Life Story: High School Memories

Senior yearbook picture

At the end of this week I'll be attending my 30th high school reunion. Yes, it makes me feel so very old. But remember, I'm still that 17 year old band geek that I was in high school, forever and always.

So this week, in order to mentally prepare myself to go back in time, I thought I'd do a few 80s posts, maybe share some pictures, music, I don't know. We'll see what pops out.

But today, I'll begin with an overall high school memory post. First of all, I must say I don't get it when people look back on high school and moan and groan. I thought it was all a blast. Mostly. I mean, yes, there was drama. Yes, I struggled with self-esteem. Yes, there were hard bits. But mostly, it was really an awesome time.

My friend and I during band.

I hung with two different crowds in high school. First and foremost, I was a band geek. I can't remember if we used that term in those days, but that was definitely what I was! I played the clarinet and loved it. I went to all the games and played in the pep band, both at home and away. If we weren't playing at the away games, I went to cheer the team on anyway... with my band buddies. We did everything together. I had one friend who was NOT in the band and finally, our senior year, she caved and joined the band and played the triangle and bells in the percussion section. She always said it was the best the thing she ever did.

My other crowd (and the two crowds did have a fair amount of cross over) was the honor student group. Back then, we were called the Brainiacs... or some such thing. I never truly felt like a "brain" but I was in the honor classes, and the AP classes, and I did get all A's (mostly!) and I was in the top of the class. However, there were SO MANY more people smarter and better and more brainy than me. They all got the scholarships, and were crowned Sterling Scholars and were recognized by all the school. I was on the sidelines. Which was quite alright by me.

Because I was also very shy, much like I still am today, and rarely talked unless I had to. Except with the band friends who saw me a little more...relaxed... shall we say. At home I was not quiet at all. I was the oldest of huge family (baby number 8 was born at the end of my sophomore year.. and he wasn't the last) and I was as bossy and obnoxious as you might imagine.

My family at Disneyland the summer before I was
a Junior. I'm not in the picture because I'm
taking the picture!

My time in high school can be divided up into the three distinct years. Here's my impression of those years:

Sophomore Year: This was a hard year. I felt like I had no friends, even though I did. I remember crying a lot. I wanted to be noticed and liked. Sound familiar? I think it took most of this year to find myself and feel okay about it. I loved my English class and remember doing a report on Patty Hearst, and learning about Thomas Hardy and falling in love with Arthur Dimsdale from The Scarlet Letter and Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities. But, I but the best teacher I ever had, pretty much in all my high school years, was Mr. Felt for World History that year. He made things come alive. He ACTED out lessons and taught us so much. Tests were even fun to take!

Junior Year: This was the year I finally came out of my shell a little and learned how to flirt. Not by talking much, but smiling a lot. My friend and I took a Physics class FULL of senior boys and we couldn't get over how much fun that was. I went to my first dance at Christmas and pretty much didn't miss a dance after that. Yes, it was fun! What's this about high school being  a drag? Fun, I tell you! We partied with the band geeks almost every weekend (and by  party, I mean watch a movie at someone's house because those VCR machines? Oh my word, they were the cool new thing!) I continued to enjoy my history class with yet another most awesome teacher. We went to the Model UN and represented Libya. Now if you don't think that was interesting! I also took anthropology this year and absolutely loved it.

Graduation Day
With my then boyfriend, now husband!
(Though it would be three years before
we got married!)

 Senior Year: Things started getting drama filled this year. I started dating a certain boy the second half of the year who would end up my husband. Serious stuff falling in love during high school! Serious stuff! I was still very involved in band, but also in a service club, the French Club, and the National Honors Society. I played in the pit for Hello Dolly and supported my fellow band members in a bunch of concerto nights and jazz band concerts and such. There was always something happening. Always. And despite the drama and the sudden serious take on the whole love life... senior year was, yes... fun!

With my friends the summer before senior year.
(I'm in the navy blue if you can't pick me out!)
All (almost anyway) wearing our shrink to fit Levis!
And sporting our permed hair which was looking especially
fine after a weekend at the lake!

More random high school tidbits:

• we wore shrink to fit Levi Strauss jeans and Izod polo shirts, perfect for my fashion sense!
• denim jackets were also very cool and I never had one
• permed hair was in, even for the boys
• Return of the Jedi came out the end of my Junior year and I don't remember ever being more excited about a movie as I was for that one! Getting Han Solo out of that carbonite? Finally! Oh my word.
• I watched the last episode of MASH even though I'd never really watched the series, because, wow, that was a thing too.
• we loved to go get shakes and french fries and pizza. I'm guessing that hasn't changed a whole lot in 30 years.

Well, enough memories for now. I'll post more 80s stuff this week. Stay tuned.

Life Story: Movie Memories

In honor of the Academy Awards tonight, I thought I'd bring back a feature I started last year, but didn't stick to, and tell you stories from my life. . . specifically today, movie memories! Yay for the movies!

As long as I can remember my family has been a movie going family. This is despite the fact that we had many little kids, something that seems to deter families from going to the movies at times. My first movie memories are of going to the drive in . I remember getting our pajamas on, and my mom popping corn and putting weird things on it to make it different, and then we'd pile into the blue station wagon and go park at the drive in. However, I don't remember any of the movies I saw there. I remember the little contraction you put in your window for the sound... and the sound was terrible. Or I think sometimes you could find it on a radio station, which seemed pretty science fiction-y to me and very cool. But I can't think of what the movies were, sadly.

Later on, when we were a little older, I remember movies being a reward for staying on task with our chores. We had point system of some sort and if we got to a certain amount of points, we could pick a reward. Most of us chose to go to a movie.

I think one of those movies was Savannah Smiles, a movie filmed locally so it was fun to see familiar landmarks. I remember choking up and sobbing nearly uncontrollably at the end of this movie. This movie doesn't get near the recognition it deserves!

Another interesting thing about my movie memories is that I somehow  remember where I was when I saw a certain movie, for the most part. Back in the day, they had ONE movie showing at ONE big movie theater. In Salt Lake it was the Centre Theater, where I saw so many awesome movies like Star Wars and all it's sequels (the originals) and Star Trek and it's sequels, and The Right Stuff, and Ladyhawke, and Amadeus and Top Gun. And so many others.

Closer to home we had another big theater called The Villa, where I saw all the Indian Jones movies, and War Games, and Ferris Bueler and       .

Of course, both of those theaters are gone now.

The small little mall theaters made their debut during my childhood though, and I remember going to them for the summer movies (or the PTA movies as we called them then. ) That was a blast.

Other random movie memories:

• going to Grease when I was 14 years old and loving the music, but having most of the innuendos of the story go over my head.
• being late for ET and being so so mad about that and mad about missing the first little bit that I was crying through the whole movie.
• falling in love with Star Wars, which is a whole story in and off itself that I typed up in a post here!
• seeing Flash Gordon the night before my mom had baby number 8. My dad kept going out to call her and check on her.
• swooning over every leading guy but especially: Tony from Escape to Witch Mountain, Han Solo, Flash Gordon, Matthew Broderick in anything, Michael J. Fox in anything, the Karate Kid dude, oh, and does anyone remember Stewart Petersen? He was in Where the Red Fern Grows and Seven Alone. Loved him too!
• seeing Yentel on the first date with my now husband (then we were seniors in high school.)
• seeing The Princess Bride... in the theater... and being BLOWN AWAY at how awesome it was! (And where I actually fell in love with Mandy Patinkin!)
• seeing Gone With the Wind in the theater when they brought back for a special engagement
• seeing Star Wars.. over and over again... IN THE THEATER
• remembering people talking about Jaws but feeling I was too young to see that one. It was PG after all. I don't remember when I first saw it, but sadly I don't think it was on the big screen, so it must have been way later.
• seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another big movie from my day. Such an awesome story! 
• loving all those movies with John Cusak and Andrew McCarthy and others. Some Kind of Wonderful and Say Anything. Oh, and Robert Downey Jr of course! Swoon.
• not being much into the musicals, but I loved A Fiddler on the Roof. 
• going through a Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock phase in high school!  

In high school, the big invention of the VCR made it's debut. Suddenly, we could watch a movie anytime we wanted at our own homes! The novelty of that fact was amazing! My friend got one of those big huge player machines and we watched a few things at her house. My family never got one (until I was gone) and in fact I never had one at my own house until being married for several years. When we wanted to watch a VCR, we rented the playing machine too! Sadly, I can't remember the very first movie I watched on VCR. That would be interesting, don't you think?

At any rate, I've always loved the movies. I love going out to see them, I love the big screen, I love the big sound, I love the music. I love how amazing the actors are. I love the stories and the emotional involvement.

If I had to list some of my favorite movies they'd be:

• Star Wars
• Ladyhawke
• The Princess Bride
• A Knight's Tale
• Batman Begins
• Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one)
• Somewhere in Time

And now add Gravity to that list for sure! Good luck to that movie tonight!

Here's to the movies! May they never die!

What movies have you loved over the years? Do we share any of the same? What's your first movie memory?

Life Story: Music Memories

I’ve always been pretty obsessed about music, and there’s really nothing I can point to in my life as the thing that caused it. I’m quite sure I just came that way. Like most kids I’m assuming, I can remember my parents singing to me when I was very little, as they rocked me to sleep. I especially remember my dad singing Round and Round by Perry Como, or Ghostriders in the Sky by Sons of the Pioneers. Not your normal lullabies! My mom sang simpler songs like “In the Leafy Tree Tops” or “Give Said the Little Stream.” But I loved both sorts!

One of my favorite music memories is laying in my bed in the evening, trying to go to sleep and my dad would put a stack of classical music records on the stereo. (We had a big Magnavox stereo console, and you could stack several, even up to six, records on, and one by one they would drop down on the turntable and play automatically. It was magic!) 

My room was right off the living room and I loved to lay there and listen to them, right along with my dad who would sit in the chair and listen while he read the evening paper. The favorites that I remember where mostly Tchaikovsky like Romeo and Juliet, Caprice Italien, The Nutcracker Suite, 1812 Overture and so on. I also remember Largo from the New World Symphony by Dvorak. I’m sure I was introduced to many others like Mozart and Beethoven through this method too. But I loved it and it was perfect music to lull me to sleep. Eventually I may have even requested the records every night.

Another early music memory was going to my grandparents house on the farm in Idaho. They had a bunch of “old” records too that I begged them to play (also on a big stereo console) every time we went. Sometimes I would manage to talk my brothers and sisters into dancing all around the room as part of the experience! I especially remember the chicken and the turkey song (Turkey in the Straw?) and some old Tex Ritter country songs ( Rye Whisky) and Lynn Anderson (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden or I’ve Been Everywhere.) They also had a Jefferson Airplane album which I think my grandma was a bit embarrassed about, but they had won it as a prize somewhere or something, But I was fascinated with that music and played White Rabbit over and over again. We also hauled out out the little 45 records from the 50s and listened to things like A Tisket a Tasket and Jailhouse Rock and Tan Shoes with Pink Shoelaces!.

One day, when I was probably in fifth or sixth grade, I was home sick from school. I remember laying there in my bed feeling pretty miserable, but having an absolute joyful time listening to the radio. All day long! That’s a very distinct memory of when I discovered the awesomeness that was the radio! That day, I remember listening to David Bowie’s Fame song, and Earth Wind and Fire’s September. I’ve loved both songs to this day

.


Of course, at this same age, I was in love with all the Osmonds, but especially Donny. My room had Donny pull outs from Tiger Beat Magazine pinned all over. We watched the Donny and Marie show every Friday night without fail. Donny could do no wrong. At some point, I even got my own albums, one of all the Osmonds greatest hits, and one of just Donny and Marie’s famous songs. I loved every song!





You could also find pin ups in my room of Shaun Cassidy, Lief Garret, Andy Gibb (and his brothers too)  and anything Star Wars I could lay my hands on. Of course, this was about the same time as Saturday Night Fever (I movie I was not allowed to watch) but I, however, spent my own money to get the album.... my very first music purchase! Not long after that, I also bought the soundtrack to Grease (a movie I DID watch!) I guess I was also stricken with John Travolta too!

When I was in 6th grade, we had a dance every Friday afternoon. It was just our class and after lunch, we would push all the desks to the edges and start the festivities. (Our teacher was off his rocker, but that’s another story.) Thankfully, I totally loved these dances! All the kids would bring records from home and we would haul out this old ancient looking player and play the music. My friends would beg me to bring my little 45 Star Wars medley by Meco. Oh, how we loved to dance to that one! Other songs I remember being played at those 6th grade dances were More Than a Feeling by Boston, Dust in the Wind by Kansas. Those dances were quite the thing and deserve their own installment!

Around about this time, my dad bought the Star Wars soundtrack. Oh my I was in heaven with that music! Often on a Sunday evening, I would gather my albums around me, stack them on the stereo, put the big huge headphones on, and sit down and write in my journal while all my favorites played. Here’s a list of what was probably in that record album stack, some my own albums and some from my parents collection:

* How the West Was Won soundtrack
* Star Wars soundtrack
* Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass... the Whipped Cream album
* South Pacific soundtrack
* Saturday’s Warrior
* Saturday Night Fever
* Grease
* The Osmonds

 

When I was 13 years old, for my birthday I got a 45 record of Queen, We Will Rock You. I was so excited. I also got a Donny and Marie holder to carry all my 45 records. (Do we know what a 45 record is? It’s just a single song, one on each side. The A side had a famous song, the B side had a not so famous song.) The practice of buying 45 records continued through high school and by the time I quit the practice, I had these songs:

* We Will Rock You by Queen
* Star Wars medley by Meco
* Hey Deanie and That’s Rock ‘n Roll by Shaun Cassidy
* Love You Inside and Out by The Bee Gees
* You Take my Breath Away by Rex Smith
* She Believes in Me by Kenny Rogers
* Rocky by Austin Roberts
* Only Time Will Tell by Asia
* Stray Cats Strut by Stray Cats
* Red Skies by The Fixx
* Burning Down the House by Talking Heads
* Break my Stride by Matthew Wilder



(I made a playlist on YouTube with all these songs if you are interested!)

Through junior high and high school all my music obsessions blend a bit together. But make no mistake. I WAS obsessed! Some of my favorites that I remember: Asia, Loverboy, The Fixx, Journey, The Cars, Saga, Rush, a-ha, Lionel Richie, Chicago, Billy Joel, The Alan Parsons Project, The Thompson Twins, ABC.. and so many others!




One of the first concerts I went to, if not the very first, was the Beach Boys. We drove up north about an hour to get to it, with all my friends. Later, my then boyfriend (now husband) took me to both Lionel Richie and Billy Joel. I also have recollection of going to Chicago (ha, the band not the city!) twice, and Barry Manilow once while in college. These concerts were quite the investment at $15 bucks a ticket! Can you even imagine! 

But it wasn’t just the rock music I loved in high school. I was also very much into Mannheim Steamroller. And went twice to a Maynard Ferguson concert! I thought my ears would never be the same after those two shows! Wow, that was some loud trumpet playing!

Of course, I became a band geek in 5th grade when I picked up a clarinet and learned how to play it. I didn’t know then what an important move that was for my life, but it shaped my whole high school and college experiences. But that too, is another story!

Shortly after I got married, a new thing called compact discs began appearing. I remember going to a specialty store just buy the things. I think the first CD we bought was Enya, the one with Orinoco Flow on it. And from there, we went crazy with the things! And still buy them even though they have gone a bit out of style. 

I don’t remember being much into musicals when I was growing up, except maybe Fiddler on the Roof which my dad loved. But a few years into married life, we discovered the theater. First, we went to the outdoor theater here in town, and took the kids, all summer long. Then we had the opportunity to buy season tickets, front row, to the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake and have hung onto those for probably 18 years now at least. What awesome shows we’ve seen. And our CD collection of Broadway music is now pretty impressive.

Well, I have many many more music stories and memories, but I’ll leave it here for now. These are some of the earlier ones and have sparked some thoughts and ideas for future life stories to tell.


Do any of my music memories match yours? Did I make you think of your own music memories? I'd love for you to share! 

Life Story: The Scar on My Knee

 One day, at the end of a hot hot summer, I decided to go play across the street at my friend’s house. I was five, nearly six years old, and only a couple weeks away from starting Kindergarten. We went down into her cool dark basement to watch Sesame Street. My friend was sitting on the floor, and I was sitting on the couch, and we were both totally enjoying ourselves. All was well.

Then, for some unremembered reason, I got off the couch to go over to my friend to tell her something. I slipped down onto my knees and  proceeded to walk across the long shag carpet, still on my knees, across the room.

Suddenly, massive sharp pain! In my right knee! I stopped. I gasped. I cried. I moaned.

“What’s wrong?” my friend asked?

“I don’t know! My knee! It hurts!” I had no idea what was happening. But I did know that I couldn’t move or bend my knee.

We looked at it and saw one teeny drop of blood.

I tried to stand up, balancing on my left leg and then trying to put pressure on my right leg to walk. Intense pain. I couldn’t walk. My knee was frozen in a bent shape anyway. There was no way.

By that time, the mom of the house had been called to the rescue. She had no idea what to do either, but she did manage to pick me up and carry me across the street, back to my house, where she deposited me on my front porch and told my mom that something happened, but we don't know what!

My mom, perplexed and worried, asked me what happened and I told her that I “walked across the carpet on my knees, then something hurt!” A few minutes later, the neighbors came back over and said they had looked all through the carpet to see if there was anything to give a clue, and they found a half of a wooden toothpick.

So that’s what we figured had happened, that maybe I kneeled on a toothpick and it had broken off in my knee. But still, we couldn't see a thing... only a little drop of blood.

My mom did the only thing she could think of, and called the doctor. It was just about time to close, but when he heard the story, he told her to go ahead and bring me in and he would stay after and wait for us. He was a young doctor, just new in his practice, and willing to help out however he could.

The ride was a short one, but I’m sure a painful one. Much of this part I’ve blocked from my memory! When we arrived, we discovered that the air conditioning had gone out in the office building and it was, as mentioned above, a stifling hot August evening. The building was even more stifling.

My mom explained the situation, what we knew of it, and told about the toothpick. The doctor really had no idea what to do, but he decided to go ahead and deaden my knee with a shot, which I was hysterical about, but once that was over, things didn’t hurt so bad.

And then it got graphic. All he could do was to start digging around in my knee. I was crying, my mom was crying, he was nearly crying and we were ALL sweating to death. My mom remembers this poor young doctor, with sweat streaming down his face, trying so hard to figure out what was in there!

Finally, and I have no idea how long it took, it felt like forever to us all, but was probably about an hour, he struck gold. Or steel I should say. He pulled out the tweezers and held it up for us to see. A needle! “I think this may be the problem!” he said.

Yes, there was no toothpick. But, there was a needle. Embedded all the way into my knee.

The doctor said, “If we’d only known it was a needle! We could have x rayed and it would show up and I could have gone right to it!”

He sewed me up with five little stitches and we were on our way! Thank you Doctor Thomas!

Back at home, I remember my mom propping me up on the couch in the living room, with pillows under my knee, and bringing me dinner to eat. She served it in a muffin tin, with all the little parts of dinner in each little compartment of the tin. It was a hint from somewhere that she had recently read, (the day’s version of Pinterest... maybe a magazine?) about serving food to someone “in bed.”

All I know, it made me feel special to be eating in the living room and I was so glad to have that knee fixed.

I also remember that for those last couple of weeks of summer, I couldn’t get my stitches wet and that was quite the trial to not be able to play in the sprinkles or the kiddie pool.

And that’s the story of how I kneeled on a needle and ended up with a scar on my right kneecap!

Two weeks after the knee incident
on my first day of Kindergarten
August 1971

Life Story: My Sad and Happy Birthday

But first, a little intro to this new "feature" of my blog. You may remember that I talked about doing this awhile back, but since then I've chickened out many times. I've always been drawn to writing down life stories. I actually interviewed both sets of grandparents and compiled stories for all four of them. It was an awesome experience. I've written down my stories in various random boring forms, but never have I actually tried very hard to work to make it more interesting.

Then I went to a class at the library a few months ago that got me all fired up to try again. And I thought, well, if I posted little articles or essays about different little incidents of my life on my blog, that would give me motivation, and an audience to write for. I figure if I picture you my readers reading this stuff, I may write better. You know? Does that make sense?

So even though it scares me something terrible to post my stories to the blog, I thought I'd at least try it for a bit (maybe twice a month) and see what happens, how it feels and if I continue to freak out about it. (I will be obscuring some details and names of people who might rather not be public on the web, at least I will try.)

Anyway, I figured I'd start with the beginning and so for my first life story post I give you:


My Sad and Happy Birthday

Once upon a time, on the Thursday evening of November 11, 19--, my parents went to the final session of their childbirth classes. At that class, they watched a movie of a baby being born which was something quite new to both of them, this being their first baby and all. While not making her especially nervous, Mom did say that  it must have made her a bit excited and ready because in the middle of the night, her water broke.

But the thing was, she had planned to work another week for BYU’s The Daily Universe student newspaper, and then after that have days and days, weeks even, to plan and prepare for the baby! You see, I was a month early!

When her water broke, Mom said to Dad, “ah, something is happening! I think maybe the baby is coming. I think maybe we should go to the hospital!” Dad said “you’ve just peed your pants I bet, try going back to sleep.” Mom said, “Ah... no... I don’t think so.. I think that yes, we really better go!”

They were living in a small student apartment south of BYU campus and so off they went in the middle of the night to Utah Valley Hospital in Provo Utah to see what was actually going on. A short couple of hours later, and despite the fact that the nurses were not convinced it was really happening, I was born early Friday morning, November 12th.

Mom called her mom, Grandma T and said, “It’s a girl!” She was so excited to get a girl and couldn’t wait to share the news. Grandma said, “You’re joking, right?” Remember, I was a month early, not due until mid December! Mom said, “No, no I’m quite sure there’s a baby here!”

Grandma was waiting to hear from Grandpa’s parents, Grandma Goldie and Grandpa Lem, who were serving an LDS mission in New Mexico. She told Mom that she would give them the news when they called. Grandpa Lem had been sick with blood clots and had recently had surgery down there in New Mexico, but infection had set in and he was not getting better. Grandpa was trying to make arrangements for them to come home as soon as possible, which was why they were waiting for the call.

Later on that afternoon when the phone call came, it was not good news. Grandpa Lem had just passed away. Now both Grandma and Mom would always be sad that they didn't make that phone call sooner so he could know that he had become a great grandfather before he died.

As you can imagine, the day turned out to be quite the bitter sweet one. Mom didn’t know what she was supposed to feel. Happy to have a healthy baby girl, yet sad to have suddenly lost her grandfather. Grandma had planned to come help Mom, but with all the funeral arrangements and things going on, she couldn’t come for several days. That was also a bit disappointing for them both.

But as it turned out, Dad’s mom, Grandma L, was able to come for a few days. This was another surprise to all involved as it wasn’t the normal thing for her to be part of the excitement of birthdays. On that side, I was the 9th grand baby of what would end up being 72 plus (I’m not even sure of the count.) Babies were happening so often that she could barely keep up! But it was nice that she could come be with Mom until Grandma T. could get there.

And that is what happened on the sad and happy day that I was born. For the rest of her life (and she lived a long time!) whenever I would see Great Grandma Goldie, she would say to me, “you are my oldest great grandchild! And you are the one born the day my Lem died.”

About 1 month old

With Dad,  and his dad Grandpa L, and
and HIS dad Great Grandpa Fred (who immigrated
from Switzerland when he was 19 years old)

With Mom and Dad

With Mom, and her dad Grandpa T, and HIS mom
Great Grandma Goldie