The Girls from Ames

Amazing Attributes of Aging; Silly and Sacred Stories of Blue Garter Friends was released on April 14, 2009. Ann Schmidt, one of our gang, a former Washington Post "copyboy" from the "60's who still devours east coast newspapers daily, emailed me with a copy of Jeffrey Zaslow's column from the Wall Street Journal that same week. Amazingly Pulitzer Prize winning Zaslow had just written a book titled The Girls from Ames. I immediately went out and bought the book. The women he featured were younger than we, their friendship group was smaller and their association shorter; the message of power, healing and joy through life-long support piggybacked on ours in a similar story. It is a great read.

The 27 life-long Blue Garter Friends of Mankato, Minnesota whose story is chronicled in Amazing Attributes of Aging are the mothers of the Ames' Girl's generation. Born a twenty years earlier, we found ourselves as teenagers focused on following convention. We studied hard to become the first in our families to be admitted to college and to graduate in 4 years. Many of us were wearing a wedding band by age 22. We married and raised our families while at the same time holding professional jobs; continuously supported by our steadfast Blue Garter friends. Proudly we establishing trust actively volunteering within the networks of our individual and international communities.

As our powerful story makes its way around the nation, we encourage other women to honor and to share their friendship stories. We continue to gather regularly in our retirement. We rejoice together, having more fun than anyone can imagine!