Back in the Day

My 20-year high school reunion is coming up this fall, and I’m heading up the planning committee. (No, I wasn’t the senior class president, just a lowly class rep, but sometime before graduation I must have agreed to be on the reunion committee. I can't remember when. I got a call from our class president 10 years ago when it was time to plan the first reunion and ended up helping to plan our very fun 10-year reunion.

Well... our infamous senior class president decided to bail on this one. He said he had “a bad experience” with the last one and has denounced his official senior class president duties. What?? How does that work? Isn’t that all part of the gig you sign up for when you run for election and place your hand in the air and pledge to do your duty???? I guess, like Nacho Libre, he wanted a “better duty.”

The reunion company planning lady contacted me last fall and voila – I’m holding the reigns. But it will be fun. Thankfully, we have an awesome committee (including my husband and SIL who both graduated with me and some other great friends) and the plans are moving along. The date and venue are set and the PR is in the works.

Anyway, as I’ve reflected about this big event that’s no longer so far away, I started reminiscing about some of my high school memories and had a good laugh or two. Or three. So…again, in the spirit of documenting my personal history, I share yet another of my crazy late night brainstorm lists. (I like lists. I can capture a decade on one page, I don't have to use complete sentences, and I seem to recall much more when I'm in pure brainstorm mode.)

And just for the record, “the day” refers to my junior high and high school teen years (yes, back in the 80’s).

Back in the day…30 things I remember…

1. I wore blue eye shadow and red lipstick and thought I looked good.
2. My removable shoulder pads made their way into every shirt I owned.
3. I spent a week each summer in California with my brother and parents (and usually a friend) staying in one of the many Marriott Hotels, enjoying the beach, hitting a couple of major league baseball games (AZ had no team back then), doing crazy fast thrill rides at Magic Mountain, and of course, shopping for the next school year.
4. Nylons and “pumps” were mainstream accessories with my Sunday attire. I'm not sure you could pay me to wear nylons in AZ now. Thank heaven for spanks!
5. I got a new "spiral" perm every summer right before school started. It took like five hours to roll.
6. Guess Jeans, Forenza, Gap, & Express monopolized the labels in my wardrobe.
7. My Dairy Queen uniform shirt had a permanent band of blizzard spray (aka ice cream) across the chest.
8. I should have bought stock in Rave (my brand of firm hold hairspray).
9. I thought my Kino Junior High colors were atrocious (green, gold and white).
10. I drove a 1979 yellow Cutlass Supreme. Tough as a tank, seating for six comfortably (8 if you squished), killer stereo and great AC.
11. I pegged my jeans at the ankle with a safety pin to make them skin tight.
12. I hung out in the McDonald’s parking lot after the Friday night Mountain View (lovingly referred to as Mountain “Pew” by our rival schools due to the ever so potent dairy farm across the street) football games (along with every other kid from my school), until my senior year when the “cool” post-game venue shifted to DQ. How lucky was I to be employed there and serve ice cream and fries to my whole school?
13. I wasted far too many summertime hours laying out by the pool perfecting my tan.
14. I came home for lunch with my girlfriends and watched The Young & The Restless.
15. I studied nightly by the lamp light in the dining room of my house.
16. I wore bunched up colored socks with penny loafers and K-Swiss tennis shoes.
17. I saw M.C. Hammer in concert (Can’t Touch This). Are you laughing or singing along? Or both? (But it was so awesome!)
18. I worked out during the summer at a little private gym with a too-intense personal trainer named “Jay” who had biceps the size of trees and no sense of humor whatsoever.
19. The 80’s Big Hair Bands were just following my lead.
20. The dollar movies at Tri City Mall and Westwood Theatres were the place to be.
21. It was not uncommon to find my friends and I playing mini golf at Golfland (and scouting for cute boys), shopping at Fiesta Mall (and scouting for cute boys), or patronizing the theatres at Power & Main (in my pre-driving years).
22. My initials occupied the high score list on Ms. Pac Man machines everywhere…
23. I played four years of softball and volleyball for my schools (Kino & Mtn. View) and played basketball as a freshman. I got serious pneumonia after the second day of basketball tryouts my sophomore year, but I wasn’t crushed about it. I thought I might just die from all the suicides we had to run. Hmmm...wonder why they call them suicides?
24. We had open campus for lunch, and our favorite lunch spots (aside from home) were Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
25. I graduated with a better than 4.0 grade point average (thanks to AP classes).
26. Some of my favorite bands were Prince, Michael Jackson, Def Leppard, Madonna, Depeche Mode, Guns & Roses, and Duran Duran.
27. I loved to go dancing at Sgt. Peppers and Devil House on teen nights.
28. My cousins, Julie & Laura, and I shared wardrobes (purchased with the wages from our hard working DQ days). I went one whole school year without wearing the same ensemble twice (so caddy and vain, I know, but sadly, all true).
29. I thought my Brother automatic typewriter was the bomb.
30. I could do 200 push ups and 200 sit ups in volleyball practice warm ups and not think anything of it.

Ahhhh, yes...back in the day.

So glad that I live in this day now.

So glad that the shoulder pad factories are out of business, that blue eye shadow is only worn sparingly or for an occassional high fashion statement, that the dairy by Mtn. View moved away, that I haven't watched a soap opera in decades, that I get to read and study what I want, that I don't need a new outfit for each day of the year, and that I am living the life I love.