Our High School Story

 I met John my junior year and we became friends.  He taught me some awful habits.  I would never have thought of skipping school before meeting him.  I would have been too scared to try it.  He told me his sister, Vicki, taught him.  It was pretty simple to walk to the car, pile in, and drive away.  There weren’t guard shacks at the high schools back in the 80’s.  It usually was a group of three to four kids going.  Sometimes we’d use the pay phone around the corner to call in absence excuses for each other and sometimes we didn’t bother.   Obviously, it didn’t stop us because we did it both our junior and senior year.  We’re probably part of the reason that attendance requirements were set.  It was a wonder we graduated.

 

We’d go to Hensley Park which was set back into the woods.  We’d play on the equipment or simply sit and talk.  Sometimes we’d go to Teague Park and feed the ducks.  Often we’d drive to his grandparents house on Leona Street to get ice cream from her freezer and say hello.  I think they liked seeing young kids and didn’t question that we were suppose to be in school.  A few times we drove to Lake O’ the Pines.  We climbed the rocks on the dam or sit at the picnic tables.  It didn’t matter what we did, we weren’t in school and we were having fun together.   We were so free!  There wasn’t any cell phones, so no one could find us.

 

We also worked at the same place.  Back in the day when there was a twin theater in the mall, I’d work concession or ticket booth and John was one of the ushers.  We also worked at the River Road Drive In  in the ticket booth or concession stand there.  Which meant we were up late.  My friend, Arlene, worked there with us.  We had so much fun!  Sometimes after the theaters closed on the weekends, we’d drive to the restaurant, Hot Biscuit,  on the corner of Gilmer Road and the loop where the current Walgreens is now.  They would usually sit us in a round booth in the back and we’d talk and laugh until the wee early morning hours.  Even back then I’d order the same food at restaurants.  I’d order a fried chicken sandwich with sour cream and hand breaded onion rings.  I can almost taste it to this day.

 

Our senior year started and I knew I had to make a decision because I could tell I was hurting John’s feelings.  I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll try it.”  Our first date was going to see a movie, Flash Gordon.  The movie was pretty terrible, but it was the first time we held hands.  He took me home, no kiss.  We went out a few more times and two weeks later, still no kiss.  I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me.  Then one night, when we were working in the concession stand, he pulled me to him and the rest was history.

 

John used to say that he never asked me to marry him.  That may be true.  We did talk about marrying after high school, but I don’t recall him proposing to me.  We picked out rings and set a date.  I’d respond back to his statement saying, “Well, you showed up!”  We were married June 12, 1982, a year after our high school graduation.  We were both 19 and so very young.  Two friends who fell in love and enjoyed being together.  Our future wasn’t set, but our life together had started.