Moments from Times Past

Going through some old files looking for some documents, faces from times past gazed back at me.  Oh my goodness.  Look at authors Annette Finley-Croswhite (left) and Gayle K. Brunelle (right)---just babies.  We are twenty-four years old in this picture, and it is my (Annette) first week in France to begin my dissertation research.  The picture was made in Gayle's 1984 garrett apartment in Rouen.  She'd been in France about 4 months by that point, and I arrived all "American" in dress---the transformation to Francophile had not yet begun.  In many ways, this was the very beginning of our friendship and writing partnership.  We shared stories of our dissertation work long before we began working together.  But France never would have been as much fun had we not had the friendship.  The picture is old and faded now, blurry even, but a significant moment in time...sort of 'when it all began.'