We got manners. That's the conclusion that "Neighbor" and I came to during one of our marathon phone calls yesterday afternoon.
A brief update. If you read this blog, you know that Neighbor has been a good friend of mine for over forty years. We were freshmen in high school when we met. We have lived through some precarious moments together which someday I should probably write about, but for now suffice to say, we managed to get through them all.
So back to the why we "got manners" issue.
Our lengthy phone conversations flow from subject to subject and are sprinkled with big bursts of laughter as we, two self-described intelligent, problem solvers, cure all the world's ills. I mean really, if anyone had tapped our phone lines, they would have learned that we have actually cured world hunger, created a plan for world peace, solved the unemployment problem and have the solution for educating our youth. And, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Neighbor, who was also a Marine brat, and who even took it one step further with a ten year marriage to a Marine, called to ask about my Dad's funeral. "How are you and did everything go with no glitches," she asked. I gave her an account of the service along with how I was doing. It felt good talking to her because as someone who has a similar background to mine, she understood my emphasis on the honor and respect comments regarding a military funeral.
Our conversation subsequently flowed into the Presidential Inauguration and we both gave our opinions as to that event, analyzing all the usual suspects who attended. We said some pretty damning things about some, but kept it either comical or respectful. One thing that we both noticed and agreed was uncalled for was the treatment of George Bush by the crowd as he departed Washington. Neither she, nor I cried any tears over the end of his administration, but we both felt that the disrespect of booing an outgoing president was not necessary. I mean, what good did that serve? His approval ratings have already told him what the country feels. She and I both are of the mindset that he's gone, let's move on.
Of course, we had to analyze why we came up with this conclusion and we decided that "we just got some manners!" (Now to make that statement perfectly clear, you must say it slowly, with a twang, in sort of a Forest Gump accent. You see, we can't take ourselves too seriously here). However, we did credit our parents with teaching us respect which led into a whole other conversation about how we were raised--like how Neighbor as a teenager, would walk, not drive (a brand new BMW), to the local corner store about a mile away just to purchase a Bubble Up. Of course, this spiraled into a laughing session, drawing a consensual conclusion, "yep, we are getting old, we definitely sound like our grandparents did when we were kids."
After another two and half hours of conversation, Neighbor and I finally called it a night. Yes, the conversation started in the daylight and ended with the street lights coming on. Both of us have pooches who desperately needed relief, and since we have manners, we just had to oblige them.
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