Party Like it's 1998
Erin had this survey in her blog, so in the spirit of being an enormous copycat, I’m going to do it, too. Also, I’ve never talked much about my hometown of Malden, Missouri, or what I was like when I was a teenager. Also, my brain is a little dry when it comes to New Blog Ideas. So, sit back and be prepared to be horrified.
3. What kind of car did you drive? I didn’t. I didn’t get my license until I was nineteen. However, I learned how to drive (at fifteen) in my parents pea-green, mid-70’s model Grenada. I called it the Vomit Comet.
4. It’s Friday night, where are you? If it was during the fall, I was playing in the marching band. If it was during the winter, I was probably watching TV with my Mom.
5. Were you a party animal? Didn’t you just see that previous answer? I was a total geek. (I guess some things don’t ever change.)
6. Were you considered a flirt? No way. I would have been too embarrassed to flirt with anyone.
7. Ever skip school? Nope, never. My mom was a teacher. If I had set foot off the school grounds during the day, she would have “activated the homing device in my molar” (as Veronica put it.)
8. Ever smoke? Nope, my dad smokes. That was all the nicotine I needed.
9. Were you a nerd? I liked to think of myself as a geek rather than a nerd. I had a few friends from the band and choir, but not many, and we couldn’t really go out during the nights. Also, my graduating class was incredibly competitive. I did all right, but grades weren’t the most important thing in my life. I just wanted to do the best I could to keep myself from being embarrassed in front of my peers. You know, the whole “people-pleasing” thing.
10. Did you get suspended/expelled? Never
11. Can you sing the Alma Mater song? I could have then, because the choir sang it for basketball games, but I don’t remember any of the words or the melody now.
12. Who was your favorite teacher? Mrs. Brenda Pinkley, my choir teacher for life. She was my children’s choir leader at church and also the church choir leader when I got to be grown up. I like to think of her as my “musical mother.”
13. Favorite class? I enjoyed English (I had a fantastic English teacher, Mrs. Helen Rascher for three years) and of course, the music classes I had.
14. What was your school's full name? Malden High School
15. School mascot? The Greenwave. Are you kidding? What the hell is a Greenwave?
16. Did you go to prom? Yes, I went three times. Aren’t I special?
17. If you could go back and do it over, would you? Not a chance. High school was the worst four years of my life. Sure, there were redeeming moments, but for the most part, it was a study in cruel melodrama. If the years between fourteen and eighteen weren’t so important to a person’s social development, I’d say that you should skip it all together and go straight to the good stuff, which is college. That was the best time of my life.
18. What do you remember most about graduation? Playing in the band… Keith Dortch’s last night as the band director… singing “He Never Failed Me Yet” with the choir… it’s interesting that they’re all musical moments, aren’t they?
19. Favorite memory of you Senior Year? My senior year was completely heinous. My band director was arrested for sexual impropriety with a student, and he was also my Sunday school teacher. My best friend had graduated the year before, so I didn’t have him. The only good thing I can think of is being in the choir “musical” with my sister and getting to sing a relatively nice solo (Okay, it was “How are Things in Glocca Morra?” but the year before I had only gotten to sing one line, so I thought it was pretty great. I didn’t realize until later that “How are Things in Glocca Morra?” is an incredibly stupid song.)
20. Were you ever posted up on the senior wall? No, I wasn’t popular and I didn’t play any “real” sports. I was picked as a Rotary student, but I think it’s because they ran out of popular kids earlier in the year.
21. Did you have a job your senior year? No, my mom didn’t really want me to work while I was in school and besides, I couldn’t drive.
22. Who did you date? I didn’t date anyone my Senior year, but earlier in high school I dated a guy named Kevin for like, six months. He was nice, a choir geek like me. He came over to my house on Sundays and we watched movies.
23. Where did you go most often for lunch? There wasn’t any off-campus lunch at Malden, so I most often went to the last table on the end nearest the glass doors, by the trophy cases.
24. Have you gained weight since then? Not really. I think I’m basically the same size. I wear the same size of clothes, anyway. So look at me now, and imagine me with frizzier hair and braces and no idea how to apply makeup, and you’ll have a pretty accurate picture of what I looked like back then. Also, I now have wrinkles and bags under my eyes. I’m only twenty-six. When I’m forty, I’m going to look eighty.
25. What did you do after graduation? I went riding around with my friend, Jeremy. We went to Casey’s to fill up his car and there was a wreck on the highway right in front of Casey’s. Also, a girl in my class had her baby in the school parking lot after graduation. Really. I couldn’t make that up if I wanted to.
26. When did you graduate? Late May, 1998. It was a Thursday. I don’t remember the exact date.
27. What was most important to you? Choir and Band.
28. Did you hang out in the parking lot, or did you leave right after school? I rode with my schoolteacher mom, so my sister and I walked over to her classroom when I didn’t have choir or band rehearsal.
29. Hall of fame? What is that?
30. Senior pranks were? We didn’t have any, because the year before, several seniors broke into the school and vandalized the place so thoroughly that the school had to be shut down in the morning while the janitors cleaned it up. (that made me sad, because our janitors were all really nice.) We still lived out in the country then, so Jenny (she was in eighth grade) and I had to ride into town with our mom so she could go to work. We walked over to Sonic and got drinks, and we sat in the teachers’ lounge until they let us go to school. We may have walked over to Santie’s, too, to buy candy. Anyway, my class was threatened with penalty of grievous bodily harm if we pranked, so we behaved. I don’t think I would have been involved in any prankage, anyway, because I didn’t really associate with the popular people or… anyone else in my class, come to think of it.
- Who were you best friends? Jeremy and Laura (now married,) Michelle, and Jonce (of course)
3. What kind of car did you drive? I didn’t. I didn’t get my license until I was nineteen. However, I learned how to drive (at fifteen) in my parents pea-green, mid-70’s model Grenada. I called it the Vomit Comet.
4. It’s Friday night, where are you? If it was during the fall, I was playing in the marching band. If it was during the winter, I was probably watching TV with my Mom.
5. Were you a party animal? Didn’t you just see that previous answer? I was a total geek. (I guess some things don’t ever change.)
6. Were you considered a flirt? No way. I would have been too embarrassed to flirt with anyone.
7. Ever skip school? Nope, never. My mom was a teacher. If I had set foot off the school grounds during the day, she would have “activated the homing device in my molar” (as Veronica put it.)
8. Ever smoke? Nope, my dad smokes. That was all the nicotine I needed.
9. Were you a nerd? I liked to think of myself as a geek rather than a nerd. I had a few friends from the band and choir, but not many, and we couldn’t really go out during the nights. Also, my graduating class was incredibly competitive. I did all right, but grades weren’t the most important thing in my life. I just wanted to do the best I could to keep myself from being embarrassed in front of my peers. You know, the whole “people-pleasing” thing.
10. Did you get suspended/expelled? Never
11. Can you sing the Alma Mater song? I could have then, because the choir sang it for basketball games, but I don’t remember any of the words or the melody now.
12. Who was your favorite teacher? Mrs. Brenda Pinkley, my choir teacher for life. She was my children’s choir leader at church and also the church choir leader when I got to be grown up. I like to think of her as my “musical mother.”
13. Favorite class? I enjoyed English (I had a fantastic English teacher, Mrs. Helen Rascher for three years) and of course, the music classes I had.
14. What was your school's full name? Malden High School
15. School mascot? The Greenwave. Are you kidding? What the hell is a Greenwave?
16. Did you go to prom? Yes, I went three times. Aren’t I special?
17. If you could go back and do it over, would you? Not a chance. High school was the worst four years of my life. Sure, there were redeeming moments, but for the most part, it was a study in cruel melodrama. If the years between fourteen and eighteen weren’t so important to a person’s social development, I’d say that you should skip it all together and go straight to the good stuff, which is college. That was the best time of my life.
18. What do you remember most about graduation? Playing in the band… Keith Dortch’s last night as the band director… singing “He Never Failed Me Yet” with the choir… it’s interesting that they’re all musical moments, aren’t they?
19. Favorite memory of you Senior Year? My senior year was completely heinous. My band director was arrested for sexual impropriety with a student, and he was also my Sunday school teacher. My best friend had graduated the year before, so I didn’t have him. The only good thing I can think of is being in the choir “musical” with my sister and getting to sing a relatively nice solo (Okay, it was “How are Things in Glocca Morra?” but the year before I had only gotten to sing one line, so I thought it was pretty great. I didn’t realize until later that “How are Things in Glocca Morra?” is an incredibly stupid song.)
20. Were you ever posted up on the senior wall? No, I wasn’t popular and I didn’t play any “real” sports. I was picked as a Rotary student, but I think it’s because they ran out of popular kids earlier in the year.
21. Did you have a job your senior year? No, my mom didn’t really want me to work while I was in school and besides, I couldn’t drive.
22. Who did you date? I didn’t date anyone my Senior year, but earlier in high school I dated a guy named Kevin for like, six months. He was nice, a choir geek like me. He came over to my house on Sundays and we watched movies.
23. Where did you go most often for lunch? There wasn’t any off-campus lunch at Malden, so I most often went to the last table on the end nearest the glass doors, by the trophy cases.
24. Have you gained weight since then? Not really. I think I’m basically the same size. I wear the same size of clothes, anyway. So look at me now, and imagine me with frizzier hair and braces and no idea how to apply makeup, and you’ll have a pretty accurate picture of what I looked like back then. Also, I now have wrinkles and bags under my eyes. I’m only twenty-six. When I’m forty, I’m going to look eighty.
25. What did you do after graduation? I went riding around with my friend, Jeremy. We went to Casey’s to fill up his car and there was a wreck on the highway right in front of Casey’s. Also, a girl in my class had her baby in the school parking lot after graduation. Really. I couldn’t make that up if I wanted to.
26. When did you graduate? Late May, 1998. It was a Thursday. I don’t remember the exact date.
27. What was most important to you? Choir and Band.
28. Did you hang out in the parking lot, or did you leave right after school? I rode with my schoolteacher mom, so my sister and I walked over to her classroom when I didn’t have choir or band rehearsal.
29. Hall of fame? What is that?
30. Senior pranks were? We didn’t have any, because the year before, several seniors broke into the school and vandalized the place so thoroughly that the school had to be shut down in the morning while the janitors cleaned it up. (that made me sad, because our janitors were all really nice.) We still lived out in the country then, so Jenny (she was in eighth grade) and I had to ride into town with our mom so she could go to work. We walked over to Sonic and got drinks, and we sat in the teachers’ lounge until they let us go to school. We may have walked over to Santie’s, too, to buy candy. Anyway, my class was threatened with penalty of grievous bodily harm if we pranked, so we behaved. I don’t think I would have been involved in any prankage, anyway, because I didn’t really associate with the popular people or… anyone else in my class, come to think of it.
posted by Brianne @ 2:18 PM
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