Carol Egan Starr

I don’t remember when I met Carol Egan; she just appeared in my life. We spent a lot of time together (and I get to see her often now since I’ve moved back to CA, 45+ years later). Carol was perky and zesty, full of fun and always egging me on to do things she wouldn’t do herself. “Come on, Connie, you can do it!” We never got into trouble, and had tons of fun. She had the prettiest hair, always combed flawlessly and usually topped with an adorable little bow. She always looked perfect! I thought her Dad looked like a handsome movie star, and secretly wondered if he really was Carl Betz. I thought it was so neat that her Mother made up tuna salad for sandwiches and kept it in a jar in the fridge (at our house if you opened a can of tuna, it was gone before it could be stored in the fridge).

I liked to sleep at Carol’s house. It was so much quieter than my house. One night we were at her home alone and the rain was pouring off the tin roof that covered their porch, making a lot of spooky noise. I had never worked an Ouija board before and Carol had one so we fooled around with it a little. We thought the idea of it was silly, but we’d ask it questions anyway and surprisingly it would answer with things that shocked us because they were usually true.
We asked it a question about Tim Kelley, Carol’s boyfriend at the time, and the board kept giving us the number 7. We couldn’t figure out what it was “saying” until we counted down the ever-present stack of 45 rpm records, and number 7 in the stack was “their song.” It shocked us so much, we put the crazy board away, and to this day, I’ve never touched another one. We’ve been told by Church Authorities that evil spirits power them and I just never wanted to invite them into my life, so I just let well enough alone.

Carol and I loved to switch clothes, as all girls do. My favorite outfit of Carol’s was her green and blue plaid skirt with her green mohair sweater. I felt so special when I wore that outfit. I’m not sure which clothes Carol borrowed because I don’t think I had much that was worth borrowing, but we did switch clothes a lot. Our Mothers were always asking us where some piece of clothing or another was, and we usually answered, “Oh, Carol (or Nanette) has it.”

One day while we were at Olive Vista Jr. High School, after days of heavy rains, they closed the school. Carol, Nanette and I walked home and rolled our wet hair in curlers, put on scarves, tied at the back of our necks and walked to San Fernando. (We’d roll our hair in curlers whenever we wanted anyone who might see us to think we had “hot” dates that night, necessitating curly hair.) We not only “walked,” we nearly drifted. The rains had been so bad for so long, the streets were caving in and the intersections were flooded. We nearly joined the rushing water downstream at a couple of intersections because the water was speeding so fast even a Volkswagen floated past on Astoria Street. Yet, here we were, kicking and splashing barefoot in our cutoffs in the rushing water along the curbs. We had no idea how much danger we were in, it was just fun! Thank goodness our parents were clueless!
When we got home from walking around “downtown” we called all our friends and had a party at someone’s house, probably mine.
We always had parties. One church leader or parent would let us use their house for the gang to gather almost every weekend and it created a bond between our group that has never diminished.
We spent almost every weekend at one or another’s house through 11th grade. Carol came over to my house after Seminary and after a breakfast of pancakes, we’d walk to Sylmar High School every day. I don’t remember being anywhere without Carol during all those years; parties, school, waterskiing at the lakes, girl’s camp, every church function, fundraisers, Bob’s Big Boy, and most of all the beach. We practically lived at the beach!

Carol was always falling in and out of love with boys; that is, until she met Tex Starr. Once she met Tex that was it for her. She was smitten! During our senior year in high school, she showed up at one of our parties with a ring on her finger, and I felt so happy for her. She married Tex and has lots of kids and grandkids. She’s fighting cancer now, and if our prayers work, she’ll be with us a long time. We still get together with the “Sylmar Gang” once a year and act like the silly girls we were in school.

**Carol says we met in 8th grade, at a church dance, when she was 13 and attending Olive Vista Jr. High School.

Carol died August 6, 2009...Boy! I'm gonna miss her!!!