Friday Lunch

Can you believe I drove into Houston two days in succession? Sometimes I don't go into town twice a year. The occasion was a  chance to have lunch with some of my favorite old friends from childhood. I started going to school with George and RoseMary when we were fifth graders in Mrs. Bigby's class. I remember vividly the first time I saw both of them and we've been friends ever since.
The other two members of our party were our favorite teachers from high school Miss Acree (back then) and Mr. Cullinan. Although they have long since given us permission to address them by their first names, we tend to still call them, as we did back then when talking about them, as "Acree and Cullinan."
Everyone looks remarkably well, especially Eloise who is 72, but looks younger than we do. She is still teaching! She tried retirement in 2004, but was called back into service because she is a nationally recognized debate coach and some principal needed one. I'm sure she wrote her own ticket, but he probably didn't have to twist her arm too hard to get her back on board.
She was our junior English teacher and we absolutely adored her. She was single, funny, fashionable, and, we thought, the smartest person in the world. She teamed up with Mr. Cullinan to teach a course they created and called simply, Humanities, when we were seniors. We know now that they created a curriculum to ready us for college by exposing us to literature, art and history we would have missed out on otherwise. They also taught us to write. If there are punctuation errors here, it isn't because Mr. Cullinan shirked his responsibility. He firmly believed that everyone had to memorize the rules. But, memory fails me.
He is 78 now, but still the best storyteller ever. His family were founders of the Texas Company and he grew up in Laredo in circumstances that made Spanish his first language. He is opinionated, out-spoken to a fault and side-splitting funny.
We met at Palazzo for our lunch. In the Upper Kirby area, it's small, quiet and reasonably priced with excellent service. The tomato basil soup and chopped salad with bleu cheese were perfect. We sat over lunch and coffee for almost three hours and were never rushed or bothered by the staff.
We had a great time catching up and reminiscing. George is in real estate and RoseMary is a college administrator. I'm glad I'm not the only person our age still working. He markets luxury homes and meets tons of fascinating people. She has such a grasp of the problems in education and great enthusiasm for fixing the broken system. Wonderful visit...hope we do it again soon. Thanks for the flowers George!