My how things change

Christmas time is a time to reconnect with old neighbors and friends. Sometimes this is successful and other times it can turn out not the way I planned. My former next door neighbors The Cardys were kind of a wild rebel bunch when I was growing up in a suburb called Pine Hills. I moved away to Oakland, Florida and they stayed in Pine Hills. We both got a bit older and they seemed to settle down. The kids my next door neighbor buddies got married and had children of their own. I stay home with my family, rode horses and went to a two year college which I never finished. My dad passed away while mom and I lived in Oakland. We sold the house and moved to New Smyrna Beach. Mom and I stayed working until mom retired. I worked afterwards until I was sick and was laid off for a second time by the same workplace. I had a chance to reconnect with Mr. Cardy and found out he is doing volunteer work as part of the Citizens Patrol for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. He says he gets a car to ride the streets near by and look for crime. He said the crime had risen greatly in our old neighborhood. Hopefully he could put a curve on the activity by reporting crime to the authorities. He wants to take back the streets and make them safe. I figured if there were more people like Mr. Cardy, Pine Hills would loose it's Crime Hills reputation. On a kind of sadder note, I lost contact with The Jameson family who also use to live in Pine Hills on my old street of Medford Drive. I was best friends as a kid growing up with a curly blond headed girl named Karen Anne. The older I got the more our lives became separate. Karen was married in Altamonte Springs. I went to the wedding. Karen moved to Georgia and had three kids. The kids are pretty much grown up, but I never heard from Karen. I may have talked with her once or twice when I called. However, she had a full life of raising kids, marriage and nursing. I sort of would just occasionally check in with her mom to get an update on how she was currently. Unfortunately, with time her mom lost her memory of me and became dependent on a hearing aid to jump into the mainstream of daily activities. I couldn't maintain a conversation with her. I could not convince Karen's mom I was a big part of her daughter's past. Meantime, I also worried about Karen's mom who lived alone. She had lost her husband to Cancer not long ago and I wasn't sure how often the family really did visit. I can only hope they are more plugged in than I realize. This is a picture of Holly, one half of the Holly and Berry dog team that would come visit mom and I when their owner Howard would do repair work around our house.