Friday, June 14, 2013

Flashback Friday: Florida, Summer School, And Drama

Currently Reading:  Almost finished with The MacGregor Brides:)  I'm loving this book, and can hardly wait to see how Julia's story develops!  She's resigned herself to working with a man she can't stand, but sparks are flying:)


June 1983:
Instead of going to band camp after school let out, I decided to accompany our church choir on tour to Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee.  We took a bus down, and I roomed with my bff's Kelly, Melissa, and Janna.

In Alabama, Melissa and I stayed at the home of a sweet elderly lady the night before our church service performance.  Then we drove to Panama City, Fla, and stayed in dormitory-style housing right on the beach.    We were separated into groups for Cooking and KP for our 3-day stay, and my group had to clean up the first night.  Had a wonderful time swimming in the ocean, walks on the beach, and being a little envious at some of the other girls' antics.  One met a guy from a neighboring hotel and went walking with him at night, returning with a hickey on her neck (her 1st).  She was in a panic about how to hide it during the performance; thankfully, we wore white Oxford shirts and blue slacks.  So for an extra 'fashion statement', we decided to wear bandanas around our necks, on the inside of our collars.

I also woke up the 2nd morning with an idiotic crush on one the guys I'd hung out with on the 1st day.  I'm living proof you can make an ass out of yourself and still live to tell the tale.

We went to a water park on the 2nd day and enjoyed ourselves.  On the 3rd day, we were given a choice:  Shopping for souveniers or returning to the water park.  Since I'd been to Florida many times, I didn't see the need to go shopping.  I opted for the water park.

And discovered I was the only girl with about a dozen guys.

We had a great time!  The guys took turns with me as we did different antics on the slides.  One time, I laid down on Rob's back as we went down, but fell off halfway down and grabbed his swim suit to hold on, nearly de-pantsing him!  We tried going down triple-stacked, but that didn't work.  And I stayed away from my crush.

Knoxville, TN was wonderful!  Kelly, Melissa, and I stayed with a young college girl, and persuaded her to take us to ShowBiz Pizza Parlour (now called Chuck E Cheese), and pigged out on pizza and Pac-Man.  We also had the best showers of the entire week!

Part of the reason for wanting pizza?  We had a brand new dietician along, and I swear....everywhere we went we were served pimento-cheese sandwiches.  I can't stand pimento-cheese, so I think I existed on peanut butter and milk the entire week.  We did have some good meals in Florida, but by the time we hit Knoxville, my body was craving pizza.  And Kelly and Melissa agreed with me:)

Our final performance was back home, and we poked fun at one of the leader's egg-making abilities during one of the skits, plus other inside jokes were added.

Summer School
Monday morning, I had to be at school at 7:30 am for my two-hour Government class.  I was able to get ten more minutes of sleep each morning, due to Mr. McCaffrey shutting off the lights and watching the morning news.  Even though I sat up front, I'd put my head down and snooze until he turned the lights back on.

I was grateful I was taking this class in the summer, for it was a presidential election year, and I hated politics.  I wasn't allowed to vote yet, so who cared, as long as Ronald Reagan won?  And I'd heard horror stories from previous classmates about having to write papers on candidate's debates.  So I escaped all that.

At 9:20, I had a ten-minute break, and then was off to my typing class for another two hours.  We learned the keyboard and how to type simple sentences on a manual typewriter.  At the end of the first week, I went to my  mom's office, put a piece of paper into her typewriter, and quickly typed 'Hi Mom, I love you.'  She found it later that day, and hugged me.

After lunch, it was off to Guard Practice.  Then a two hour break, then full band practice for three hours.

"You're Letting A Sophomore Teach You The Routine?"
Since I hadn't been to band camp, I missed out on learning the routine to our first song.  The first day, I'd made friends with some of the new sophomores, and helped them with some skills, like the double-time spins.  And in turn, I received some one-on-one instruction on the new routine, and the scuttlebutt from band camp.  Turns out, the other three senior flag corps members had let their seniority go to their heads.

And I was even singled out for their scorn.  I had zero interest in standing in front of the group and barking out orders.  I much preferred to help a struggling guard member by pulling them aside and working one-on-one for a few moments.  And finally one hot sticky day, I'd had enough of Jody, Roberta, and Dani's taunts and yelled back, "Who cares who teaches me the routine as long as I learn it?  I don't see you offering to help me!"

That shut them up momentarily, but I'd also had my meltdown within earshot of our arriving Guard Instructor.  A meeting was called; I professed my anger and frustration with the way J, R, and D were running things in his absence; a few of the underclassmen came to my defense; the decision was made to bring back one of the guard members who had graduated the previous year to lead us, since I was adamantly against being the leader, and J, R, and D were more interested in being the BOSS.

Then, to complicate matters, J began asking me about B.  Apparently he'd taken it upon himself to observe a few practices, and I hadn't known he was there.  I told her we were just friends, and she laughed.

"But he's watching you.  I've known him since forever, and he's never come to any of our practices in the last two years.  So there's something going on between you two."

I rolled my eyes.  And called him later; turns out he was just killing time before his tennis practice, and was about to begin working at the Frozen Custard.

Next Month: I can't keep my eyes open!

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