BJ Alums helps reunite long-ago childhood neighbors

The BJ Alums blog is a connecting link for current and former BJ folks across the nation . . . and across the street. BJ Reference Library retiree Sandy Bee Lynn, who later put in about 15 years at the Orrville and Wadsworth public libraries and lives in Doylestown, explains.

After having one of my surgeries, it might have been the Achilles tendonitis one, I returned to orchestra practice on a Monday night. While I was out for a few weeks, a number of new people had joined the orchestra. When the practice was over I was walking down the hall to leave and two women were walking in front of me. They were both carrying violin cases and one also had a bag that looked like it held a music stand. I said “Excuse me, where did you get your bag” (it seemed easier than carrying a stand) and she told me that she had ordered it from a music catalogue and said that she could bring it to me if I'd like to have it.

Both of the women were new to the orchestra -- and me. So we stood there and talked for a while and then one of them asked me if I knew Sandy Bee Lynn. I thought that she was pulling my leg, but I said  "That's me." She grabbed me and hugged me and said my name over and over and that she had been looking for me and that she was "Sue" from my childhood on North Hill.

I was dumbstruck and backed up a little and then she grabbed my hands. Then she quickly let go of my left hand and said, "I know that you've been in an accident and had surgery on that hand -- I don't want to hurt you." I backed up a little farther -- I was feeling a little apprehensive about the entire encounter and she just kept talking. 

It was a couple of weeks later that we had dinner after a Monday night practice and she told me that she had been looking for me for a while and had found the BJ retirees blog and had read about my traffic accident. I had seen her once maybe in the 80s in downtown Akron when I worked at the Beacon and she worked somewhere downtown. My name then was just Sandy Bee and evidently that's the information that she used. Coincidentally, I didn't think she was very excited to see me during that encounter and we didn't exchange phone numbers or anything.

So, I told both my brothers about the first encounter (her older sister babysat my youngest brother so he doesn't really remember either of them -- just heard about them). They both laughed and said they thought she was stalking me -- she seemed to know so much about me and I didn't know how!! 

We lived on North Hill from the time I was about 4 until I was 14. Her name was Marsha Sue, but we just called her Sue. She lived across the street from us and I wasn't allowed to cross the street, so I would stand in front of her house on my side of the street and holler, "SUE!" as loud as I possibly could, usually about 8:00 on Saturday morning! 

Even after I knew the entire story about how she "found" me, I was awe-struck at the things that she remembered that I didn't. It's been quite an interesting journey.

So, the BJ blog "brings people together" -- she admitted to me that she didn't even know how she found the website and wasn't sure if she could find it again!

        Sandy

Sandy plays viola in the New Horizons band in Cuyahoga Falls.

So there you have it. The BJ Alums blog is not just another pretty face. It helps people find each other, and keep track of each other, even former neighbors. That’s one of our main goals here. So email jo4wvu@neo.rr.com with information about your life and we’ll post it on the BJ Alums blog. There may be someone you haven’t heard from in years who will catch up on your life since the two of you last saw each other.