How Two Young Hippie Friends Grew Up to Live Very Different Lives

Beck: That was all prologue. Now tell me about the beginning of your friendship and that trip to Mexico.

Stephanie: So I was madly in love with Kelly’s brother Mako, and he had left the school to go down to meet his family in Mexico. I flew down a little bit later and met the whole family. I was just 17. I remember vividly flying into Oaxaca. It was a teeny little airport. I remember looking out the window and seeing this big yellow bus.

Kelly: We were parked [right near where] the airplane lands.

Stephanie: I’m waving out the window, I can see this whole hippie family and this crazy painted bus.

Kelly: I remember Stephanie getting off the plane. She’s got this wild, long curly head of blonde hair and [she was] smiling from ear to ear. I fell in love with her the minute I saw her. A ray of sunshine joined our crew.

Stephanie: That’s how I met the whole family, including Kelly, who’s the oldest girl, and then all the other siblings that are all younger than Mako and Kelly. I traveled with them for a few months as we made our way from Mexico back to Arizona. I rode in the bus with them the whole time—camping out, staying by the sides of roads. It was quite an adventure.

Beck: How did you and Kelly get close during that journey?

Kelly: All of my siblings, including me, just wanted to show her all that we had learned about Oaxaca on our journey. There was a lot of walking her through the community, putting her on the city bus, taking her downtown, and just trying to get as much attention from her as we could when she wasn’t spending time with my brother.

Our communication with each other was just so connected; I don’t know any other way to say it. We really enjoyed each other’s company. At that point, she was pretty dedicated to my brother, but when we made it to Tucson, where my family settled and stayed from then on, we made a pact with each other that we would stay in touch.

Stephanie: I came back to LA for a while; I think I went to community college for a year maybe. Then I moved back to Tucson because Mako and I were still trying to see if our relationship would work. Kelly and I had stayed in touch and talked on the phone. So I moved back to Tucson and lived with the family.

Kelly: And then we got a house together.

Stephanie: That’s right. Kelly and I got a house together in Tucson.

Beck: How old were you?

Stephanie: I was 18 or 19.

Kelly: I was 15 and a half or 16. I was pretty young when we moved into that place together.

Beck: It was just you two, no parents or anything?

Kelly: It was Stephanie and I, and then we had another female roommate.

Beck: What was it like living by yourselves at that age?

Stephanie: We thought we were so mature. We felt like it wasn’t unusual for an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old to have their own house and have jobs.