Best Friend

My Former Best Friend and Neighbor
When I was very young, one of my best friends lived next door to me. Her name was Katrina and we would play together a lot of the time. Our parents would take us to the Lake Bluff playground to go swinging, sliding and climbing together. We didn’t share the same kindergarten time though. When we were four, I went to kindergarten in the morning and she went in the afternoon. We did enjoy being together outside of school.
On Hot Dog Day, Katrina looked, looked and looked for me all over the kindergarten, but she just could not find me. Hot Dog Day is a day at Lake Bluff School where you get an extra long lunch time and there is a bag lunch with a hot dog, chips, cookie and an orange juice available for purchase. It was one of my favorite days of the year at Lake Bluff School. The next morning my kindergarten teacher told me, “Katrina and I were looking for you yesterday during hot dog day, but we just could not find you.”
I was real disappointed to hear that I missed Katrina during my first hot dog day at Lake Bluff School. I responded to my teacher by saying, “That is really too bad I missed her during Hot Dog Day. I must have already left.”
I would even wait for Katrina outside of her house when she was having a meal or doing something with her family, hoping to play with her when she finished up what she was doing. I would wave my hands and attempt to attract her attention while also making loud noises outside her window, hoping for her to see me while I was outside and she was in.
Katrina and I would play in my sandbox together and do some digging and excavating. The sandbox I had was a small triangle made out of stone blocks. I would play with buckets and shovels in my sandbox, but one of my favorite sandbox toys was a set of measuring spoons.
Another toy I liked was one that would roll around and as it rolled it would make noise. When Katrina was over at my house we’d play with the rolling noise maker toy together. I used it so much others around me would get annoyed.
Instead of getting a babysitter my parents would send me over to Katrina’s to play. I would miss my parents, but not nearly as much as usual because I had someone I knew to play with. Being at her house was like a home away from home.
I went over to her house often without even letting my parents know where I was.
“Peter, Peter” my mom would yell, “Peter, Peter.” Not hearing any response she would again yell, “Peter, where are you?”
After repeating that many times she would finally hear a voice softly say, “Yes.” Once she finally distinguished where the voice was from she would discover me next door at Katrina’s house.
Our parents were also very good friends. They would converse with each other while Katrina and I played together. Our families even shared a tomato garden in-between our houses. When I was little, she was my favorite friend, because I lived so close to her and could play with her whenever I wanted too.
Her parents eventually had a new child, Frank Jr. With so many people the house they lived in next door to ours became too small for them all to live in comfortably. They then had to move to a bigger house in Whitefish Bay on Lake Dr. That meant that not only would we not be able to live next door to each other, but we would not be able to even go to the same school because we lived in different villages now.
Now that Katrina’s family has moved, we see each other much less often. I have visited them in their Whitefish Bay house though, just not that often any more. I do see them around though, like at the Cahill tennis courts. I even recently saw Katrina’s dad, Frank, at Pick ‘N Save. I do see their current house often though since it is right on Lake Drive, a street I travel by car every so often and a good amount on bike too. When I pass by I look for their house and see what, if anything, interesting is going on.
Katrina’s dad is a dentist too, which means I see his picture in advertisements for his practice. Her dad being a dentist was really helpful to me. One year at Lake Bluff for my science fair experiment, I studied the effect of soda on tooth enamel. Katrina’s dad was able to get me a tooth measuring device. He also led me to Marquette Dental School where I was able to locate old teeth to use for my experiment. He also helped me set up my experiment.
This story is important to me because I knew Katrina for many years. She would have never been my best friend had it not been for the fact that she was my neighbor. It’s also important because this is one of the only friends I had when I was really young, as in pre kindergarten. Had she grown up in her current Whitefish Bay house, I probably would not even have known her. Currently she is going to a catholic high school in Whitefish Bay. She is involved in the Drama program at her high school. She also plays tennis.