Farkels and Pancakes

Its about time!!!! Ya, that is what I was thinking as Mark and I drove over for a Farkel meeting...the 1st since we moved here. 'Farkels' you ask? In 1976, 8 girls (yes we were definately 'girls')went to Europe for part of the summer with Elmar, a history professor at UCF (called FTU at the time). Quite a memorable trip for each of us, which for me included a broken leg from sliding down an Alp. We all promised to stay in touch...and in fact, 5 of us have. For easy reference we are called the Farkels. The name is a long story, so just go with it.

We've gathered mostly over the holidays to catch up on marriages, divorces, children, dating, travels, excitements and disappointments. Gatherings have always included food and often drink. But life sometimes gets in the way of things, and it seems to have done a bit of that the past year or so.

With me back in Florida (most Farkles live in FL), I was hoping reunions could be more often than annual. In fact, they've been LESS. So, with great anticipation, we plotted and planned an appropriate time and setting for the 2008 gathering of Farkles.

3 of the 5 made it as the other 2 had iron-clad excuses for not coming. We met at DeLeon Springs, a beautiful state park complete with an age old pool built around the springs, and the spring fed river flowing from it. But even better than the natural setting was the food! The pancake restaurant was still there (visited in Farkel gatherings decades prior). Even the staff were the same.

But we each had 'our man' in attendance on this reunion...highly unusual for Farkle gatherings. So we introduced them to the art of cooking whole grain pancakes on the electric skillets built into the center of the table. Molasses, honey and maple syrup containers stood guard as we poured each pancake. We added toppings of bananas, berries, and apple slices while each pancake cooked, flipped them over either too early or too late, to be rewarded with heavy, hot bread covered in favorite things.

While the food was great (as expected at any Farkle gathering)it was so nice to catch up with each others' life adventures, some happy and some not. We knew that anything we did or said would be met with support, some laughs and some sighs. And we also knew that we wouldn't wait so long for the next gathering.