Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Music Memory Monday. Okay so it's Tuesday, so shoot me.


This song is probably not too well known by many of you. It does not even bring me back to my preteen days when I was crazy for David Cassidy aka Keith Partridge. No, instead it takes me back to 1991. I was a senior in college ready to graduate. My parents had long since started to winter down in Naples, Florida by the time I was ready to do my student teaching so I figured I had the perfect set up; my folks house all to myself, student teaching in my hometown and sleeping in my own comfy bed, free of charge. How could I go wrong. The situation only got better when my pal Mary Jo got assigned to teach in the classroom next to mine. Not only that my cooperating teaching was a good friend of one of my brothers. Sweet!
Anyhow all through that fall, Mary Jo and I plugged along at Union Street school teaching grade 3 to a group of kids I had grown up babysitting. I loved it.
Meanwhile Mary Jo and I were still a couple of crazy kids, having fun. Many nights that fall she stayed at my house with me and and we would stay up all night long laughing and
dreaming about the perfect lives we were going to lead. More often though, on our marathon nights we would go out and do drive bys. Nooooo not that kind! We would get my dad's big car out of the garage, so as not be noticed by anyone, and drive past her guy's place! Mary Jo was crazy about, mad over, just plain obsessed with a boy from one town over and oh the fun we had stalking him. Cmon girls, you all know you did the drive by. Is he home? Is he awake? Oh my gosh did he and all of his friends just catch me and my friends casually driving by his apartment in our pajamas at 1 in the morning?
Anyhow Matt's apartment was always alive. he worked by day at the hospital as an XRay technician, but by night he was a musician rocking out with his band. Not only did we drive by his place we just happened to make it our business to arrive at everyone of his shows. "Oh wow, we didn't know you were playing her tonight." I know, lame. Now I almost forgot to mention that Matt had a girlfriend. Stop frowning. He wasn't married and Mary Jo was too crazy about him for him to never know about it, so another friend told him to take Mary Jo out. He did and the girlfriend got wind of it. Oh the fireworks. Now when we were stalking Matt, we were being stalked by the ex. Quite the show!
Everything sett;ed down by Christmas time just as we wound up or student teaching careers. On our last day, Matt came in and brought his guitar. The three of us sang for all of my and Mary Jo's students. You guessed it. We sang the Partridge family Christmas song.

So you may be wondering what happened to Mary Jo and Matt. Well, 17 years later they are still married with 3 cute kids. Living just one town over from where we student taught and stalked Matt in our free time. Mary Jo never used her teaching degree, well unless you count teaching her own cuties. As for Matt, you won't find him at the clubs at night rocking out. But he still strums a tune or two for Mary Jo.

3 comments:

Bennions said...

That is a classic story. As an officer of the court, however, I must inform you that pursuant to NRS 200.575, a person who, without lawful authority, willfully or maliciously engages in a course of conduct that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or harassed, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or harassed, commits the crime of stalking. Don't make me contact the authorities. WE'RE WATCHING YOU! (Oh, the irony).

donnaR said...

I love your Music Monday's, well, okay tuesday. You have some great stories to tell. Keep them coming.

jori-o said...

Love it! Great story--and WONDERFUL storytelling!!!
And I have participated in MANY a drive-by!!

US

Images from Camp 2008