A few days ago I came across this book titled The Girls From Ames. I bought it and began reading. It's a story about eleven women, a couple of years older than me who grew up together in Ames, Iowa. It chronicles their relationships throughout the years. These girls were attending Ames High at the same time I was. As I've been reading this book, I feel as if I am on a trip back in time. The author acknowledges many of the places I've been to or worked at. Jazz class is talked of and I can recall the feel and purchase of my chocolate brown leg warmers, so desperately needed to be in class. Interestingly, I intensely smell the cafeteria food, as if I am there today. I really hated the smell and I have this keen memory of smelling it as I walked the halls thinking all the while of how I could devise a plan to get back to sunny California.
It's so curious that these girls were living parrallel to me at that time and having such a different life experience in a small town like Ames, Iowa.
As I read on and have colorful and vivid memories of a place so long ago, I've learned it is isn't always necessary to physically take a trip to get the essence of being somewhere else.
