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Marcie "Mom" Glanzer's Column
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
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Childhood Memories
This summer was a bit of a milestone for me...it has been 25 years since I graduated from high school and I had not one, but two reunions to attend. The first was held in May with my classmates from good old Willow Lake High, where I actually attended high school. The other reunion was in July and was held in Doland where I had gone to school through the 8th grade. These classmates have always been good enough to remember me when holding a get-together, and a good time was had by all. It brought back a lot of good memories, especially when I saw my best friends from grade school, Nadine and Denene. Missing was Darlene (do you notice a pattern here of "enes"?) who I used to live across the alley from, though she was there in spirit, I'm sure. Nadine and I began reminiscing and she was nearly peeing her pants at one point, though the alcohol may have had a hand in that, but laughing used to be our mainstay. I thought I'd share a few of these "old times" with you young folks, even though things aren't as funny when you weren't there, and were always hilarious if you were a young girl. So bear with me...
Back in junior high, Nadine, Darlene, and I all played drums in the band (we sucked, but whatever) and every Wednesday after school we would go to the band room for our lessons. Denene, who played the bassoon was there already having her lesson, so trouble was brewing right there with all four of us giggling girls in one room. The band director, Mr. Schloe, was young and didn't have much authority evidentally, as I recall us girls pushing him in his chair with wheels across the large band room floor and watching in hysterics when a wheel broke off and he went flying! No, we weren't kicked out of band. A week or so later, we were once again preparing for our band lesson which was to be held on the stage in the gym as all the band instruments had been moved there for a ball game. Mr. Schloe hadn't yet arrived, so Nadine, Darlene and I watched the high school drill team girls practice their routine. Their leader was a real bitchy woman named Mrs. Biddle (see following story for more on her!) who wasn't pleased to see us show up, disrupting her girls. We decided to play a trick on Mr. Schloe and wound ourselves up in the stage curtains and planned on spinning out when he showed up and startling him. I can still remember how we were twisted up in the heavy velvet curtains, giggling, waiting for the big moment. When he finally showed up, out we spun, but Darlene spun out of control and crashed into Mrs. Biddle's record player and the needle screeched across the record! You could have heard a pin drop as the drill team stopped, and Mrs. Biddle looked to see who had caused the disruption. Poor Darlene...she was tender hearted and cried after the tongue lashing she got, but I think Nadine and I were once again laughing hysterically. Now, for Mrs. Biddle. The name may conjure up an image of an old bent over hag, but she was actually in her twenties with waist-long hair and John Lennon glasses. She thought she was pretty hip, wearing a pair of purple velvet pants every other day. She had huge hips and couldn't quite pull off the look she was going for which I suppose was cool hippie; anyway, she lived in a little house right down the street from Nadine. Now, Nadine had a dog named Pooch and when bored we would sit outside and watch traffic or whatever, and usually would see Mrs. Biddle heading home from school. One day Nadine got the idea to sic Pooch on her, and he did her proud! That dog took after Mrs. Biddle with fangs bared, ready to defend his master. Meanwhile we were laughing our heads off as she ran the best she could to escape. Nadine would be saying "No Pooch, bad boy" out loud, but under her breath it was "Go get her, Pooch, sic her!" Oh, the fun we had. Back in this period of time, there was no such thing as caller ID, so bored girls could get into alot of mischief as a result. A long summer day was open invitation to get on the phone and do some prank calls. This was best done at Denene's Grandma's house, since she was busy in her garden and never would have suspected us of doing any harm. One favorite target of our calls was the husband of a school teacher who shall remain nameless! We would call this school teacher and pretend to be a woman named "Daisy" and claim to be having an affair with her husband. I'm sure our ten-year old voices didn't fool her, but she sure did get mad! Another easy target was a family in the phone book named "Frankenstein" though I suppose they had heard every joke and didn't get too shaken up. There was also a man named John Dixon in the phone book and we were fans of "As the World Turns" which starred a man named John Dixon, a real villain type, so we would call the real John Dixon and chew him out for having affairs, or raping young women or whatever evil deed he did that week on TV. This storytelling could go on and on and I think I could write a book about all the things we did, but Ryan will undoubtedly tell me that this is too long and begin editing, so will quit with one more quick story. This is a Nadine favorite! When I was about twelve years old, I got a chemistry set for Christmas. Not being into chemistry, I'm not sure why, but with the help of, who else but Nadine, we conjured up a nasty brew of rotten egg smell. This is one experiment that really worked! It really did smell just like rotten eggs, but the smell permeated our entire house and my brothers were threatening to kill us, so as a last resort we had to bury the test tubes and chemicals in a hole in the ground. Like I said earlier, you had to be there.
Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is....don't skip out on those reunions you will have in years to come. Some of the best memories you will ever have were the ones made as a child and also some of the best friendships. Here's to all of the "enes"...see you at #30!
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