Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Cyndi Riley and I met in eighth grade, and were instant friends. Cyndi wrote this in my junior yearbook: “I’ll never forget how we first met ‘Do you have records?’ ‘Beatle records?’ I mean really Vic, if you hadn’t had Beatle records, we probably wouldn’t have become friends. ‘You belong to the Kramer Club?’ ‘You go out in the car and listen to the radio too? Why don’t we play tennis sometime? Do you know how to keep score?’ Yessir, that’s how it all started, baby.” We walked to and from high school together almost every day and hung around at each other's houses. On several occasions, “Aunt Lois” took us to a show at the Music Center in Los Angeles. We were obsessed with musicals and knew all the words to “1776,” “The Music Man,” and “Oklahoma.” We both tried out for “Bye Bye Birdie” at school and made it in our junior year. From eighth grade on, we spent most of our free time practicing, walking to the Kramer Club, making tennis clothes and playing tennis. Cyndi and I also entered a few tournaments around Southern California. At those tournaments, we would hear doubles partners fighting with each other during tense matches. We made a promise to not do the same thing. When one of us hit the ball out or into the net, the other would say, “That’s okay!” or “You didn’t do it on purpose!” We were lighthearted and never got mad at each other or down on ourselves. We didn’t win a tournament, but we received a sportsmanship award! What I missed most when I moved to the East Coast after high school, was Cyndi's larger-than-life personality. I will never forget the day I got my braces off. We were walking home holding our notebooks and books in our arms (we didn’t have backpacks back then). I turned to Cyndi and smiled so that she could see my white teeth. Cyndi stopped, screamed, and threw her pile of books up in the air. Likewise, whenever a bee flew near her when we were playing tennis, she would scream, throw her racket in the air, and run from the court. The thought of that still makes me laugh. We reconnected in later years, like so many others, through Words with Friends. And we also reconnected over baseball. Even though we live in Virginia, my husband and I followed the Giants (more than a certain L.A. team). Cyndi and I texted each other when something interesting happened on the diamond. I’m so thankful that we were able to go to a Giants game with Cyndi and Terry. I hope my memories give you something to smile about in this sad time. - Vicky Adams Fogg - Ps: Cyndi was missed at last month’s Rolling Hills High School class of 72 50th reunion
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