#23 The Porch Group and "Locer Buddies"

As I've mentioned in past posts, I spent a lot of time growing up at the White's house. The summer between my junior and senior years of high school I ended up spending a lot of time on the White's front porch with Amy, Melody, Tara and Stacey.  We'd talk, laugh, complain about life and laugh some more.  We spent so much time on the porch that we began to refer to this group of friends as the "porch group." The only really specific memories I have about our time on the porch are about this boy who liked Stacey (but Stacey did not like) would show up randomly and not take a hint that we wanted him to go away.  When he finally realized Stacey did not like him I think he may have asked if we thought Tara would go out with him... yeah that answer was no too...  I also remember Melody yelling at us a lot to be quiet because she couldn't stay up late since she had to get up early every morning for work.  Sorry about that Mel, I hope you've forgiven us... So while I don't have a lot of specific memories about that time I do have a lot of great memories about these girls.  I've already spent a post talking about Melody, and Amy has a post coming up that is all about her, so I'll tell you a little bit more about Stacey and Tara in this one.  

One of my favorite things about Stacey is that she is my twin.  People were always mistaking us for one another. One time after I spoke in church about a mission trip I had been on someone came up to Stacey and told her how much they enjoyed her talk about Indonesia.  Then another time Stacey was shopping and ran into a family from church, they had a little girl named Hannah who I had become very close to and often took to do fun things. Hannah went right up to Stacey and was talking her ear off, Stacey was pleasantly surprised because she really didn't know Hannah very well.  The next week at church Hannah came up to Stacey, climbed onto her lap, Stacey thought wow, I guess she really likes me.  Then Hannah's mom came to get her and as Hannah was leaving she said "Bye Deborah!"   I've also got mistaken for Stacey a few times.  One time after I had moved to Cleveland I was back at church visiting and I was talking to man who's  daughter had come with me on a mission trip to Australia the previous summer.  Well he starts talking to me about how he's looking forward to playing softball with my husband.  I was not married at this time so I was pretty confused until I realized he thought I was Stacey because her husband played on the men's softball team at church! Stacey's husband has even said he's gotten confused when he's seen one of us from behind.   Now to be fair, Stacey and I have even found ourselves having to take a double look at times when we see a picture of the other one. We've both had times when we're glancing at a picture and we have to look closer because we think we see ourselves but we think I don't have that outfit or I wasn't at that place, and we realize its not me, it's Stacey/ Deborah.  I actually had that happen to me a few days ago when I was looking through pictures for the blog. I never mind getting mistaken for Stacey because not only is she a beautiful woman on the outside, she's also a wonderful person on the inside.  She has a huge heart and is one of the most sensitive and compassionate people I know.  She loves the Lord, she loves her family, and she's a wonderful person who has been a great friend to me over the years. 

Tara at my party with the swollen face!

Tara is one of the funniest women  I know.  I think everyone that ever gets to meet her must absolutely love her because she's just that awesome.  She has a very magnetic personality and people are drawn to her easy going, hilarious personality.  She is so much fun and has the best laugh.  Tara is such a great friend that she came to my birthday party the day after (or the day of) she had gotten her wisdom teeth out.  Her face was swollen and she had to be in a lot of pain but she was so great and hung in there the whole night (it was a sleepover) and was her usual fun self.  (Maybe even more fun because I'm pretty sure she was on some pain killers!)  That's just the kind of friend Tara is, she'll do anything for you.  She also has a deep love for the Lord and she has been working on staff Young Life for the past 6 years or more. Even from afar I can tell that she is doing a great job helping teenagers come to know and love the Lord.

Locer Buddies

I can't talk about the porch group without including my friends Matt and Steve. They became an extension of our "porch group".  I met Matt and Steve my sophomore year of high school. Amy and I had gotten lockers on the senior floor next to Melody (don't tell anyone) and Matt and Steve's lockers were right next to Amy's. We would always decorate the inside of our lockers and Amy had a sign she had made and hung up in hers that said The Coolest Locer Ever or something like that, I know the key was it said "locer" not locker.  Well Steve and Matt saw it one day and started teasing her about it. That was kind of the ice breaker and we slowly started talking to them more.  What sealed the friendship was one day the seniors had to have a Saturday school in order to graduate on time because we had so many snow days.  When Amy and I got to school the Monday after their Saturday school we opened our lockers to find that Matt and Steve had totally switched our lockers around.  All my stuff was in Amy's and all Amy's was in mine. Now we had tons of stuff in our lockers, books, pictures, signs and they duplicated them perfectly.  It was hilarious! We were rolling on the floor laughing when we discovered it and pretty much from that day on we've been great friends with Matt and Steve.  It's kind of weird, but great! Amy and I sent them a note saying we'd miss them in the senior addition of the school paper and signed it your locer buddies, well the people on the paper thought it was an error and "corrected" it saying loser buddies... that was pretty funny too. 

Matt and Steve studying the map on our Memphis trip.

After high school the "porch group" started hanging out with Matt and Steve more and more and we all ended up becoming really good friends.  It was a great friendship, nothing ever romantic between any of us, just a really cool friendship.  They were (and still are) really nice, honest, funny, caring guys who looked out for us and were really fun to be around. They were always there to help us when we needed them. They helped Amy and I move into our apartment in college (now you know a person is a good friend when they'll help you move!) Our group also went on several summer trips together.  Most of us girls were pretty directionally challenged so they were always the driver and navigator while the girls would just sit in the back and talk.  Steve was also the kind of guy that had an answer for everything. I remember one time being at dinner at Texas Roadhouse and I was complaining that my AP calculus class was useless and that I would never use what I was learning.  Steve then took the bread out of the basket and said oh sure you can, see I'll use calculus right now to figure out the volume of this bread basket, and then he did it... Gotta love those guys!

Sometimes I get really sad when I think about how I don't get to see these friends anymore.  I live in Cleveland, Tara is in North Carolina, some of us have gotten married and had kids, and our lives have just taken different turns, which I guess is bound  to happen as we grow up. However it is really fun to think about all of our fun memories, I could have gone on and on in this post, but that would have taken forever.  If any of you are reading this though I hope you know how much I have loved having you in my life and you will always be very special to me.  Love you all!