Fast friends formed from trouble

by PAT GORSKE PRICE

News-Tribune columnist

She got me in trouble the first day I met her. We had just moved to our new house on East College Street and there was this little red headed girl on the other side of the fence. Her back yard from Park Street butted up against ours. Mom had admonished me in no uncertain terms not to leave our yard.

"Come on over here," she called.

"I can't. Mom told me to stay in our yard," I countered.

"Oh, it'll be all right, just climb the fence."

I did and we've been best friends ever since. That was 54 years ago. Of course, I did get in trouble that day, but it was worth it. BFF is what it's all about, right? Best Friends Forever.

Who was that little red head? Most of you know her as Mary Ann Johnson, Eastwood's reading specialist for 35 years, wife of the former band director, Stephen Johnson III.

Back then she was Mary Ann Youngless. I actually introduced her to Steve when we were in eighth grade.

He and Bobby Cooley were riding their bikes past my house when Mary Ann and I were hanging out on the front porch. I used her line on them, "Hey, why don't you come over here?" It worked on them just like it did on me all those years earlier and the rest is history.

As kids we had regular comic book trading days, Barbie Doll parties, sidewalk chalk fests and lots of bike riding. The Eastwood Carnival always marked the best day of the year.

As teenagers we fantasized about marrying the Beatles (she claimed Paul first, so I was stuck with George because John was already married and the only other option was Ringo), got up early on Saturdays to hear the radio count down of top hits, discovered The Casual Corner and rode our bikes everywhere. Cedar Point became a reality for us and we still remember the excitement when the Blue Streak was introduced in 1967.

We learned what time of day her cute paperboy, John Cole, would be tossing the paper onto her porch and we'd lie in wait to catch a glimpse. He always hollered out, "What's a matta, Mary Ann?"

When driver's licenses came into our lives we'd cruise town, calling our main path our "rounds" past my boyfriend Dean Gibson's house, then down Oak Street past Steve's house.

Once when writing a sample for my freshman English class at OHS I described the corner of East College and North Park as the intersection of our lives. Indeed, it was.

Though we'd spend most days together, it'd always be tough to part. My parents were always more strict than hers, wanting me in sight when it got darkish, so since they could see us from the porch, we'd hang out there draining the last possible bit of "together" time out of the day.

One of the worst days of my life was when I had to stay home from school because of the ßu. It wasn't so much that I was sick that was bad.

It's that when I called Mary Ann that night I discovered that she'd been home sick, too! We could have spent the whole day on the phone.

We were regulars at Clymer's Restaurant, Herrick's Jewelry, where Bobby and Roger always made us feel welcome, Gibson's and Pettiford's alike and most weekends found us at our cherished Apollo.

We both grew up to marry band directors. (Joe Price, my husband, was band director at Vermilion for 28 years). We both had two daughters. I'm godmother to Courtney, her oldest and she and Steve are godparents to our oldest, Mary Ana, who is partially named for Mary Ann.

Courtney was maid of honor at Mary Ana's wedding, and when her youngest, Sarah, gets married this fall, our youngest, Rebecca, will be a bridesmaid for her.

Although Mary Ann spent her entire career at Eastwood, I was only lucky enough to come home to teach for the last 12 years of my career. Our mantra became "Mary Ann starts 'em out and Patty finishes 'em off." (Old friends and family call me "Patty," though many of you readers know me today as "Pat.")

In retirement it is possible to see us riding our bikes (still), swimming at SplashZone, speed walking around Tappan Square, lunching at Quick and Delicious, the Inn, Presti's or any number of other favorite Oberlin places.

The thing is, we never run out of things to talk about. It started out to be about comic books and boys and now it's about our families, travel and aging.

I suspect that even though she got me in trouble that first day, we've probably kept each other out of trouble enough to more than balance those scales. There's just nothing like a BFF.