms are groovy 😊

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Hello Simone! As far as I remember, that was her only lame action, but we cured her of that the first time we acted! Everything was okay after that.

Groovy uniforms, huh … ugh. We all felt like orange popsicles! 😂🤣😁

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Simone Senisin's avatar

I think l am attracted to the retro look, given it reminds me of my childhood … 😊

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Okay, fair enough. 😊❤️💕

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David King's avatar

Roommate memories! Great solution. A typical male solution was to leave the sink full until biology took over, and wait. Then there was your food in the fridge that they ate & somehow never paid for. Buying vegetables & things they didn’t like worked. Then there is always rent. Bet there are creative strategies for that too.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you for putting so much thought into a comprehensive comment, David. Those are all good possible solutions —for today’s times. With our differing flight schedules, it took a fair amount of time just to realize what game she was playing by the time we were all home at the same time and talked about it. Not to mention it was over 50 years ago.

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Harley King's avatar

I enjoyed your look back.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Thank you, Harley

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Trudi Nicola's avatar

Brilliant memory! And a great picture.✨

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Awww, thanks Trudi

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Ken Macko's avatar

So smart, resourceful and sly, you ladies were.

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C.J. Heck's avatar

Desperate problems require desperate measures … I think you were right when you said sly. We wanted to correct the problem—fast!

Thank you, Ken.

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