My daughter and I like to talk. To each other. A lot.
She asked me the other day if I thought most mothers and daughters talked on the phone every day or maybe "12 times a day."
I'd almost like to think so, but probably they don't.
She learned to talk at an early age - in her baby book is an extensive list of her vocabulary at 18 months. Her friends might recognize her photo in the dictionary next to the word "chatterbox."
But the gift of gab can be an advantage in the retail world - a world of which I've never been a part, except as a shopper, of course.
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Even when she was a teenager, we talked. She sometimes told me things I didn't really want to hear, but communication never ceased. Her friends in those days often asked her what compelled her "to tell your mother about that!"
Maybe we are close because for a lot of years it was her and me against the world. We had adventures. When she was a teenager, we drove separate vehicles on a move to the East Coast and got lost - from each other.
That was a case when we didn't communicate quite enough. We stopped to have some minor work done on her car just west of Minneapolis. When we got back on the road, we failed to designate the next stopping place. Without going into all the panicky details, by the time we found each other - with the help of the Highway Patrol - we were on opposite sides of Lake Michigan.
It wasn't the last time we were lost on that trip. But we knew where the other was; we were just plain lost.
If it had been the age of cell phones, the trip wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic. Just think how much less adventurous traveling is now with cell phones and GPS systems.
When she returned to Fargo five years before I did, we endured our longest separation. We were reduced to snail mail and long phone conversations on Sunday nights. My phone bills were astronomical. Helping to plan a wedding long distance is time-consuming.
Over all these years, we've become each other's confidante, sounding board, adviser and supporter. But we are not "as alike as two peas in a pod." We have different talents and interests. And when it comes to politics, we often agree to disagree.
But, when something interesting happens to us or around us, we call each other first.
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And if I'm not at home or at The Forum, she worries. I take that as a sign I "need a life." I'm working on that.
Kathy Tofflemire is a copy editor at The Forum. Readers can reach her at (701) 241-5514, or ktofflemire@forumcom.com