Good morning!
Do you ever have people from your past contact you? With social media like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, I have people from my past contact me all of the time, and I am sure that you must too.
During my teenage years there were 6 of us friends that were pretty close. There was Dawn, Raymond, Tony, Mark, Lila, and myself. We all grew up going to the same church, and we were there nearly every day of the week. We were seemingly inseparable throughout most of our teenage years. We were just a bunch of misfit, kids who really didn’t have a lot of direction – matter of fact, in the setting that we were placed in, we pretty much had free reign to do whatever we wanted. The adults would drop us off at church, and we pretty much could do whatever we wanted, as long as we made it to the meetings!! It was a pretty free time for us. I look back now and I think,
“WHERE THE HECK WERE OUR PARENTS?????”
I am sure, that if I had children now, I would want to be knowing where they were and what they were doing – I HOPE??? Parents there were things going on in the upper balcony, that if any of the adults ever found out they would have condemned the whole building!!Â
Anyway, we all had something we were trying to get away from in our normal lives, and we were all looking for a place where we all could belong, just as we are. You know, the same things all teenagers are still doing. Well, I think we found that together at this church.
Between the 6 of us, there was dating, and bffs, and gossip, and making out, and games of Truth-Dare-Double Dares, Sardines, and tag. I still remember the time that no one could find Tony or Mark, and when they finally emerged they were COVERED in dust from head to toe. They had us convinced that the had shimmeyed through the air vents. We just couldn’t believe that they were brave enough to fit through someplace so small – MAN, WERE WE GULLIBLE!! (If Tony and Mark are reading this, admit it – you are still smiling over that one!!)
There were sleepovers, I practically LIVED at Dawn’s house every other weekend, and she at mine!! I remember Dawn and I sleeping on her tiny water bed, me at one end, her at the other. Every time I would get on, Dawn would almost go flying!!! SO MUCH FUN!!! Plus all of the dressing up that we would do – MAN, I still have some of the CAR-RAY-ZAY-PICS!!!
There were parties, and secrets shared, and lots of time spent at camp.Oh, camp was when we were at our finest! Getting together with all of our friends from previous years of going to camps together!! I am sure this still happens the same way, but it always amazed me how girls would cry so hard about leaving their boyfriends to go home – you just met the dude for the first time 5 days ago!!!! Oh, the teenage girls’ hormones!! Teen girls should be tattooed with a warning label just like cigarettes!! Caution: may be dangerous to your health!! LOL! 😉
I remember a time that I was ABSOLUTELY GA-GA about this British dude, named Glen (side note: we were all musicians, so any guy who could really wail automatically had my FULL ATTENTION!! Too bad I was soooo dang shy back then!! Anyway, I digress!!). Well, my memory is kind of fuzzy, but I don’t remember Glen being too good looking, and if I remember he was shorter than me, which was always a turn off – BUT he could WAIL LIKE NOBODY’S BUSINESS!!! and I was hooked!!! 🙂 Well, long story short – our band master, Mark (different Mark) had me convinced that if I went up in front of the mess hall during dinner, and ask Glen out to the Candlelight dinner over the microphone that Glenn would say yes. Like a complete and TOTAL IDIOT, I did it!!! I still remember how hard my knees were shaking!! To my complete and utter amazement he said YES!!!!! OMG!! I couldn’t believe it. I WAS SOOOO PROUD OF MYSELF FOR DOING THAT!!! Well, a couple of days letter, the day of the Candlelit dinner, I soon realized that he said yes, only to be nice, because as I stood there waiting for him, all dressed up in my finest, he proceeded to walk by my girls on both arms. He called them his “harem” and he had so many girls at his table that there wasn’t even room for me. So, that was a bust. Apparently the band master thought it would be funny. Glen pretty much completely ignored me, except for this sound I once heard him make when I was walking by him, “Boom, bah-bah, Boom, bah-bah, Boom”. OOOOOH!! He was SOOOOO OFF OF MY LIST!!! Wail or not – he was OUT!!!
Getting back to my teenage posse, we had late night walks around town, places where now, as an adult, I WOULD NEVER WALK!!! One of these episodes resulted in Tony and Mark being sent home by my parents, and my parents giving Dawn and I a huge lecture on the importance of obeying the rules (Dawn and I were told that we weren’t allowed to get into Mark’s car, and my parents were sure that we had – WHICH WE REALLY DIDN’T)!! LOL!! Dawn and I still laugh about that one.
Or the time that I had such a huge crush on Raymond, and he had stopped by my house on an icy winter’s night. Every time he came around, I would panic, and my mind would go blank – I could never think of what to say, and I remember one of the church leaders telling me, honey, you need to speak up, he thinks you are too quiet. DUH!! I would become a CLAM of PANIC!! I couldn’t believe that he had stopped by, he never had before, and when I came out onto the porch to try to be brave and shamelessly flirt, I slipped down the icy stairs, and got caught up in the metal dog post in the ground. Raymond just stared in utter shock at what he was seeing, and just stood there. My mom rushed me to the emergency room, dragging Raymond along with us – I WAS MORTIFIED!!! I had sprained my ankle and my big toe on that foot was horrifically pointing right up to the sky and I couldn’t do a thing about it. I remember Raymond just saying, “Why does your toe look like that??” I was praying for the rapture to hit right then, but alas – NOTHING!!! 😉 Raymond and I never did connect, and I couldn’t help but think that it had to be in some small way because of that DAMN WONKY TOE!! Which is perfectly normal now, just so we are all clear!!
There was also something akin to sibling rivalry, and competition, and sometimes bad feelings. Things were done perfectly, and badly – you know, like all teenagers trying to find their own way in the world. Dawn and I had spent all of one Summer sharing cabins, and rooms, and we were just tooooo close, we NEEDED SPACE!! I can’t remember what we were arguing about, but I remember her yelling at me about something, and I panicked, couldn’t think of a response and responded by shouting ” You’re a BIIIIIIICTH!!!” It was almost like the world had momentarily gone in slow motion – you know what I am talking about. I NEVER cussed, NONE OF US DID! and it just came spewing out!! I felt awful, and she was pissed and didn’t talk to me for a long time after that! I am sooooo thankful that we got passed that! At the time I was SURE that I had broken our friendship!
I know I have hundreds of more stories from that time in my life, but why am I sharing all of this with you, you might ask?? Well, it is because of a text I had gotten from one of these friends, this morning – I won’t say which one of you it was from, but that text was a reminder of the past, and it made me start to think about how the whole gang was doing. That time was something like 20 years ago no – ages, eons!
It got me fantasizing about having some kind of a reunion of sorts. I know that we all went our separate ways, and some of the partings were not so sweet, so I know that any kind of reunion might not be possible, but it still got me thinking about all of you. You who for so many of our important growing up and discovering who we are years, we were family.
No matter where all of you are now, or what has come and gone in your life, I wanted to just say thank you! Thank you for making that time of my life so rich, and memorable. I wish you each all of the joy and happiness that you can handle. If the time ever comes to forget all of the pains that may have been inflicted, and move on to new beginnings!!
JUST CALL ME, AND HONEY, YOU KNOW I WILL BE THERE!!! 😉
Have a FABULOUS morning!! 😉
Please note: Seeing that this was almost 20 years ago, the memories might be a little skewed because I am getting older and my memory isn’t what it used to be!!! 😉
