Shirley Alexander

Carol, LaDean and I used to pal around with Shirley Alexander. It seems like she just popped right out of the woodwork. Shirley was tiny, cute and fun. The first time I went to her house, her mother sent her a few blocks to a dress store to pick out a dress for a party. My Mom always made my clothes and I had never just gone into a store to buy a dress. This was like a fairy story to me. I thought it was a beautiful dress and she was the lovely princess who got the “store bought” dress. She was an only child and yet she wasn’t spoiled – that made her special. (She showed up at our reunion 35 years after high school graduation married to her sweetie Kurt and she was wearing her High School sweater…sheesh!)
We supported the boys in their sports. During softball season we’d help them warm-up and hope for a forfeit, so we could just have a big free-for-all game. We’d form boy-girl teams and everybody would play.

We’d scream and yell during basketball. One year we formed a cheerleading squad; Shirley, Carol, Nan and I. Mom helped us make little green skirts and vests that matched, and we made little green pom poms to put on our tennis shoes. We practiced and practiced our cheers. We had a great time at the games, but we never had a very big audience. One night, to our utter delight, we had a huge turnout. We were so pleased that at first we hadn’t realized why everyone was waiting outside the gym. Wouldn’t you know? The biggest turnout ever and they never got the gym unlocked!