theme week 2

Hormones a raging, attitude in the toilet, cigarette smoking punk; yup, that was me. Not sure where the balls came from but it was almost like hitting a light switch, it was instantaneously, over night, I went from a goody two shoes to a confused, disrespectful and out of control teen. I remember back then, everyone blamed it on the school, on the friends or associates I ran with, but now, being a mother myself, it isn’t everyone else’s fault; we all make our own choices and we all have to pay the consequences.

It was the summer between leaving 8th grade and going into high school. I was thirteen going on 30 ( so I thought) Somehow, my best friend and I got hooked up with some much older guys from the neighborhood, guys that were not the kind you bring home to momma. One thing led to another, and before I knew it I had a police record. What the hell happened to the choir signing church girl from before, where did she go?

Drinking and driving, smoking things I shouldn’t, hanging with the big boys, sneaking out of my mom’s house, partying in the basement while they were home! I thought to myself, man this is fun, look at all I’ve been missing over the years….I was only 14! What the hell!!I figured I busted my ass during my younger teen years, I deserved to go wild. I had to do all the babysitting for my siblings, do all the housework, cooking; it was my turn for some excitement.

The cops showed up at the door of my mother’s house for the last time and my step dad was pissed. “What’d she do this time?” he asked the 2 officers interrogating me in the kitchen. This time was a B&E at a camp on Holden Pond. It wasn’t my idea!! I was going along with the older guys, trying to be cool. Well, one of the older guys left this wallet behind and ratted the rest of us out. If my memory serves me, my step dad basically threw me out of the house that night. I had to call my dad to ask if I could live with him, and he wasn’t home, of course. I had to speak with my stepmother and she was the one to come and pick me up that night. The year was 1978.

While Jimmy Carter was the president and serial killer Ted Bundy is captured in Florida, I was packing up a bag of clothes and heading to Bucksport. Northeastern United States blizzard kills over 100 with $520 million in damages, and I have to change schools and leave all my friends behind. American porn publisher Larry Flint is shot and paralyzed, while the Pope John Paul 1 dies after only 33 days in the papacy, and I hate life more than ever. Vietnam attacks Cambodia, Jonestown murder-suicide claims 918 lives, while 2 million demonstrate against Shah in Iran and I inform my dad I’m quitting high school, “Not while you’re living under my roof” he demands and we proceed to the guidance counselor’s office to get the paperwork started.

So while the Cold War is still ongoing and the band the Cars is blaring “let the good times roll” over the radio waves, I prop my feet upon the guidance counselors desk with my dad sitting in the chair next to me, and exclaim, “I’m not going to this fucking ignorant school!!!!” They just shook their heads, and said, this one is going to be a challenge.