Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Long ago, in a galaxy far away...

I am working on a post, but i am having some trouble wrangling the words into submission, so i am stealing this meme from flutter, and from chani too for that matter.

It's about High School.

1. Who was your best friend? I didn’t have a best friend, except maybe in 10th grade when i met Michelle, who was a foster kid with these really religious people. We would go to their house every day after school, while they were still at work, and smoke dope and drool over that picture of Cat Stevens on Catch Bull at Four. (Hi Cat!) She moved away before the following year and i never saw her again.

2. What sports did you play? I was on the swim team junior year. The next year i was not because i did not have a way to get to the pool. It never occurred to me to ask my parents to help with the transportation.

3. What kind of car did you drive? Ha. Drive? Not.


4. It’s Friday night, where were you? What year is it? 10th, probably with Michelle. 11th, probably with my two friends who were seniors. 12th, probably off with my Explorer Scout troop. Yes, i joined the boy scouts the first year they admitted girls.


5. Were you a party animal? Ha. No.

6. Were you considered a flirt? Ha. No.

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? No, no musical talent is possessed by me.

8. Were you a nerd? Not really. Just inept.


9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Me? No way.

10. Can you sing the fight song? If we had one i am unaware of it.

11. Who was your favorite teacher? Miss Fine. She was my English teacher, the one subject at which i was good. She took a shine to me and once said that if she ever had a daughter (unlikely, as she was about 40) she would want her to be just like me. Boy, did that feel good to this attention starved girl.

12. School mascot? A patriot. Yeah.


13. Did you go to Prom? Ha. No.

14. If you could go back and do it over, would you? Only if i were who i am now. Who i was then was very unsure of herself and spent lots of time looking at other girls and trying to figure out how i should be acting. But i was secretly repelled by the behavior i saw around me, so i was mostly just inert.

15. What do you remember most about graduation? I wore this really short dress, completely out of style, a nice blue green polyester print, that i had made myself.

16. Where were you on senior skip day? I don’t remember if there was one, i don’t think so.

17. Did you have a job your senior year? Nope.

18. Where did you go most often for lunch? The cafeteria.

19. Have you gained weight since then? Yes, about 30 pounds. I am a fine weight now, i was really skinny.

20. What did you do after graduation? I worked all that summer at a girl scout camp in McCall, Idaho for a grand total of $125. A wonderful, intensely emotional bonding experience. Here’s a funny story. My parents put me on an all night bus from Seattle to McCall, where i was picked up by one of the other camp employees in the morning. My parents had not asked me to call when i got there, and it had never occurred to me to do so. About 2 weeks later the camp director got a telegram (because my parents didn’t know the phone number of the camp) from my parents asking if i was there. I still have a copy of it. I’ll scan it for you. That telegram became part of the camp lore for that summer.


21. Who was your Senior prom date? See #13.

23. Are you going / did you go to your 10 year reunion? Wild Horses couldn’t drag me to my high school reunion.

24. Who was your home room teacher? If we had a homeroom, i don’t remember it.

25. Who will repost this after you? Are you asking me to predict the future? I am not that good.

25 comments:

thailandchani said...

LOL... last line.

You sound very similar to me in high school.. in so many ways.

Good in English. Gee, ya think? :)

You're a great writer!

BTW, I have been meaning to ask this for a while and keep forgetting:

Is your use of "Meno" related to the piece by Plato?

And, Socrates, what is color? (Meno to Socrates)

That's all I can remember. (sigh)

:)


Peace,

~Chani

jaded said...

Oh GAAAWD! Make the high school flashbacks go away. Head is throbbing...Room is spinning out of control. Must have wine now.

TTQ said...

HaHa my mom said the other day maybe if had never moved to Ft. Lauderdale... fill in the blanks for yourself. I was fourteen then..
I moved back to this area when I was 30. 16 years in Ft. Lauderdale... oh sweet Jesus ..I'm still alive.

Bob said...

I was straight in high school - no dope or alcohol until college.

I'm trying to post more, think I'll try this one out.

Liv said...

the telegram is priceless. sometimes I wonder if our parents are the same people born in different decades. i went to greece at age 19, and although they had an itinerary, they never made a peep. "oh, i'm sure someone would call if she was dead..."

meno said...

chani, yes i used the name from that dialouge between meno and socrates by plato about the nature of virtue. I like it when meno gets all confused and gives up. that's me. And thank you. :)

patches, bad kitty! Into the wine, AGAIN? It's all just a blur now, thank god.

ttq, you are a survivor! 16 years? I think even the Count of Monte Cristo was out in less time, or maybe not.

bob, oh good! I look forward to reading it.

liv, thinking back on it i just can't believe they let me go off to god knows where without asking me to verify my arrival. I would never do that! This telegram was the source of much hilarity at the camp.

Schmoopie said...

I went to 2 different high schools that were like night and day. It was very confusing to try to fit it to the new school. That led to my complete apathy toward my sophomore and junior year. Senior year was much better because I met some other fun "misfits" and we did some crazy-fun stuff that year.

I guess the fact that your parents were concerned enough to send the telegram is good. Why the 2 week delay though? Were all of our parents clueless? This sounds like something my dad would do!

Girlplustwo said...

it's like we all came from the same high school. no wonder we all get on so well now.

Anonymous said...

I was also skinny back then. But then my name does translate as "slim".

AC said...

I'm with Patches. I would cross the street so as to not have to speak to pretty much anyone I might recognize from high school.


I did go to prom though, with my best male friend whose girlfriend had broken up with him right before. He was quite a bit shorter than I, but ordered lifts or really high heels on his shoes with his purple velvet tux. I actually had a good time celebrating the very last days of ever having to be around *those* people.

Lynnea said...

I'm laughing at the wild horses not dragging you to your reunion. Me either.

I do remember though that I had a major crush on my Creative Writing teacher. He had a receding hairline but was only 24 just out of college and I thought he was the bee's knees. I wonder if he knew.

jaded said...

You're absolutely right, Meno. Wine isn't nearly strong enough to counteract the high school years. I should see if we have something stronger...

meno said...

schmoopie, I moved between 7th & 8th grade from a fancy well-behaved school to a wild urban school. Talk about a shock. You know, if something HAD happened to me, after two weeks it would have been too late.

jen, to quote from Little Miss Sunshine "The high school years are the prime suffering years" or something like that.

d-man, i am thin now, i was REALLY skinny then. Of course i was alwys trying to lose weight back then. What an idiot.

ac, about two weeks ago a man came up to me and said my name. Turns out that i did know him from High School, but he was someone i had liked (not liked liked.). It was fun. He used to be kind of a handsome jock guy. Now he just looks like a normal, slightly pudgy, balding, bespectacled man. But he was always decent to me. Not all the memories suck.

maggie, if he was 24 he probably not only knew it but enjoyed it. I mean, if he was human. Bring on the horses, we're still not goin'!

patches, that's what i'm talkin' about. Where's the gin?

Lynn said...

Everytime I go into a High School to work, I give thanks that I am no longer a High School student. I think some people romanticize how great H.S. was...while the rest of us remember what it was really like.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

I'm glad it's not short for "menopause." :)

The telegram is priceless!

I went to my 10-year reunion, but never attended another.

QT said...

I am with jen - I think we all went to the same high school!

That telegram is priceless and I am so glad you actually saved it.

Count me in as another non-reunion goer ~ my mom just doesn't understand why I wouldn't want to hang around a bunch of people I had nothing in common with.

Anonymous said...

Great post, Meno. I love hearing about what people were like when they were growing up. :)

Tink said...

But they weren't scared enough to drive up there and check on you? Hmph. How rude! ;)

flutter said...

Meno!! That telegram is HYSTERICAL! I feel like I know you so much more from that little bit of info alone....

Unknown said...

OMG! Up to the first comma in number one, we're, like, the SAME person! ;-)

This one looks like fun. I might have to try it.

meno said...

lynn, i guess you must be used to it, but i would have some funny feelings about going into a hight school. They even SMELL funny.

hearts, i don't want meno to pause, i want it to stop altogether! Menocease, menoquit, menostop.

qt, i have a little memory book from camp that year, and it has a copy of the telegram in it. Everyone there got one of these books. I don't think my mother understood why i wouldn't want to go either. But really, if i didn't keep in touch, it was obviously not important to me.

platypus, thanks. I enjoy hearing about people's pasts too.

tink, shows you how much they cared. Wonder if i'm in the will?

flutter, i was annoyed at first by the telegram, and then over the summer, as i saw how funny everyone else thought it was, i loosened up about it. Now i am glad to have it.

nancy, same person in different bodies. :) Please do try it, i would love to read it.

Mother of Invention said...

Funny how different people feel about high school days. I really liked them for the most part because I was in a lot of activities I liked with good friends so everything was a positive experience. The dating thing? Not so much! I never went to proms nor did I ever "go around" with anyone..just the very odd dumb formal type date...I hated that whole scene. I sometimes thought that I must be really big, tall, and not very good-looking because of this. Yikes, I'd love to go back there knowing what I know now about myself. The reunions were good for me.

urban-urchin said...

that telegram is AWESOME! You must have been mortified.

Andrea Frazer said...

The telegram scene was my favorite scene from Sound of Music. I was, indeed, geeky enough to love that flick. (And naive enough.) As far as photos scanned, what I really want to see is you in that homemade polyester graduation shirt. Oh, please!

Anonymous said...

Meno, are you sure you aren't my long lost sister? I mean, we're the same height give or take an inch, and we wear the same kind and size jeans, and we seem to have had the same experiences in school...I mean, come on, that's a lot of coincidences, don't you think?