First Degree Stories to Write Up

  

First degree: TLO runs into someone she knows (or someone who knows her) in an unusual place/ time
• 2006

•  August 28, 2006: Jennifer B. was coming into town from Lawrence, KS and invited me to her get-together at The Inwood Bar & Grill. I forgot my invitation with the directions but thought I knew where it was. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I found the calligraphy store that was opening at the same shopping center (I remembered those directions) but couldn't find the Inwood Bar & Grill. I called information and they put me through. A woman answered and I asked for directions. When I arrived under the red canopy, it was The Inwood Tavern. Well, that wasn't the right name and it didn't look like what I expected, but it was at the right intersection and it was where the woman on the phone said. So I went in and looked around. Well, it definitely didn't look like what I expected. It was more like a local Cheers. I found a back room but there was no Jennifer. I was going to leave but I didn't know where I was going and also thought I better make sure there wasn't another back room. I waited for the bartender to finish her transaction and when she turned around I recognized her. It was Jessica D. Jennifer B. was in my first Girl Scout troop, Jessica D. was in my second GS troop. This is the daughter of Mrs. D. (see October 2005) of an earlier first degree experience, so I knew that Jessica was doing remodeling and construction work. Turns out she just works here at night for fun. She recognized me right away and we laughed. Then she said, "Wait right here. I'm going to get my manager." Okay, what did I do wrong? She comes back with her manager, Don A.--another Lamplighter student!! I wish I could've stayed, but I got directions to The Inwood Bar & Grill (turns out they are owned by the same person and share a phone) and found Jennifer's party. I told Jennifer the story when I got there and she said, "You must know someone whereever you go! I met someone in Lawrence that knows you." She couldn't remember who it was, she just remembered that my name had come up in conversation. hmmm. How does that happen. So for the rest of this story, see August 2006 under "fourth degree."
•  April 24, 2006: Less than a week later in the same room as the Broadway Musical event (see April 18), I'm back in the Silver Eagle Lounge for the induction ceremony for Phi Kappa Phi, an academic honor society to which I've been nominated and have accepted. The room is packed and as I crawl over 5 people to get to an empty seat, I spot Jeri Kitner, another Lamplighter mom, across the aisle and up one row. I taught 2 of her 3 kids and remembered her and them very well. At some point in the ceremony, I am able to establish eye contact with her and wave. We catch up after the ceremony on her and her kids. She's technology specialist at Walnut Hill Elementary and is completing her master's in CECS this semester. She and a cohort of DISD teachers took the whole thing online. This was their first time to come to campus.
•  April 21, 2006: I attend the Sports Hall of Fame banquet at Texas Woman's University with Tinker. I had attended two years earlier when she was inducted. She was in town again and her partner couldn't attend so I got to use the ticket and go in Melinda's place. As we enter, the sports director says hello to Tinker (she knows her as Cheryl) and then Tinker introduces me. She says, "I know you." And Tinker says, "You probably met her two years ago when I was inducted." And she says, "You were in Girl Scouts, right? You worked at Girl Scout camp." Again, here's another person--two in just a few months--that remembered me. She asked me what my camp name was and I said, "Tigger" and she said, "You signed your autograph with a tail on the end!" She didn't remember my camp name but she remembered my real name and then when she knew my camp name, she remembered my signature?!
•  April 18, 2006: I read in campus email about a professor who has written a book about Broadway Musical Theatre set design and is going to have a presentation (with excerpts from "Once Upon a Mattress") followed by a book signing. His friend from New York who runs the Rodgers and Hammerstein group is coming, too. I have to go! I attend and am enthralled by the story telling and presentation. At the book signing, I decide to get two copies of each book and get one set signed for M&D for Christmas and one set signed for Musical Theatre Southwest.  While in line for the book signing, I spot a woman that I had noticed during the performance who looked familiar. She's just walking around and is looking at me now so I say, "Hi, I don't know where I know you from, but you look familiar." She said, "Me, too!" So I introduce myself and she immediately figures it out, her kids went to Lamplighter. I didn't teach any of them, but she knew me from carpool and my last year, her daughter was in third grade in red or blue group when I was teaching green and yellow groups. She used to teach at SMU when the UNT professor did and so several of his old SMU friends had driven up to Denton for the presentation to support their friend.
•  February 18, 2006: I send an email to all my Girl Scout friends telling them the Megan Little story (see January 18) and Cathy Purdy writes back: "I went to high school at Richardson high school with a Meg Little. Do you think it could be the same one?" I'm pretty sure it is! So is this first degree extended? third degree once removed? or fourth degree for Cathy Purdy?
•  January 23, 2006: At the monthly Service Unit meeting, a new leader comes up Theresa and introduces herself as Marny . . . and then stops as she looks at my nametag. She thought I was the Teresa that is the registrar and with whom she had many phone conversations but hadn't met in person. I knew by the look in her eye that when she saw my nametag, not only did she figure out that I wasn't the Teresa she thought I was but that I was a Teresa that she knew. Since I only know one Marny, I guessed and asked, "Are you Marny Lancaster?" Indeed, that was her maiden name and I taught her in 3rd grade in 1978-1979. I happened to remember that she was Chris Stobough's cousin and that Charlie Stobough was her aunt. She reminded me that she left after 3rd grade for St. Michael's which was why I couldn't place her in the '78-'79 class at first, but she was in my very first class of third graders that I taught at Lamplighter. 
•  January 17, 2006: I need to drop off some supplies at Cathy Gilberg's house, she's the Girl Scout leader who is going to lead the knots event at the older girl training session. She gives me her address and I say, "I used to babysit for the Day family that lived on that street." She says, "We bought this house from the Days." Well, it certainly was easy to find. ;-)
•  January 14, 2006: I agree to help Julie with the girls who are leading the Bronze Award workshop. We get all the older girls settled and ready and then the Juniors and their troop leaders arrive. Julie needs to talk to all the leaders before they start the workshop so she asks me to lead all the 200+ Juniors in some songs while she does that. I agree. When the time comes, Julie welcomes everyone then explains about the split and introduces me. As the leaders are going to the part of the building for the quick meeting with Julie one of them comes up to me instead and says, "Were you Tigger at Camp Rocky Point?" It was Megan Little. I actually met her big sister a few years later in the singles group at All Saints. She was impressed that I could remember her or her family. I was way more impressed that she remembered me!

2005

December 2005: Bruce Brandt's little sister at Southwest Airlines . . . again (see August 2005). Only this time in person. I checked in for my Christmas flight to ABQ at the self-check-in kiosk and was waiting for my baggage sticker. A woman who looked like a helpful supervisor came over and asked if I needed help. I told her I was waiting for my baggage sticker. She pulled it out of the machine and said, "Theresa Overall?! I'm xxx!" Then proceeded to tell me about running into Don Ambrose (who now lives on the east coast but was in town for a conference) who visited Bill Methenitis while he was in town.

November 2005: Mary Locke at Michael's

October 2005: Mari V. and Theresa went to The State Fair of Texas on the last day of the Fair. While walking through the exhibits of winning crafts, collections, and cooking, Theresa saw Robin Hempling from Pearce HS. She hadn't seen her since Pearce, but she recognized her right away. Robin was at the Fair with her mother, before going to see the State Fair Musical, "Wicked." Robin is now the Executive Director of The Dallas Chapter of Hadassah.

October 2005: At the "Hearts and Hands Bazaar" at her church, after having had the meet-your-neighbor-experience described in the Third Degree section, Theresa walks to her second friend's booth only to see Mrs. Drew sitting at one of the booths. It turns out Mrs. Drew was only there to help out a friend. Well thank goodness! We got all caught up on her kids, the Cobb girls (Savannah graduated from Vassar, then got a master's in theology and now lives in New Jersey, Sierra is at Amherst), Ann Rekerdres (a senior at UT Austin, studying in Italy this year, pursuing a career in fabric designer), and the Hardenberghs (I filled her in on Mary, Scott, Jane, and David). But it turns out that Jessica, her oldest (whom I taught in 4th grade) is now 25 and works for a company that buys and fixes up houses. Jessica is in charge of all the sub-contractors. Theresa gets Jessica's number to see if she can hire her to help with the future kitchen remodeling. Audrey will be transferring to UNT in the spring semester!

September 2005: Checking out at Tom Thumb, the checker looked at me funny and I looked back. Then she said, "Did you ever teach school?" and then I recognized her. It was Brittany Lafving. Her sister, Bridget, was in my second Girl Scout troop for a while. She's now a senior in high school and her sister just graduated from UTD.

September 2005: Walking across the UNT campus, I say "Hi" to someone who looks very familiar, but don't think about it. I assume it's a student I taught. A week later I'm at a Girl Scout meeting and the leader of a troop that I'm working with says, "What do you do at UNT?" She was the woman to whom I had said, "Hi." She's working on a master's degree in counseling and was on her way to class that day.

August 2005: Coming home from Long Island, my flight from BWI was delayed and my arrival in Houston was 50 minutes late. We touched down at 9:53 and my Dallas bound flight was scheduled to leave at 10:00. Fortunately, they held the airplane for me since it was the last plane out. How awesome is that?! I made it, but my luggage didn't.  In the luggage office in Dallas, the girl said that our policy is if we hold the plane for you, we hold it for your luggage, so we'll bring it out to you when it gets here. SWA calls in the morning to say it's arrived and can they deliver it, I say yes and then the girl says, "Can you hold a minute?" Then another voice comes on and says, "I know you're in a hurry but can I ask you a quick question?" I say sure and she asks, "Did you go to Pearce High School?" It was Bruce Brandt's little sister Jennifer(?). She really remembered Karen and was sure one of us was in Bruce's class and thought we might have even been to the house because she really remembered the name. She said she was in fifth grade when Bruce went to Pearce. "We lost Bruce in 1990." But she had such fond memories and she said when she saw that name and Richardson Texas she just knew she had to ask.

May 2, 2005: At the local grocery store on a Monday afternoon, Theresa runs into the mom (Janet) of one of her Girl Scouts (Kate) that she hasn't seen since her daughter graduated from high school in 1999. [Note: Theresa hardly ever leaves work before sunset, so to be in a grocery store on a Monday afternoon is probably even wilder than running into Janet Eickmeyer!]

April 30, 2005: At the Annual Meeting for Tejas Girl Scout Council, the new Chief Financial Officer came up to me and said, "Oh you're Theresa Overall. I've seen your name a lot since I got here." I thought, "How does she already know who I am? What has she been reading?" It's Leslie McFarlane's little sister, Jenny!!! Only now she's Jennifer and she's very professional, all grown up, and a mom.

Texas Independence Day 2005: Antoinette takes me out to lunch at Oriental Gardens with Jeanne and another C&I person. The dishwasher comes out to help with seating a customer because the hostess is seating someone else. Theresa looks again and it's Lindsay from Julie B's Girl Scout troop. She's 22 now and in her last semester of majoring in music at UNT (after a year hiatus in California). She reminisced a zillion fond memories of Girl Scsouts and said, "I really need to get involved as a volunteer." Yea!

January 2005. Theresa is babysitting for Rhonda's 2 boys while she & Bill are in Hawaii for a week. She takes Brian to basketball practice and when she picks him up, there is Kevin Clariday! She hasn't seen Kevin in 10 years. Theresa was roommate and co-teacher at Lamplighter with Loretta, Kevin's wife. (She knew Loretta before she and Kevin started dating.) Kevin is a co-coach for his son Mikey's basketball team which has practice at the same school after Brian's team. Jan. 2005. Theresa is leaving the 4th floor of the medical building having just had her mammogram and waiting for the elevator is Jean Buschmann who just finished a doctor's visit on the 5th floor but stopped at the 4th floor to pick up xrays to take to a specialist. She hasn't seen Jean in a over a year since she bumped into her in the aisles of Target. Jean's husband Herb was Theresa's insurance man for years before he died. Jean asked Theresa if she had time for coffee and for once, she actually did! She wasn't scheduled to be somewhere else at just that moment and enjoyed a delightful 45 minutes of chatting and getting caught up with Jean.

2004

Christmas Day 2004 Theresa runs into Mary Ruth Danko Carris and her husband and two children. They're all on the same flight to Albuquerque...Theresa to spend Christmas with her parents, The Carris family to ski in Red River, Taos, and Angel Fire. Mary Ruth was on the singles' group ski trip to ABQ (early 1980's) where the girls stayed with Dede & Granddaddy and the boys stayed with Aunt Loeda and Uncle Richard.

Fall 2004: first ECMP "first Friday" event. I meet Kevin's fiancee, Diana, who used to work for Apple in their education division and knows Cheri Halderman and Jerri Hodges.

Fall 2004: Theresa is having lunch with Gerald, Rhonda, Cesar, Garry, and Romona when Rhonda notices a woman all the way across the room having lunch with Dean Keller. It's Hilda Ruch that Rhonda and Theresa worked with at Lamplighter 5 years ago (even longer for Rhonda)!

Fall 2004: The checker at Albertson's one night after choir practice is a Girl Scout that Theresa knows from Wide Games. She was a sophomore at UTD, so I hadn't seen her in 2 years. I only saw her a few more times before the semester ended, then she either switched shifts or quit working there.

October 2004: At a Girl Scout training event for Senior Scouts at Camp Whispering Cedars, one of the leaders in attendance was Elizabeth from St. Bernard's who was Theresa's Intel Teach to the Future Class at All Saints in xxxx.

2003

December 2003: Theresa stops at the Senior Citizen's Center in Richardson to buy trash bags and recycling bags. She sneaks past the line dancing class to get to the desk. Ruth Engle who retired from Lamplighter several years before Theresa did (and it's been over 4 years since Theresa retired from there) is one of the people taking the line dancing class. She lives over 10 miles away and doesn't live in Richardson, but a friend of hers had convinced her to come take the classes with her.

October 2003: State Fair see Purdy family from Austin on Texas OU weekend (over 100,000 people in attendance that day...70,000 at the game alone)

1990's

December 19xx: Theresa is at a Christmas party at Virginia's house. She's there with all the Chums. All of Virginia's family had invited friends as well so there's lots of people we don't know. Theresa's in the kitchen drinking wine when around the corner comes Laura Sue Elkins who was a third grader in Theresa's first class at Lamplighter. Laura Sue is drinking something alcoholic and the funny thing was they both instantly recognized each other and both put their glass of alcohol behind their back 'cuz it felt funny to have the other one see her drinking. Laura Sue is now well past 21 and is a college buddy of Virginia's younger sister, Susie.

Summer 19xx Shirley Burns @ Karen's church in DC

199x: Janet Gelphman from PHS @ LL

Before 1990

1980's: Shirley Burns comes up to Theresa one day in the teacher's kitchen at Lamplighter and says, "I met your boyfriend's mom last night." That's interesting, since Theresa wasn't dating anyone at the time. But it turns out that whom she met was Steve Swanson's mom who lives across the street from Shirley's best friend who was hosting the party where they met.

1982? at planning meeting for All Saints Open House at the home of someone I didn't know, there were two high school girls doing their homework. One was the daughter of our hostess and the other was her friend. The girls finished their homework and joined us. The visiting girl turned out to be a girl that I used to babysit many years ago. She didn't remember me at first, but after talking for a while she shreiked, "You're the one who threw up while babysitting us!" All those Friday nights of reading her stories, playing games, and being a fun babysitter all boiled down to one memory.

somewhere between 1978 and 1983: principal from RISD who was touring Lamplighter and remembered Theresa from when she did her FTA internship at the elementary school while a student at Pearce

Summer 1984: Randy McGehee at Equifax

1979: Frank Koss, a friend from the single's group at church comes up to me at mass and says, "I met someone that knows you." He had gone on a date with (and later married) a fellow camp counselor from Girl Scout camp, Pedro--Marty (Fears) Koss.

1970's? At a production of "Oliver" at the Albuquerque Civic Light Opera, Karen and Theresa sat in one place and the rest of the family sat in another. We got together during intermission and compared notes. "Did you notice that Oliver, the Artful Dodger, and two people in the chorus are all named Stanton? I bet they're all siblings. Isn't that cool?" we said to our parents. "Did you know that the Stantons in this play are the same Stantons that we used to carpool with to St. Anne's Catholic School when we lived in Arvada?" our mother said to us.

year unknown

Gina Knight....Girl Scout leader in the 11:00 choir at All Saints

January 200x: Theresa reads a blanket UNT email about an artist coming to put on a show. She keeps reading because the ar work sounds unique and intriguing. Later in the email it invites the UNT community to attend the opening reception and says that Olivia Block will be performing at the reception. Theresa goes online to learn about the music of Olivia Block until she finds a photo. She's pretty sure it's the Olivia Block she taught at Lamplighter. She emails Lamplighter folks to join her in attending, including Jean, the music teacher who had retired a few years earlier. Jean meets Theresa at UNT and they go to the reception together. They notice someone who looks familiar....sure enough, it's Olivia's mother. It is our Olivia! Turns out her mom works at UNT in the Art Department putting together special events and she had arranged for Olivia to premier her unique music at the opening reception. Boy was Olivia surprised to see us! :-)

September xxxx: Theresa is talking to Matt Adams after church trying to arrange something. "Oh, but I won't be here next Sunday, I'll be out of town," she says. "Me, too," he says. So they agree that the Sunday after they will take care of it. The following Saturday, Theresa is in Houston at the wedding of Dr. Mari's brother. She doesn't know anybody else there except the groom's family, but that's okay. Guess who shows up at the wedding? Matt knew Larry and his soon-to-be-wife back when he attended Rice University.

Paul Macalevey and Laurie McNeil @ funeral of Girl Scout

PHS ballet dancer that sat next to me in French II and who went to Belgium (Bulgary?) immediately after graduation to dance in their ballet, shows up at Lamplighter many years later (Theresa was teaching 4th grade in the "new" wing) in a troupe that gives arts workshops to schools. After the large group performance to the whole school, each dancer went to a different class and spent time with the kids talking about their career and answering questions. Guess which one got assigned to my class? :-) She actually remembered me but was blown away that anyone from Pearce would remember her.

May 19xx: Jennifer Bryan @ Randy's church

On a flight home from ABQ Theresa runs into Sharon Mitchell, Hollins alum from Dallas, who's in NM looking into moving there.

At Love Field waiting for a flight to ABQ, Theresa sees a Lamplighter family that she knows waiting for the earlier flight to ABQ. She and her dad are traveling to ABQ together so she introduces them. They are eating in the waiting area and could really use another bag to get all their stuff together and Theresahappen to have a grocery sack with me which just fit the bill. How handy!

At DFW, Theresa sees Mishty Deb's mom who's on a business trip. Theresa hadn't seen her in 7 years since Mishty was in the GS troop.

Theresa is having dinner with her grandmother, Dede, at a two-story restaurant in Albuquerque. They get seated on the second floor. About 20 minutes later, a man walks by and Theresa recognizes him as Jim Kramb, the director of the Catholic Life Center at her church back in Dallas. He was in town for a karate competition for his son.

A new trombone player in our choir (Neil Potter) is married to a girl Theresa went to high school with, Carol (Luker) Potter.

Frank Koss's dad who lives in southern CO had an emergency heart problem. The closest place to get help was in Albuquerque. Frank flew from TX to NM to be with his family. It happened to be a weekend that Theresa was going to ABQ, so she was able to bake cookies and bring them to Frank and his family at their hotel...just as if they'd been in Colorado at their family home or in Dallas at Frank's home.

Summer 19xx--Family reunion on Lake Michigan at lake house of cousin Nancy and her husband Geoff. Second day there Theresa recognizes young man across the street...she taught him when he was in 4th grade at Lamplighter. His family has a summer home across the street from Nancy and Geoff.

Camp Texlake outside Austin, TX:

--YR1 1998 Barbara Worley, intern at Lamplighter fall 1979, is director of training for Lone Star Council and is in charge of the event
--YR2 1999 Camp Rocky Point camper from 1975 or 1976, Karen Davis, recognizes Theresa and says, "Are you Tigger?" 
--YR 3 2000 Sue Wisenhut's sister who was in master's classes with Theresa at UNT
--YR 4 2001 Brenda Blair, family friend that Theresa hadn't seen since early 1970's -- in a few months she and her husband and child were going to live on a sailboat and travel the world for a year
--YR 5 2002 Kathy Steele (Coralee and Shannon's mom) -- she won the patch design contest; Theresa knew her in Dallas, their family had moved to Austin the year before
--YR 6 2003 no one :-(
--YR 7 & 8 2004 & 2005 did not attend