As a child, everybody has a friend they will never forget. For me, this friend is someone I have known for the entirety of my life - Carlyn Recker. The memories we have made and the moments of pure childhood freedom we have endured together are forever engraved into my brain and will be cherished for hopefully the rest of my time on earth. This recollection of childhood memories are some of the fondest I have of my youth, and are very meaningful. To this day, Carlyn and I are best friends, and our relationship will only continue as we grow and learn.

My best friend and I have known each other since we were in diapers. Carlyn and I have always been close because of our mothers’ friendship and since the beginning of our lives we have been almost inseparable. When I was young, my mother often surprised me by bringing Carlyn along to pick me up from my babysitter, Kay McNally’s. When I saw her get out of the car, my day was instantly made and I could not wait to go home! Such surprises from my mother were the best when I was a young girl. Carlyn and I could play for hours on end and would never fail to cry when Molly Recker came to pick up her daughter. The days when Carlyn and I were together were always my favorite. Although I enjoyed the days when Carlyn surprised me at my own home, I enjoyed going to her farm even more.

Carlyn’s room had a light pink wall paper that was covered with a girl we believed looked exactly like the young, blonde girl on the front of the Coppertone Water Babies sunblock bottle. This room was where we spent much of our time at the Recker farmhouse. Often times we pretended to go on dates with our imaginary boyfriends, who just so happened to always be twins. This bedroom was where we shared our deepest secrets of childhood crushes and dreams, and also where we came to the decision to open up our own hair salon when we grew up. C and T Salon is what we planned on calling it; creative, right? We truly believed we would one day create our dream into a reality; however, as we grew up we realized our dream was unrealistic. Although Carlyn’s old room holds many memories for me, the acres of her farmland hold just as many, if not more.

One very vivid memory I have of spending time on the Recker farm is the day we trekked through pig poop on an African safari thinking the whole time the substance was quick sand. We had started the day off with playing Oprah in the corn shed and eventually got bored and moved to the hay bales. We spent hours jumping from hay bale to hay bale in an attempt to catch the many kittens and cats which roamed throughout the Recker farm. After failing to catch a single feline, we wandered to the ginormous puddle of goop. With our rain boots on, we cautiously took a step and found the sucking sensation on our boots rather entertaining. The goop was moving on its own so we came to the conclusion the pile had to be quicksand with snakes slithering across the bottom. We were no longer on the Recker farm, but in the rainforest in Africa fighting to save our friend, Elizabeth’s, life from the quicksand! She was slowly sinking to her death when Carlyn’s father, Ted, pulled up on his four wheeler. We looked at him frantically because he clearly was not alarmed by the fact his youngest daughter was sinking to her death in a pile of quicksand. We shouted to him to help us retrieve her from the quick sand and he said back, “That ain’t quick sand, that’s hog s***!” We had noticed a funny odor earlier on; however, we did not put two and two together to realize the pungent smell was that of pig poop and not that of the exotic quick sand only found in the rainforest. Such memories help to realize such a friendship will forever leave an imprint on my life.

My friendship with Carlyn was fueled by our parent’s; however, as we grew up we realized we needed each other. Carlyn needed to be taken care of by me, and I needed her to be pushed into taking chances. Our friendship has definitely gone through many rough experiences, but we always seem to recover. A friendship like ours is unforgettable.