Memory Lane is good for a rainy day stroll

This afternoon, Memory Lane proved to be a lovely place to stroll.

One of the very good aspects of living in Michigan is I have the opportunity to reconnect with friends from our time overseas. Many of them resided in China with ties to the auto industry, so they hail from Detroit. Today, I met with a special friend who lives in Georgia, but has family in this area. Because she is here visiting a new grandbaby, we had the opportunity to revisit the way we spent afternoons back “on the other side.”

I remember one afternoon in my apartment in China. We sat on the sofa and I taught her some knitting techniques. She worked on her project, and I on mine, as we discussed the fun and pratfalls that are part of the package in living overseas. She had much more experience with the expatriate life, as her adventures took her through 13 years of living in Chongching, Bangkok, and Moscow. Where I could share knitting expertise, she advised me on her experiences.

As the subject of American Women’s Club events came up, she laughed heartily, telling me she WAS the American Women’s Club in Chongching. Almost a decade ago, in that Chinese city, she did not have the luxury of Shanghai’s westernization. I remember my friend telling me of living in a hotel where they converted a couple rooms into an apartment, and she bought meat from the chef in the restaurant downstairs.

I helped her pick up a missed stitch here and there as she fascinated me with stories of living in Russia, Thailand and a more remote China. Now, we are both permanently back in the US, living in suburbia, and we were able to get together over tea and knit from the same furniture we as we did on the 39th floor looking over the Huang Pu River. It was wonderful. Our conversation drifted in the same directions; we caught up on family, shared news of mutual friends and acquaintances, and discussed where life has taken us. The feeling of a warm blanket washed over me.

What is the noteworthiness of friends catching up on old times? I have met some terrific people since moving, and look forward to more gained friendships, where these relationships are fresh and new, - we share and get to know each other, but do not yet have history. I hope to create history with friends from here, and that will happen, but it felt so good to be with someone whom I knew in another time, another place. She is someone who knew me “before.” I don’t know why that is so significant to me, but, bottom line it is, and it felt good.

As she learned to knit in the round, I worked on an ongoing project. We worked side by side with some chatting and some comfortable silence as we concentrated on our tasks at hand. You never want to let a stitch drop. She shared that if she never knits a sweater, that’s OK, she can knit other things. I told her I have knitted sweaters, and they seldom come out just as you imagine they will. Funny, how conversation about knitting can mirror life.

Hate to sound cheesy, but I remember the song from Girl Scouts – make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold. In our fast-paced world of change, change, and power change, it is nice to carve out an afternoon with no more on the docket than connecting stitches and reconnecting lives. Yes, Memory Lane is very good for a stroll, even on a rainy day.