Let's take a look at my Sophomore year, shall we? I was overweight (OK, I know, I still am, but there was a point where I wasn't), wore glasses, and was just average. I studied really hard and did really well (GPA was 3.8!), but socially, I wasn't in with the "in" group. I was OK with that, but by the middle of sophomore year, I had gone through 2 homecomings (at the all-boys' school), and a Winter semi-formal and watched with green eyes as the girls who had gone carried their flowers around at school the Monday after the dance. It was a sign that said, "Look at me! I got to go!" I hadn't even had a date at that point, much less gone to a dance.
I got it in my head that I was going to go to our Winter semi-formal, "Snowball". Of course, all of our "formal" dances meant the girl asking the boy. The question was who to ask. The boys I knew were the boyfriends of my friends, that certainly wouldn't do. Then, I started thinking about the boys I knew from Church, and from the grade school I had graduated from. (How lame was that? I was thinking of asking someone I had gone to grade school with!).
Then, I thought of it! I'll ask the older brother of my friend, Becky (who I had gone to grade school with). His name was Bob, and he had been really nice to me when I was at Becky's house-between 7th and 8th grade. So, I mustered up the courage, and I asked him, and he said yes! I was so excited! I was finally going to have a date!
Then, I began to plan. Couldn't go by myself...needed back-up for this one...so I triple-dated with my friends Brenda and Sue. Both had pretty serious (or what we thought of as serious) boyfriends at the time. What could go wrong?
Oh, where do I begin? First of all-he didn't drive! This meant that we still had to have our parents drive us. Next, how about when we were at Brenda's house before the dance? Sue asked Bob where he went to high school (I thought and had told them he was 2 years older than us). Umm...not in high school...he was in fact 19. (I remember the smug knowing look on Sue's face that my night was going to suck. Wow, was she right!) OK, the 19 made the fact the he didn't drive even worse! The evening continued with not a lot of conversation, and guess what? He didn't dance! I loved to dance...Afterward, we went to dinner, my Dad picked us up and we took Bob home. Bob sat in the front seat with my Dad. I sat in back. When we dropped him off, he went to try and kiss me (Hello? In front of my father? You have GOT to be kidding!). I turned my head, so it could land on my cheek. Bob simply was not going to get my first kiss!
The following Monday, I carried my wrist corsage around with me. The 80's were a time of bouquets, and I didn't even get that! Over the next 2 years, I dreaded whenever I ran into Bob at Church. And I did run into him. He would look at me with this grin on his face. To my recollection, he didn't date much in those years...I know why...
6 comments:
Argh! How awful! 19 and no drivers license? Wow. You poor thing.
At least you got to go to a formal dance. 4 years of high school, and I never went to anything--not even Senior Prom. After the public rejection my freshman year, I never asked a guy out EVER again. :)
Wasn't high school a killer time? I was not a part of the "in" crowd either. Always on the outside looking in.
I have, however, gone to all of my reunions. Ten year, everyone was trying to impress with how great they were. Twenty year less so down to my last @ forty years. I always got a charge over the jocks and their beer bellies and bald heads. You know them, they wouldn't look at you twice, unless they needed an answer to a test question. The cheerleaders were all much fatter than I. Revenge is so sweet.
Actually now, forty years later, everyone plays on the same field with the same cards. I have a very enjoyable time at the reunions. About ten or fifteen of us get together every last Sunday of the year for drinks and lunch at a tavern one of us owns in Snohomish, the town I graduated from. We have a great time together. It includes the cheerleaders, jocks and dweebs,(me types.)
By the way, I never dated anyone from highschool. I began dating my husband when I was 16. He did not go to Snohomish. Did not go to a single school dance or party.
I sooo feel your pain. I never got asked out and I did have a date to my Sr. Prom but he had already graduated so I had to ask him. My worst date ever! Uggh, I hated high school!
I'm so dreading high school for my daughters already, having been there and knowing how painful it can be.
I remember that!!! I wasn't thinking you were going to have a bad night. I was thinking "how did my friend (daughter of a decan) get permission to go on a date with a 19-year-old"!!
You know this is why I hardly ever reminisce about high school!! This is why teenagers are full of angst - high school sucks big at times
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