School's In!

Today was the first day of school where I live, and this got me thinking about some things I remember very vividly from when I was going to school.

When I was in elementary school, there was this boy in my class named Philip. We were best friends until the day he turned his eyelids inside out, right in the lunch line. Horrified, that put an end to our friendship! To this day, I still think that turning your eyelids inside out is disgusting. So naturally Kitty can do it!  Thankfully she only does that to scare her sister J  I also remember the hot school lunches, which in reality weren’t so hot.  I think my dislike of pizza comes from what they classified as pizza in elementary school: a hard ½ English muffin with a little square of American Cheese and a dollop of ketchup. Yum! Not!!  Or their odd little hamburger, which I know was comprised of neither ham nor burger…yet surprisingly we still ate it.  Hey: little kids aren’t known for their discriminating palates!

When I entered Junior High (“middle school” hadn’t been invented yet!) I knew it was going to be awesome, because there were 4 different elementary schools in our area, and 7^th grade was where they all came together. We got to meet kids from the other different schools, you could reinvent yourself and you finally got to go to different classes throughout the day. Sure it was a little hairy at first with making sure your locker would open, memorizing your friends’ locker combinations and timing yourself so you’d have time to get from locker to classroom. But all in all it was definitely to my liking. Especially seeing all the cute boys from the other schools J As for the hot lunch: better than elementary, but still had flaws. Like the day a girl found a bug in her spinach because the vegetables came in big industrial-sized cans.   That’s why I didn’t eat the vegetables!  And also why sometimes my friends and I would sneak out and walk to Carroll’s, the precursor to McDonald’s, for lunch.

Junior High also introduced me to the school dances. I don’t like to brag, but I’ve been a great dancer ever since I was a toddler. I had been hearing about the dances from my older brothers. And now I was going to be able to take part in them! Or so I thought…my parents had no intention of letting their sheltered daughter go to any school dances where she might be in contact with boys in a darkened auditorium from 7 to 9 pm.  Good thing I perfected the art of making up a different story to tell them, so I could occasionally sneak to the dances. Sorry Marie!  I still remember one particular Friday night dance, where the guy I liked slow-danced to “Superstar” by the Carpenters with another girl. I was heartbroken! To this day, that song still gives me a pang of bitter-sweetness when I hear it on the radio. 

On the first day of my freshman year, I remember how excited I was because for the first time I got to pick out whatever I wanted to wear. In 8^th grade, on the first day I remember Marie made me wear this sleeveless dress that had a brown plaid faux scarf around the neck, the dress’s torso was solid brown, and the skirt was pleated brown plaid that matched the scarf. This was what my friends were used to seeing me wear. But the first day of 9^th grade: I was wearing the groovy outfit I picked out myself. It was a 2-piece set: the top had a purple paisley collar, the short sleeves were the same print, the rest of the ribbed top was black, and the skirt was the same purple, white and black polyester print. Whoo hoo! You couldn’t tell me anything in this short-skirted outfit, complete with white knee socks and black shoes. My friends were so amazed when they saw my transformation, and I was very pleased by their reactions. And it’s a good thing I picked out my own outfit because we got some new students who transferred from the Catholic school. St. Michael’s only went up to 8^th grade, so as freshmen some of the kids came to Junior High instead of going across the bridge to St. Mary’s. And St. Mary’s loss was our gain because those boys were c-u-t-e! I loved my freshman year!

The best part about high school? The Glen Lake Casino! I was 16 when I was a senior, I didn’t have a fake ID, but I never got proofed and my friends and I were there pretty much every weekend. Hey Marie: that’s what you get for not letting me go to junior high dances; and the club was sooo much better (plus the guys were older and cuter).

Oh, how I miss those days sometimes! But at least I’ve got plenty of good memories.  And parents: if you don’t want your kids to attend school dances, just volunteer to be a chaperone. That’s guaranteed to take all the fun out of it for them! And if you don't believe me: ask Brie! I chaperoned all of her dances and Teen Towns to make sure any fun was kept to a minimum!