Eighty years ago, five little girls started first grade at Perry Elementary School in Perry Township, Berks County. It was September of 1943, and little did we know that we would become friends for life. Laughing, crying, plotting, scheming, planning trips to the Jersey Shore, gathering in each other’s homes, again laughing until our sides hurt.
What one didn’t think of, another did. After high school graduation in 1956, Janet Klee and I entered nurses’ training at the Reading Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1959. Carol Ann, who requested that her last name not be used, attended Albright College in Reading, graduating in 1960, and worked at Reading Hospital as a medical technologist.
Barbara Herbst and Carolyn Adam married and started families. Carolyn and I were bridesmaids in each other’s weddings. Eventually we all married and had children.
Janet was the delivery room nurse when my first son was born in 1962. She handed him to me and said, “Oh Ruthie, isn’t he beautiful?” After our children were out of the nest, our relationships grew closer than ever. We had dinner and games at each other’s homes almost monthly with husbands and significant others.
The men developed a close relationship at this time. They were great contributors with jokes, puns and funny stories. I can’t emphasize enough how much we laughed.
There were the usual girls only trips to Brigantine and Atlantic City, N.J. At the Jersey Shore, we became blood sisters.
We used steri.