CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH A PICKLE

In October I was at Bopp Chapel attending visitation and the memorial service for the mother of a friend of mine.  She had been a music teacher here in St. Louis and my friend an alum of Ladue High.  I wasn't expecting to see anyone I knew other than my friend's Aunt whom I have known for some time through a mutual friend and my business.  So, I'm sitting in one of the pews in front of the lady whom I know and as I turned around and chatted with her the two ladies sitting next to her joined the conversation.  Somehow or other growing up in Kirkwood came up, imagine that, one of the ladies said something about the "Pickel Girls".  Despite the fact that sometimes I think I am getting senile, something triggered in my brain.  I looked at the darling lady who had said she'd been a teacher in Kirkwood for awhile many years ago, and I asked where and she said Nipher, I said when?... she began to calculate and I said,"wait, Nipher - Art - Miss Pickel" and then even her first name fell out of my mouth!  Charlotte Pickel, art teacher during our years at Nipher!  Well  ~ of course we had a great time discussing teachers, the fact that I did NOT have her as a teacher, which is a good thing, she would have remembered me if she had taught me for my totally unartistic self!  And we reminisced about Mr. Beltz, Dr. Wagner, other art teachers, etc.  She left Kirkwood, married, spent 11 years in Omaha teaching and along the way, not sure of the time frame as I didn't make good notes, she taught at Ladue, Webster and Parkway West Jr.  She and her sister are both retired, and enjoying life.  She is chipper, adorably cute and perky, smiles a lot!  Just an older version of the way I remember her as a short, perky teacher!  
One just never knows who she'll run into at Bopp Chapel...and what memories will be triggered...a great thing about blooming where you're planted as Mary Engelbreit admonishes...