The Gnome Queen and the Pickle Princess

Imagine if you will…the year is 1972. A beautiful blond six year old girl, Chrissy, attends the wedding of redheaded girl fourteen years her senior. She’s too young to go to the reception at the country club. Fast forward 49 years to the year 2021. The same two women sit in the exact same country club almost to the day of the aforementioned wedding. After 45 years they have reconnected and become close friends. Chris Wanner is now the gifted and talented Gnome Queen and the redhead…well, that’s me, Tina, the Pickle Princess.

Gnome atter what you think, life is stranger than fiction. When Chris was a little girl, I doubt she thought, “I want to grow up and make gnomes.” I can assure you, when I was walking down that aisle, owning a pickle company was not exactly something that would have entered my mind. But LIFE HAPPENS…people grow up, people grow apart and people grow old and older.

Chrissy and I lost touch all those years. I had children, moved several times and lived in different states. She grew up got married, had children and also lived other places. I eventually moved back to Oklahoma and made and sold pickles…Red Hot Mamma’s Pickles. Nope, when I was young and starting life as a married woman I didn’t think, “Wow, I want to be known as the pickle lady…better yet, make that the pickle princess.”

So, when Chrissy asked me to join her at the country club yesterday for lunch, she wasn’t aware that was the exact place the reception she wasn’t allowed to go to was held. Forty-nine years later life had come full circle. And I couldn’t be more proud or happy for her well deserved success as the Gnome Queen. She is lovely, talented, creative and imaginative and she’s my friend.

Imagine if you will…