Relax and Smile: June 17, 2009

I rekindled a Friendship from the Past!

A couple of days ago I was checking my Facebook site to see if there were any new entries. I noticed that a good friend, Bob Johnson had entered some new photographs so I proceeded to check them out. While I was checking out his pictures I ran across a name of a friend on his (Bob's) listing. It was the name Tom Torbert. Instantly my mind started going back checking through my mental files. I suddenly recalled the name "Torbert".

I remembered my parents coming to Perry, Iowa for my basketball games back in about 1957, 58 and 59. They always made a point of visiting a couple that dad said he knew from Spencer, Iowa. The couple's last name was Torbert. Well my memory kept working and I recalled that dad told me John Torbert (I think that was his first name) and his wife Docia and their family lived in Perry. I remembered my mother told me Mrs. Torbert had a somewhat different name, but she went on to tell me her sister also had a different name. I don't remember what mom told me her sister's name was, only that she (her sister) and mom were best friends in high school.

After the years passed and I eventually ended living in Perry in the 8o's, I remember that I stopped to see Mr's Torbert from time to time. I would share with her want my parents were doing and enjoyed visiting with her.

Then somewhere in that time frame we had a son that played basketball and one of the good friends and players was named Jeff Scheib. Bart and Jeff played together and one game I was sitting next to to a lady that said she was Jeff's mother, Linda. We began exchanging conversation and before long we discovered that we were both born in Spencer, Iowa and as my memory serves me she and I thought we were born in the same hospital in Spencer in 1941. I want to think that we were both born around the 21st of August(my birthday), but I am not sure about that memory!

Anyway we also discovered that Linda's maiden name was Torbert and that Docia was her mother. Well at the end of the basketball season Bart came home one day and was very sad. He said Jeff and his family were moving to Colorado.

So far that is what I remember about the flash of past memory that I had. I sent Tom an invitation to be my friend on Facebook with a short statement asking if his dad ran the farmer's grain elevator in Spencer back in the early 40"s and WOW, Tom sent me a response saying he was the one. Well I was just so excited and even more excited when we shared that his Mom was still alive and lived at Spurgeon Manor, a place where I cooked for the residents for over 3 years back a few years after my wife died from a brain tumor.

I went to Tom's web site and found pictures of his family what a great feeling I had remembering everyone....Docia, Bob and Linda Scheib and Jeff. And Bob's camera ability was awesome! In fact I made one of his photographs my desktop background. Below I have included a few of his family photo's that I can relate to from Tom's site ...and I am sure Bart will enjoy also.