Thursday, January 31, 2008

Love The One You're With

It's funny how when your innocence gets taken away, you don't realize it for a while. I don't remember learning the...well, the ins and outs of sex, or death or Santa=Big Lie. But the following entry shows that I certainly knew about adultery!

Lex, this one's for you!

May 17, 1987

Hi. I was at the McKissocks' for a Youth Fellowship party. It was fun. I love their house. CM is possessed with me. She kept on following me around. I like her.
Last night L. and I babysat for Mrs. G and yes, they were late again. We massively raided their pantry, vaulted onto their couch and threw toys.
*here I drew a diagram of us whapping toys down the length of their freakishly clean and white kitchen island. It was funnier in 1987*
L. slept over and we went to the the Country Fair. It is so much better when C. doesn't sleep over. I don't want her in my room again.
Bye!


1. The family in question had the first "portable" phone I ever encountered. Mr. G. would call from his car, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. Sometimes the husband and wife would leave together, but only one would come home. Or, I'd show up to babysit and some guy who was NOT the Mr. would be there, freely helping himself to the fridge. He would leave with the Mrs. The Mrs. was actually the kindergarten teacher at our elementary school! L.'s mom was friends with her, which is how we came to find out about adultery. They had twins who were tolerable.
Their kitchen was also sterile as an operating room. It was a big, new house built on a former farm. You could roller skate or ride a bike in their basement.
I distinctly remember watching the show Hunter, which is weird because now I hate crime shows, except for Monk. God bless the OCD.
One time, an older cousin called, and I got to have one of those super brief infatuations with a stranger who you never meet. We exchanged numbers, I pored through their photo album (he was sorta cute), and envisioned him being the Smiths-loving, poetry-reading, sensitive boyfriend of my dreams.
It never went anywhere.

2. Yes, I was in Youth Fellowship at my church. I grew up in the country! There was nothing else to do! I learned how to ski (and ski very well....I'm short), so nyah!

3. (For Kate) C. was one of my closest friends, but it was an uneven relationship. She was bossy, demanding, and didn't appreciate sleep as much as I did. Plus, my room was always a god awful mess after she'd leave. Even in 1987, I was sort of a neat freak!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You didn't comment on what I think is the biggest mystery of that entry--WHY didn't you want C. in your room again? Was your friend a kleptomaniac or just creepy?

Babysitting always introduced one to some of the weirder aspects of any family. When I was sixteen I finally decided that the anxiety, weirdness and "cranky-kid-ness" of babysitting was not worth a measly $2 an hour.