Thank you, Henry Hornet!

After we moved to Kansas City (when I was in the sixth grade), I attended various schools in the North Kansas City school district, finally ending up at North Kansas City High School.  I was a loner and wallflower with few friends; I didn't date, nor did I attend the prom.  So when Henry Hornet asked to friend me on Facebook, I figured it was a waste of time because no classmates even knew I existed back then; however, I accepted the friend request.  


Henry Hornet was the NKCHS mascot.  Our vocabulary words were called Henry Hornet words, and even today, if I see or hear one of them used, I immediately think "Henry Hornet word!"  But I digress.  


Henry Hornet, whomever he or she is in real life, sometimes asks a question like, "Do you remember saddle shoes?"  I answered, "Yes!  Mine came from Hills Brothers' Shoe Store, two pairs for five dollars."  


Another question was, "What was your first bicycle?"  


I answered, "I didn't have one; we lived in Harlem.  We were poor."  


Before long I got a private message on facebook from a lady who said she, too, had lived in Harlem.
  
"Did you mean Harlem Mo? I lived there until I graduated high school at I8; am 44 now. My parents name was Raymond and Ann Conner. They had six Kids but one drowned in a swimming accident before we came to live in Harlem."

I answered back:

Yes, we lived in Harlem, Mo. We moved from there about the time I was in 8th grade, but that doesn't mean we were any more prosperous. We rented a couple of places from the Elrods, wonderful people.

And she replied:
"I loved Mrs Elrod. She went to the Salvation Army Church where we first met. Her favorite song was Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain. She became my adopted Grandmother. She taught me how to make rasien oatmeal cookies. I use to spend the night at her house with a couple of neighbor Kids. I miss her dearly. I never got the pleasure of meeting her husband but she kept their marriage lisence on the wall in a picture frame and She would always talk about hi. We rented from Mrs Barnes she had a son who had Polio. Its a small world isn't it?"

To which I responded:

"Wow, Mrs. Elrod must have lived a long time! When we first moved to KC, we rented a three-room apartment from the Elrods and there was a teeny-tiny Assembly of God church next door to us where they went to church. Sometimes my mom and I would visit there on Sunday night after we had attended evening services at the Vivian Road Church of Christ. I'm going to have to do a blog entry about this!"  

So, even though nobody knew I existed back in high school, I've still found a common ground with somebody who attended the school twenty years after I graduated.  Old Henry Hornet is good for something, after all.