The United States of Friendship - Part 3 - Steve

Picture taken from one of the Brilliant Brownies Pinterest boards

Best Brownies 

Take...

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine , melted

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2  eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Step 1: Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan.

Step 2: Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; beat well with spoon.

Step 3: Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in nuts, if desired. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

Step 4: Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares.

Step 5: Make your neighbor's day by offering her a plateful.

The United States of Friendship Part 3 – Steve

Children are nosy.

Sometimes we’re glad they are nosy.

One day, when we got home, nosy Tanita ran into my neighbor Steve’s open door next to our apartment.

Just because the door was open.

We didn’t know him at that time.

“Well, hello”, Steve said, laughing “who are you?”

“I am Tanita,” she said.

“I am Steve,” he said.

I popped my head in to his open door.

“I am so sorry she barged in like that. Tanita, come out of there”.

“It’s okay,” Steve said, laughing.

Tanita thought it was fun to be nosy.

So she did it another day.

Then one day I had a headache and I was lying down.

Tanita heard Steve opening his door and ran out of our apartment to talk to him.

“What are you doing?” she asked Steve.

“I am going to make brownies. Do you want some?” he replied.

(Note to mums: offer kids anything other than vegetables, medicine or shots and they will say yes)

Tanita nodded her head.

“Ok, when they are ready, I will bring some over for you and your mum”.

She ran to me.

“Mum, Steve is making us brownies”.

“Well, what do you know,” I thought to myself

A little while later, there was a knock on the door.

“Mum, Steve has brought the brownies”.

“Tell him thanks, tell him I will invite him to dinner” I shouted out from the bedroom where I was still nursing my headache.

And so that’s how Steve became our friend and started coming to my Wednesday dinners.

He fit in well.

There was lots of laughter and he laughed easily.

Krysia, Gerri, my sister Rosie and I would all become good friends with Steve and he would invite us to his place several times a year.

These visits were very enjoyable.

Steve’s hobby was art and his paintings were all over the walls of his house.

They were fun to look at.

Steve was also a great cook.

Whenever we went over, he cooked up a storm.

I learned the recipe for Crock Pot Roast from Steve.

In Crock Pot cooking, which is slow cooking, you let your ingredients slowly cook over 8-9 hours.

One night just as I had put the ingredients in to cook overnight, the whole apartment shook.

It was one of the earthquakes California is famous for.

My mother, who was alive then and lived with me, was scared out of her wits – it was her first experience of a California earthquake.

She changed out of her nightdress into her going-out clothes and sat at attention in her favorite orange armchair – ready to get out of the house at a moment’s notice.

I was shaken, but not enough to keep me from going to bed.

Mummy, on the other hand, stayed up for half the night.

This is one of my memories of cooking Steve’s Crockpot Roast.

We enjoyed meeting Steve’s extended family, which included his mum and step-dad, his brothers and their families, his kids and his grandkids.

Steve’s Mum was a great reader and she told me about the first Harry Potter book.

I was fascinated and couldn’t wait to read it

When Steve remarried, all of us – Krysia, Gerri, Rosie, Tanita and I went to his wedding.

Steve also got to know my family. 

In time, he would visit each of my siblings in their homes.

Steve moved house twice, I moved house once, but we kept in touch.

Steve was a big part of Tanita’s earliest birthdays.

Though Krysia, Alfred, Gerri, Steve….none of them had young children, they would show up at all of Tanita’s birthdays and gladly perform any special roles I designated them.

One year, Steve’s role was to video the event and transfer the same to a VHS (VHS - how dated it sounds).

He was faithful to the task, running all over Bamboola behind Tanita and her raucous friends, clicking them at the water place, at the building blocks place, at the face painting place, at the dress up place, at the sand-pits, even in the tubes. 

I still have that VHS and yes, I actually still have a VCR I can play it on.

When I moved apartments, Krysia, Alfred, Gerri and Steve were among those who helped me move my stuff from my old apartment into my new apartment.

Hard to believe that was 13 long years ago.

How time flies.

There have been many changes in all our lives, but whenever Steve and I run into each other anywhere, we catch up on all the news.

Thanks Steve for the gift of your friendship.

My life in America, especially the first half, was so much better for it.

So dear reader – do you remember the equation of friendship from this post?

No?

Here it is: 

Nosiness = Brownies = Friendship

Hope you enjoyed this post and do come back next week for the next installment of The United States of Friendship

…M, a Pearl Seeker like you.