It was that special time again, the time when Kathleen Welder Carey, 64, gets to see nine of her best high school friends.
She cleans her home, prepares the bedrooms and makes an order from Halepaska's Bakery.
Carey and her friends, all now between the ages of 63 and 64, all graduated from Victoria High School in 1963.
The group reunited at Carey's home to have a good time and talk about anything from grandkids and doctor's appointments to make-up and the latest in women's health.
"I love having these girls here," said Carey, a retired teacher. "They're like my sisters and for us to come together every year is so special. I absolutely so look forward to this."
The gang couldn't help but reminisce about their high school days on going to Dairy Treat for lunch and going to the drive-in.
The group has reconvened at least once a year for the past 36 years just to spend time with each other.
"No men are allowed," joked friend Andy Jones Grigar, who lives in Austin, Texas, now.
At each reunion, they chat in Carey's living room and walk down to the river. It's also tradition to shoot a group portrait in Carey's front porch every time.
The group aims for familiarity with every reunion.
"I want everything to be the same," said Lynne Drew Abernathy, who lives in Comfort. "It's all about tradition. It just needs to be the same."
Aside from their weekend, they've also taken trips to South Padre Island, Las Vegas, and gone on a cruise. Some of the women in the group still live in Victoria, while others drove in from other parts of Texas. Abernathy once drove through a hurricane to be with her friends. "It was just a lot of rain and wind," said Abernathy, who lived in Florida at the time. "It was no biggie." This year, the women celebrated two of their birthdays with cupcakes. They also celebrated Nancy Hervey Conlee's triumphant battle over her aneurism surgery with a key lime pie. "We have ordered birthday cupcakes because we're celebrating birthdays," Carey said. "We're also celebrating Nancy's good health. We have not lost any of us at this time of our lives." This type of private reunion is unusual nowadays, the group said. "Every time I tell somebody I'm going up to meet my high school girlfriends everyone's jealous," said Yvonne Mooney Babbitt, who owns a furniture store with her husband in Corpus Christi. "Our daughters are jealous because they don't have that. You can ask other people anywhere if they get together with the girls they grew up with, and they say no." In many ways, they are still the same, except for one thing, some said.
"Generally, the only thing that's changed is our hair color," joked Susan Hall Coker. "But my hair's the only one that's natural," joked back Eilen Schoenig Thedford. There's nothing like getting together with your childhood friends you can be there for and grow old with, Thedford said. "We can't share these memories with our college friends," said Thedford, a retired art teacher who now lives in Seguin. "We've stood by one another, picked up the phone or e-mail, and those prayers and thoughts help us get though that day. There are feelings here that no one can take away from us." Being back in Victoria is a comforting feeling, Thedford said. "You think about how old we are and how most of us have not spent most of our lives here," she said, "but we still call this home. "
