Where is Anne Kelly?

When I was a white, blonde curly headed 5 year old, my Mum took me to kindergarten and that is the day that I met my first best friend. 

I can't say exactly which dress I wore on that day but I do remember a couple of the little dresses that I wore. Mainly cos we have photos of my sister Angela, in the same dresses! Oh well that was the way of things back in 1966! We only got new outfits one a year (dress, socks, shoes the works, complete with matching hat and bag)  for the Sunday School Anniversary, a yearly production of all that we had learnt through the year, with each little class giving their rendition of some hymn or other. 

I digress again though, what I want to tell you about is my first best friend, Anne Louise Kelly.

Anne and I went all through school together all the way from Kindergarten to Year 12.  That in itself is sort of special, going right through school with the same group of kids; unlike these days when kids change schools quite often.  I can remember only a handful of new kids joining our class right through High School. The population didn't change much in those days, people weren't so mobile.  

Anyway  my friendship with Anne started way back when I went to Kinder. At that time, my family lived in town about three blocks from the school, small town blocks, not city sized blocks. Small blocks enough that a little kid could walk to school quite comfortably, safely.  

Anne lived on a farm, just a little way out of town on Table Cape.  The Cape, as in Table Cape - is a big volcano plug of a rock, shaped like a table, funnily enough, that sits just to the north of our little coastal town.  Anne's father grew potatoes and other crops and my father used to work with Mr Kelly on the weekends.

When I was seven, my family moved to the other end of The Cape.  All locals always knew of The Cape Road, which started in the town and went all around the top of this big table like formation and ended at the Bass Highway junction of Flowerdale and Boat Harbour - that junction is where our home stood. 

So Anne lived at one end of the Cape Road and I lived at the other - a distance of 9 miles. After we moved to Boat Harbour, Anne and I used to share the same school bus. A squat square looking little yellow bus with green vinyl seats that had it's own peculiar smell.  If I think really hard about it now,I can still remember the smell of that bus. 

Anne was a tall, thin girl with long dark brown hair.  She wore her hair long all the days that I knew her.  She had hazel eyes, like me, and a sprinkling of  freckles.  She was athletic and pretty darn smart too.

Unlike me, blonde and (later) not thin and not very athletic, Anne was a terrific tennis player, netballer, basketball player; she was good at softball, running and maths.  She was one of the first picks for team sports and I was the "oh I suppose we will take Kathy" choice.  We were opposites in so many ways but had enough similar attributes to make us firm, good friends.  I was only two days older than Anne, so both being little Virgos, we had many shared personality traits.  Each year on September 5th, I think about Anne.

At the Grade 7 camp, I clearly remember Anne and I being on kitchen duty, peeling 100s of carrots and potatoes for dinner, sharing the same cabin and feeling, finally, grown up like our big sisters;  away from home and fending for ourselves.

I was the youngest of 6 kids in my family and Anne was second youngest in a family of 7 children. I only had the one brother and Anne had four. Undoubtedly our mothers knew each other pretty well, but I would not say that they were coffee sharing friends. When Dad used to go to the Kelly farm to work, I would tag along and play with Anne.  Their farm had many big old sheds to explore and of course her Mum was a great cook as well, so it was always a treat to spend the day there.

When we were in high school, Anne's mother used to take us to another town close by for dancing lessons. I guess we were 15 or so. Our dance partners were local boys that we didn't know and even now, I cannot recall their names.  My dance partner was a tall, gangly guy with black, curly hair and unfortunate skin. I was a bit shy and awkward I suppose and tried to lessen the pain for us both by cracking jokes and trying to make light of the situation.

I said to Anne that I didn't think this approach was working as he never smiled and I cant remember him speaking much either.  Well I found out in the end why he never smiled or spoke too much.  One night during some strange dance, probably a fox trot or whatever, I made some really cracking remark that even Miss Price the sewing teacher would find funny and he laughed! Really laughed.  That was when I realised he didn't have a tooth in his head - no wonder the poor bugger kept his mouth shut. 

Anne and I were in the Year 11 Inter College games. We were the Archery Team! We practiced at the farm with a target stuck on a bale of hay.  How many we hit the target is cloudy in my mind, but I think it might not have been too many times, as I have a photo somewhere showing proof that we hit the target at least once.

When we went back to college to tell the Phys Ed teacher of our (non) prowess, he said well "It doesn't really matter, I mean you are not real Archers are you?"  Well that just cracked Anne and I up no end.  "I hope you don't say that to my Dad,  beings how my surname is Archer! " Anyway we went off on the school excursion to Launceston to compete against all the other colleges in Tassie.  Goodness knows now how we went, but the practising was endless laughter inducing, so we enjoyed it.

During our last year at  college, Year 12, Anne was studying seriously, while I had met my future husband and that kind of changed my life path.  I left school before completing Year 12 and started work; to save up for marriage, house, babies. Naive it might have been, but when you are young, you really do think you have it all worked out.

Anne stayed at school, matriculated with really good marks and went off to Melbourne to university.  We didn't keep in touch and I really never heard from her again. Every year when we went back to our hometown for the annual Christmas parade, one which everyone in town attends, I would always look out for Anne, scanning the crowds to see if I could spot her.  I think one year, I did see her face, but I can't be sure.

Anne taught me many things over  our years of friendship; how to knit (even though she was left handed and I was right handed); loyalty ( she would fiercely defend her mates); family love  (picking up her hitchhiking brother on our way to school one day) and kindness.  we were both sort of outsiders in a way, on the periphery but that's not so bad when you have one true and good friend who is always by your side. 

Over the years I have wondered many times where Anne is now.  I believe that she achieved her goal and went on to be a teacher.  I have no idea whether she had children of her own, a life partner, where she is living.  I  wonder how many times we have been in the same town, city and never known it. Where ever she is and what ever she  is doing, I hope that Anne Louise Kelly is happy, healthy and has had a good life. 

Throughout my adult years, I have moved many times; many times like 16 times! Each time I have packed up the little stone jewel box that Anne gave me in high school and taken it to our new location. It gets unpacked and put into the china cabinet wherever we settle.  I have packed that little jewel box  again and it is coming to Karratha.  I treasure that little box, it is my one tactile memory of my first best friend.





*In accordance with Kerri Sackvilles "First" Series, this post is about First Best Friends

http://lifeandothercrises.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/myfirst-bestie.html