Those 70ish Girls

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I don’t remember exactly when I started to write about my memories of growing up in Murdo. That amazing little town in South Dakota. It was long before I started writing the blog which began as a way of recording our RV trips. The first long trip we took was in September of 2015.

I wrote down everything I remembered about Murdo because I didn’t want to forget all of those rich stories about all the wonderful people who lived there…all 800 of them.

I started with the memory of my brother, Billy, becoming a runner for the food swap ladies. He took Mom’s leftovers to Bonna Lindquist and Bonna’s leftover goulash to Kitty Reynolds and Kitty’s ham and beans to Mom’s sister, Aunt Elna, who sent him back to our house with a tuna casserole.

After I had written about every last thing I could remember, guess who I called? Yup…my cousin Valerie. I read a few stories to her over the phone and it wasn’t long before we were laughing so hard, we were crying. Val and I had some pretty wild adventures together as kids, and I hope she’s having as much fun with all the crazy things we do now, as I am.

It would not be the fun it has become if it weren’t for Lav. She is the absolute best sport and doesn’t hesitate to jump right into whatever crazy turn the blog takes. She is the hootiest.

She started the whole idea of the Combo Awards by sending me a trophy for Christmas.

Lav has been Next Pres in the Brickhouse Stories, a Queen E stand-in, a road trip side-kick, and played countless other roles. She has performed raps, happy birthday tributes, and dances for blog videos and comes up with a lot of crazy ideas, herself. She never tells me I’ve gone too far. We often tease about what her mom, my Aunt Ella, would say when things got complicated. She would say, “It’s too much!! It’s just too much!!

I can tell you right now, I never would have ridden in the Murdo All School Reunion Parade. I can’t imagine sitting on the back of a red convertible all by myself! Lav came as a rather young looking Queen E and sat there with me. We had a ball.

I love you Lav. I could write pages, but I’ve got to let the cat in 🙂 Just kidding!

You’re the best, Cuz! We’re taking a road trip in May to see all of our friends, right?