Go Wildcats!

A bird's eye view of my High School. Remind me why I live in Las Vegas. Some one? Anyone? Please?

Oh junior high. I can hardly remember a typical day in my life as a young teen. So I will take some artistic liberty with the instructions pertaining to this Writer’s Workshop and tell you about a day in the life of 17 year old Christine at Weymouth South High. GO WILDCATS. Much has changed since my day in the in the jock lot, but here goes.
1986, 67 Union Street, 6:00 am. I wake to my mom dragging me out of bed. So tired, I was up half the night. We would be at the the school until about 11:00 decorating the class lockers of all the senior football players with candy and balloons. As a cheerleader I had a a regular locker key to decorate lockers and also a key to the boys locker room to decorate the floor with balloons. Can you even imagine? I was a student and I could get into every single locker on campus. Later still, I would spend hours on my princess phone talking with Carol. We used to plan our weddings via these late night marathon phone calls. Who we were marrying depended on the week, but for this blog’s purpose I will go with Sean Lovell, Quarterback of the Weymouth North, (oh yes, rival team). Yes, I did . My senior year I had the audacity to date the Maroons QB. You know that I made a few enemies when I walked into Blue and Gold country the weeks before the big game wearing his jacket. But more about my ulterior motives in a later post. Suffice to say, it was worth it and the jacket was used in aprank the night before the big game! Anyhow, I was very lucky to have the mom I had because morning at my house meant a yummy homemade egg Mc Muffin. Pretty much every day, I could count on a nice hot breakfast courtesy of my mom. Another thing I must remember to thank her for doing for me. After eating I would lock myself in the one bathroom of our house. Yup, one bathroom. Can you imagine? But when you have a 300 year old house you make it work. I guess the old place was originally built with an outhouse, so I should be grateful that we at least had one. After an extra long shower…I was the only kid still at home, I would retreat into my room and get started on the outfit. For this blog, we will say it was game day. I would slip into my little spanky pants, brightest gold and my short blue cheer skirt. Turtle neck of the whitest white followed by a blue v-neck sweater piped in gold with a huge WS embroidered onto the chest, ankle socks and saddle shoes. Now back in the day, I dressed before doing the hair because I could not risk the chance of knocking down the bangs by putting on my clothes first. On to the hair. For some reason, I always did my hair in the bathroom while sitting in the sink cross legged. Bangs were worn as high as possible and my 5 foot two inches was at least 5 foot 5 after spraying them into place. Aqua net…noooooooo, I was a hairspray snob. Shaper by Sebastian. I still love the smell of that stuff. Earrings on, class ring on the right ring finger. Make up time. Blush, eyeliner, mascara and a hint of eye shadow. Finally, gold chain hanging up and over the collar of the turtle neck. Out to the kitchen to grab my books and my ‘coat’. Say bye to the parents and into my little blue Plymouth Valiant. I had an extra long drive way growing up and I could back up so fast. Just a few months ago I drove backwards all the way around the block to show the kids just how well I can drive in reverse. Out of my drive, shoot up Union Street across White Street and get Liz. Down central across Pond to pick up Carol and then make my way down Pleasant street to the school. As we enter the school parking lot students divide themselves, as they so often do, into one of two groups by choosing which lot they park in. The Jock lot, which is on the West side of the building or the Bug lot on the East. Jock is a pretty self explanatory term, but bug may be unique to my hometown. A bug was our slang for bad kids/druggies/ stoners, whatever. I of course head to the Jock lot, park toward the rear and we all jump out to sit in the hood of our cars for a morning social gathering. Ten minutes later we stroll into the gym entrance as a huge group and head toward our lockers. I have a locker on each floor shared with friends so we never have to carry our books anywhere. I drop off the last night’s homework assignment to my first period teacher, because I have to go do morning announcements inviting the student body to the game. After the announcemnets I stall in the office talking to Mr Steele, the principal , so I can get out of a few more minutes of class. Classes, classes, classes. All day long I think about how the senior class play is coming, whether we are going to beat North this year and if the student council has any big plans for homecoming. Before lunch I have Drama. I love love love my drama teacher, Ms Anastos, and have always had pretty good roles in the plays. This year I scored the lead in You Can’t Take It With You. Tons of my pals have roles too and my co-star is a really great guy friend named Leo Doyle. Leo has been in school with me since 1st grade, so we are pretty close friends. Lunch comes and of course we eat something like French Fries and a diet Coke. Can you imagine if they still sold that stuff in schools? After lunch I am given some sort of pass to go and decorate the field houses for the game. This turns into a gabfest with the other cheerleaders. After school, I have play practice until at least 4 and then it is on to the game. My parents come to every game no matter where it is and watch me jump and clap in unison with the other 11 girls on the squad. After the game, which, if it is my senior year , we probably lost, I head over to Papa Gino’s with most of the team and the squad and grab a pizza and more diet coke. I linger long to talk. (Who would a thought?) By the time I get home with at least one friend who is spending the night, it is late and a bunch of cars are in my driveway. We walk up the back steps and find my dad at the stove cooking something for 5-10 football players that just scoffed down a pizza a piece with us a Gino’s. They are loud and talking about the woulda shoulda couldas of the game. My dad is certain they will get em next time. They all raz me a little about Sean from North and my friend and I join them. After they leave and my dad goes to bed, we watch MTV hoping to see Adam Ant or Stray Cats and fall asleep on the family room floor.