A tale of three Lorris

It was back in the early 1980s that I moved to Sheldon to begin a different newspaper job. At that time of my life, being young and single, meeting new people was one of the greatest parts of moving to a new place.

Somehow, the bowling alley manager's wife received my name and that of another Lori, also new to town, and contacted both of us to come and visit with her at the bowling alley.

It was her idea to get as many bowling teams together as possible to fill out the league but she wanted new, young people to the community to join in as a way of meeting new people. Pretty clever.

I told her I had only bowled a few times prior to that and didn't really think anyone would want me on their team as my speciality was gutter balls but I told her I would give it a try and it sounded like fun. Lori also agreed.

It was an instant friendship, partly because both of us were Minnesota girls. (Us Minnesotans have to stick together!) We took turns picking each other up for bowling night. As for our scores, some nights we struck it lucky, some nights we struck out! We also started doing things outside of bowling. I thank the bowling alley manager's wife for bringing this friendship together.

A short time later, another Lori was hired on at the paper and she was looking for a place to live so we became roommates.

I introduced the two Loris. Eventually through that connection, one of the Loris met her future husband, who was a best friend to the other Lori's future husband.

We had a great deal of fun when we went out together and encountered new people who would ask us our names. Lori, Lori and Lorri. Oh, and then throw in a Lisa as well.

When we introduced ourselves it was a little like characters on the Bob Newhart Show, popular at the same time. (Remember, "Hi, I'm Larry and this is my brother Daryl and my other brother Daryl!")

Instead it was like this, "I'm Lisa and this is Lori and this is Lori and this is Lorri!"

Most people didn't believe us; I think we probably proved it a few times by getting out our driver's licenses. Some people probably walked away mad thinking we were just messing with them.

What great times!

Us three Lorris reconnected on Saturday at the wedding of one of the Loris' daughters. It was good. We hugged and posed for another photo, looking even better than we did when we were nearly 30 years younger and we still laugh about three friends sharing the same namesake.

* Lorri Glawe is a member of the Pilot news staff. Reach the columnist at lglawe@stormlakepilottribune.com