EMMA GILLIAM: Can you guys introduce each other?

PATTY BOURLON: This is, my… probably my closest, dearest, bestest friend, Rene Beverly Bennett. Umm… I met her in fourth grade.

RENE BENNETT: It’s Beverly Rene.

PB: Sorry. That’s how close we are.

RB: So close.

PB: And, I met her, so I guess when I was like, 9 years old. We grew up across the street from each other. And to this day, I would jump in front of a train for her.

RB: Wow! What an introduction… This is Patricia A. “Anne” Reed Bourlon. I met her when she was in fourth grade and I was in sixth. She moved across the street. Thank god. And she is a beautiful bombshell mother of three that I can’t get enough of and we’ve been friends for ages.

EG: Can y’all talk about your earliest memory of each other?

PB: My earliest memory of Rene was the day I met her it was like a neighborhood gathering, I guess kind of like a neighborhood night out, (turns to Rene) at the Fipps.

RB: At the Fipps… wow.

PB: She was playing basketball with probably her brothers, a couple of the boys, and I truly observed her. I mean I just kinda watched on the side and I thought she’s got these great Lovett jeans on that had like the rainbows on the back pockets and I didn’t have a sense of like, “Oooh I want to get to know her, ooh I’m scared of her,” I just thought, I don’t know, I was just intrigued.

RB: It’s so sweet because Patty doesn’t have sisters. So I got to be that for her, because she has three older brothers. Um… my earliest memory… god, you were just always there. You lived over at our house. I remember being in the front yard a lot. Our neighborhood was very friendly, we had a bunch of kids our ages and she had a big family, I had a big family, so we’re all…

PB: At your house.

RB: Everyone’s at my house. Six of us. But um, I’m not sure what my earliest memory is I can remember her coming out of her house all clean one day and having her hair in this ponytail and then a braid. And she was just so clean and she walks out to play football in the yard and I’m like, “What are you doing?” and I think I threw some dirt in your hair. Sorry.

PB: No, you helped me with the bird that I found. In the ditch. (Laughs)

RB: So, I couldn’t even pinpoint the first time I met her. It’s just been such a blur. I don’t have it.

EG: What’s y’all’s favorite memory with each other? I know there’s probably a lot.

RB: I do remember one Fourth of July, again, neighborhood, that we had this parade. And my mom brought a horse in from her ranch to let Mr. Kelly across the street ride the horse because it was his birthday. And the whole neighborhood got set up, and we were in the parade. I mean I don’t know who’s watching it, we were the parade. Our street was the parade. Anyways so Patty and I decided that we were gonna be balloon girls and we spent hours blowing up balloons and getting matching bathing suits and tying it up and trying to figure out how to make all that work. So that was a great memory. And I have great memories of riding horses with Patty at [my mom’s] ranch, especially the rodeos we used to ride all summer long. Ugh, thank god. It was so fun.

PB: Ditto. We’d go to her ranch all the time. All the time. And we just had the run of the place. We were up all night, in the pool, playing tennis, but the greatest joy was riding horses. We were free, and we were happy, and we were unattended, we were just in our essence. It’s like how you want childhood to be. We were safe, but we were happy. We loved each other. It was innocent and pure.