The Gs
Louise and I were both living in the women’s graduate dorm at Columbia in the 1960s while I was in library school and she in the social work program, and we soon became fast friends.
Within a few years after grad school we each married, happily our new husbands hit it off, and by good fortune we both settled in towns north of New York in Westchester County. And in those early, married-without-children years Louise and Steve G, and I and Danny got together almost every weekend.
Then one day the Gs told us they both had accrued some vacation time and were planning to take a month off and drive cross-country.
“Oh dear, what will we do without you for a whole month!”, we cried, “But take lots of photos to show us when you’re back.”
We never saw those photos, and inexplicably we never saw Louise and Steve again. And altho that was over 50 years ago, Danny and I still jokingly ask each other “Do you think the Gs are back yet?”
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
Do you have any idea if they ever returned or settled elsewhere or had an accident or anything? I would be tempted to google these days. But a good running joke nonetheless.
Khati, I honestly don’t remember, but assume we called them at the time. It was bizarre as there was no falling out between us.
But it was 50 years ago and at this point I can’t remember what I had for breakfast! Will try to google and see if I can find them and keep you posted!
It used to be that people would disappear and there was no real way to track them. Technology has changed that–I tend to forget that too. In my dad’s final year, we spent a certain amount of time googling old acquaintances and places and it was amazing to see “what happened to X”. Will be interesting to see if you track anything down.
I did google and found a couple with their names and appropriate ages living in another state .. but one’s profession was wrong, unless there were some career changes! Maybe I’ll pursue them!
That is perplexing, but I recall my sister going through something similar with their “best friends,” even more unsettling because there were 3 kids in each family and they all had spent a lot of free time together. So know it can happen. But it leaves one wondering. Keep me on the “update list” along with Khati!
Thanx Dale, sorta comforting to hear that other folks have had bizarre friendship-ending stories, will keep you posted!
Yes, a truly bizarre way to have a great friendship end, Dana. 50 years ago there was no way to track them down (write a story for “Imagined Lives” – they were CIA operatives and went off on a spy mission, or had some other deep secrets and got new identities and were shipped off somewhere). Sorry to hear about this. Must have been painful at the time. If you find them, let me know too!
Thanx Betsy, maybe they were CIA agents after all! Will let you know if I track them down!
This is quite a mystery wrapped in humor, Dana. Probably no way to solve it now!
You’re right Laurie, lots of water under the bridge since then!
Wow…I have literally never heard of anything like this before. Very strange.
Yes, strange indeed as there was no falling out between us!