Lori You're My Best Friend by Suz Gray. Supplies:  Paper:  BasicGrey, Making Memories, Cardstock:  Archiver's, Bazzill Basics Paper, Cardstock Stickers:  BasicGrey, Glitter:  Ranger, Chipboard Letters:  American Crafts, Letter Stickers:  Making Memories, Floss:  DMC, Other:  buttons.

Journaling: I met Lori midway thru the 4th grade when she moved to Towson from Baltimore City.  We became instant friends – a couple of outcasts sticking together. We had the same bizarre sense of humor, taste in music, likes & dislikes. Pleasant Plains Elementary School was directly across the street from her house.   We both lived in row houses on the same side of Pleasant Plains Road so I would walk the 6 blocks to her house each morning where she was waiting on her porch then we would cross together at the crossing guard. Neither one of us was very good at sports so we would keep to ourselves & talk at recess.  I remember one year we sat by the sewer manhole cover digging at it – talking about how we were going to go down there live.  We said we would be best friends for Life.  Two misfits that somehow fit together – that was us we had each other. Lori’s parents were really nice.  Her dad smoked a pipe so the house smelled slightly of tobacco.  He loved to draw & would show me pen & ink sketches that he made of historic buildings in Baltimore.   I loved to eat dinner at their house because her mom always had wonderful desserts to top off the meal.   I still to this day can’t eat pound cake & ice cream without thinking of her & their house.   I also remember many an afternoon spent at their little kitchen table with the radio on helping Lori peel potatoes (no one can peel a spud like her – she taught me everything I know lol) Her brother was much younger & the typical boy – he pretty much stayed out of our way.  Lori had a latch high enough on the outside of her bedroom door so David couldn’t get in while she was out.  Her bedroom was the prettiest girly purple room – so organized. (so different from my room that had ugly paneling that I tried to hide with a million posters).  She had chores but I would sometimes help her so we could go out & play or walk the neighborhood (poor Lori had to mow their lawn each week with a manual push mower & squeeze scissor edger).   Both our parents were pretty strict.  After doing homework we would go into their finished basement & play records on a little box record player.  The sound wasn’t too good but we didn’t care we loved our music… We had a wide variety of music we listened to.  We started out with:  The Monkees, Partridge Family, & The Beatles.  Then as we got older it changed to:  Elton John, Jackson Browne, The Who, The Bay City Rollers, Led Zepplin, & Pink Floyd.   Not only did we listen to their music but we would buy magazines & books to learn everything about them.   Our favorite afterschool hangout was Greetings & Readings Hallmark Book store.  We would buy Cream Magazine, Tiger Beat, Teen Beat & special order the must have books on our list.  There was a book by Elton John & Bernie Taupin that had all their song lyrics & photos/art they had made that we HAD to have & I saved my babysitting money to get it.  When it finally came in we would pour over it for hours… thank goodness our parents weren’t interested in seeing it because it was quite racy. Elton John was our first concert –my mom took all of my friends to the arena in Washington DC.  We also saw Tommy & Friends at the Senator Movie Theater…. No Elton John fan would miss those movies.  I remember going to Two Guys store (the Walmart of its time) grocery shopping – mom would give me the trading stamps & the money she saved from me clipping coupons.  I used the filled stamp books & my coupon money to buy 45’s & albums, posters or Whacky Packs. When we got older & went to Loch Raven Jr. High our circle of friends grew a bit.  But no one ever took the place of Lori as my best friend.  Even today though we are many miles apart there is no one else I consider a best friend… 38 years as BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE.