A UNIQUE REUNION

Last week five us had a mini-reunion in Monterey. It included two husbands and three of us “girls” who’ve been friends with one another since we were first graders in Hawaii seventy or so years ago.
Our backgrounds were similar: children of of struggling Okinawan immigrant truck farmers; attended the same schools and church; among the first in our large families to attend college to become teachers. and for a few years taught in various Hawaii schools before moving to California.
Except for my husband who is from Pennsylvania, the rest of us, including the husband of one, still have siblings living on the old family farmlands. Though that seems irrelevant, it’s important because we have kept in indirect contact through them as well as among ourselves.
However, after each of us moved to California, we got separated teaching in different school districts and meeting and marrying our respective spouses within a year of that change.
So for the past fifty years, we were “too busy raising families” to see one another, although an hour or two driving could have kept us in direct contact. Instead, except for a rare visit, we only kept in contact via Christmas letters. It seemed we didn’t value our friendships as we should have, although often keeping one another in our thoughts.
But in the past year, one of the gals became widowed and said several classmates and friends had died or were in poor health, and she e-mailed we “ought to get together.” She meant in the Los Angeles area where two of them lived, but we had moved to Chico five hundred miles distant and so I countered, “Yes, but let’s meet mid-point like in Monterey where it’s nice and cool.” Agreed.
One got us to compromise on two days in late July, the other found a AAA approved hotel in downtown Monterey and made reservations for all of us, and I went to the AAA and got advance tickets to the Aquarium.
On the given first day, my husband and I began the drive to Monterey at 7:00 a.m. Until Stockton, traffic was light and driving easy, but then we encountered heavy construction work, slowing us down to a crawl. We had planned to go via I-5 to Los Banos and over the Pachedo Pass, but decided to go via Tracy, the Altamont Pass and Fremont which was a new route for us. Traffic then became more rushed and I had to navigate looking closely at AAA maps. Thankfully, we only made one wrong turnoff at Livermore and were going into the residential district before we found a shopping center to ask for directions. The woman we asked knew how to get us back on the route toward Fremont; often on past trips asking at a convenience store was useless as the clerks seemed to know nothing outside of their businesses.
Our early start found us in Monterey by l:30, giving us time to scout the area from the inn to the Wharf. In the meanwhile, our friends had had a late start so didn’t arrive until about 5 p.m.
Greeting one another as if it was only yesterday since we had last seen one another, we decided to walk down to the Wharf for dinner after they checked in.
En route to the restaurant, we were delighted the Tuesday afternoon farmers’ market was in session and we of truck farming backgrounds had fun inspecting fresh fruits and vegetables, wishing we could take back some were it possible to keep them fresh for more than a few days. I was nostalgic of how my parents who had, in their later years, taken their produce to similar farmers’ markets in Oahu.
At the Wharf we had samplings of clam chowder from several restaurants that had workers outside enticing diners, and we decided on one near the very end (of course!)was the best to try.
WE had delicious chowder in sourdough bowls; a regular bowl would have sufficed for our aging tummies, but just dining together and the ambiance of seaside dining made it pleasurable until bedtime when some antacid was needed to get me to sleep.
During our short time together, we went to the Aquarium and delighted in the displays of fantastically beautiful jelly fish, near-mythical sea horses and dragon fish. WE did a quick look through Cannery Row shops, and ate more seafood at a nearby eatery. Not as good as at the Wharf, but our feet rebelled from the morning’s activities and we were glad to sit down.
Later we took the Seventeen Mile Drive and had dinner downtown at a small Greek cafe. There weren’t any of the restaurants familiar in malls, but that is probably in keeping with the historicity of Monterey.
After breakfasting at the inn and dining together for two short days reminiscing about the “good old days,” and catching up briefly about our kids and grandkids, we decided we were still compatible in spite of fifty years apart. We are now thinking of a longer trip together, probably Europe. Let’s hope nothing comes up to prevent us from doing so!