I graduated from UC Berkeley. From the time I entered Cal as a freshman to the moment I graduated four years later I could not have been happier. If ever I could have a do over exactly the way it was the first time around, I would choose my years in Berkeley. To this day they were the most carefree, thrilling and joyous consecutive years of my life.
I had spent my entire late childhood and adolescence holed up either in my bedroom studying to get straight A's or at one of the two ice rinks where I trained under Frank Carroll as a competitive figure skater. I was a good student who liked studying. I was passionate about my figure skating and wanted to do nothing else other than be at the rink training. Both these worlds protected me somewhat from the slings and arrows of childhood battlefields. I lived rather happily inside my bubble, outside not so much.
Image my surprise and shock when I got to Cal...no bubble to fall back on, all my insecurities clearly on display, social uncertainties looming...yet, yet, I started to bloom like a hot house rose almost immediately. All the things I never did during my previous years (parties, football games, socializing easily with school friends) were now completely available and accessible to me. I was in heaven.
I joined a sorority going through rush before classes even begun my freshman year. Instant beautiful house to call home...70 new instant friends to call my own. Parties, fraternity exchanges, football games, basketball games, track meets, house meals and meetings and oh yeah, classes and studying...which for the first time in my life I found hard to do...not so much because the work load was more difficult than anything I'd encountered up until that point but, because I was having so much FUN it was just hard to find the time!
While going through sorority rush I met a girl from Fresno named Pat Harwell later nicknamed Pit or Pittle. We became immediate friends. Our August birthdays were one day apart, powder blue was our favorite color, we hated beer, we had sparkling blue eyes, loved to laugh and dance and had more energy than ten other people combined. We were absolutely inseparable so it was really disappointing when we ended up pledging different houses. Me, the Alpha Delta Pi (ADPi) house, Pat, the Delta Gamma (DG) house. Luckily for us, our houses were down the street from each other. We saw one another all time and spent time at both houses. Over my four years at Cal I spent so much time at the DG house that they made me an honorary member!
My sophomore year during fall rush (my first rush as an active member) a girl named Tracy Lagos went through rush as a transfer student from Los Angeles. All through the week our bond grew. Tracy split ADPi and DG on the last day of rush. I was praying that she would choose us but I also was aware of the lure of those fabulous DGs who also really turned on the waterworks on preference day. In the end, Tracy did choose the DGs...but again like with Pat the bond was already secured and nothing could change that. Luckily, Tracy and Pat became good friends as well so we were often the three muskateers making Fenton's runs (incredible ice cream parlor in Oakland), all dating football players, and dancing the night away as little sisters at various fraternity houses.
As you might well imagine I now spent even more time at the DG house! Tracy and I spent the next few years traveling I-5 down the middle of California every vacation going from Northern California to Southern and back again...her little powder blue VW packed to the gills with our stuff...well, OK, mostly my stuff and some of Tracy's. We talked, we laughed, we sang at the top of our lungs, we took pit stops (once jumping into a motel swimming pool fully clothed because it was so friggin' hot and there was no air conditioning in the VW. Often on that 5 hour trip cars full of boys would pass us and stare. Tracy always rolled down her window and boldly shouted, "Take a picture. It will last longer!". I so loved her chutzpah.
I became a part of her wonderful Greek family...she became a part of my crazy Jewish family. We lived at each other's houses on breaks. We ended up both working at Universal Studios in the tour division during our summer break. Tracy was a tour guide, I worked in crowd control and then food service where I secretly gave free food to her and my other tour guide friends.
Now, here it is 35 years later and we are still great friends. It doesn't matter that we don't get to talk or see each other all time (she lives up north, I live in LA). I swear that the minute we do get together time is erased and we are immediately 19 years old again...except wiser.
Recently, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do this year for our holiday card which is a HUGE tradition in our house. I had somewhat foolishly let my eleven year old son, Joshua, choose what he wanted to be (a Hip Hop Rapper with a lot of Bling) and now I had to find something to go with his choice. I couldn't think of anything so I started to think outside the box...maybe something the exact opposite would be funny. One night while drifting off to sleep cheerleading popped into my head, then Cal cheerleading, then Tracy who had been a Cal cheerleader. I mean, how opposite is a "rah rah" cheerleader to a Hip Hop Bling Rapper? Pretty opposite!
So, right away I emailed Tracy and asked if she still had her Cal uniform. Answer back..."Yes, why?" I explained the whole convoluted scenario (she knows our holiday cards well,of course) and she agreed without reservation to let me borrow the outfit for the photo shoot in November. Also, being the wonderful, kind friend that she is, she assured me that I would be able to fit into it...she's 5'10" and thin, I'm 5'6" tall and relatively thin.
 |
| Tracy in all her Cal cheerleading glory! |
As it turned out Tracy was going to be coming to LA within days. Her son, Drew (who is on a full football scholarship at USC), was going to be having hip surgery. Terrific Mama Bear that she is, she was on her way to take care of him. She would bring the cheerleading outfit then. The both of us just giggled with delight at the crazy thought of me in that outfit.
Reader's Digest...we spent Sunday evening together at her sister, Alexis' house in Palos Verdes, where Drew is recuperating. Tracy, Alexis and I laughed so hard for three hours our stomachs hurt. When I got home I tried that outfit on toute suite and IT FIT! I emailed Tracy with the good news and we howled over the internet. Tracy just can't wait to see how this year's picture turns out...me, too!
Thanks Tray...I love you...it is a privilege and so much damn fun to be your friend...
xoxo Nanci
P.S. When I went to visit Tracy and to collect the coveted uniform, I brought Drew some of my
Grandma Rose and Aunt Irene's pumpkin bread with chocolate chips to help him heal. Tracy emailed me Monday morning to say that Drew had inhaled it...just LOVED it. That made me so happy, not to mention my Grandma and Aunt wherever their souls may be floating!
