prince charmed

i was 6 in 1981. we had moved to ashland, oregon the summer before, and lived in a nice moss-colored 3 bedroom rental on kent street. my mom and i used to watch 'the love boat' together before i went to afternoon kindergarten, and i walked home from school every day with my 3 older sisters.

i have some great memories of that house. my best friend was named tara. she was even more a tomboy than i. we were in class together, played soccer together and spent many a happy summer afternoon climbing the big oak tree in the back yard. it had a great big branch that curved out like a big seat. from there you could go higher. we also had a 50-gallon drum burn barrel back there and a veggie garden- the first one i'd ever seen as the first 5 years of my life were lived in southern california.

the little old man in the house behind was mr jones. he took out all but one nail in one of the fence boards between our yards so we would have a little swinging door to go him visit whenever we wanted. he was the sweetest man you'd ever met, and his cat was trained to use the toilet. we also had a girl scout troop that met at our house. yes, for a brief but glorious time i was a brownie.

when i think about the time we lived at 320 kent street the thing i remember most fondly was 3:00 on a dark summer morning. my mother woke all 4 of us girls, we grabbed blankies, made hot chocolate and settled in to watch a princess's wedding. it was everything it should've been, complete with horse-drawn carriage. so many things were fascinating about it, not the least of which was my first exposure to the concept of time difference.

fast-forward 24 years. i'm now 30, with a lovely job in the travel industry. my favorite pastime is no longer climbing trees, but rather climbing into airplanes bound for far-away places. as i got up to get ready for work yesterday i turned on the tv and caught just the end of the princes nuptials. instead of the awe-struck and awe-inspired girl at his side i saw a couple who will to future generations seem the poor unfortunate true-loves that could finally make an honest match in the end.

all eyes were not on the bride this time, but the groom and his mother, looking for signs of the tension between them. a bit sad to me, the whole affair. diana once so famously said that there were 3 of them in the marriage. in a sense i don't think that will change. wherever charles and camilla are people will always see the ghost of diana right there with them.