Enough of my ranting and ravings . . . I'm back to being a kinder, gentler Cary now. I watched American Idol tonight -- which I've never watched a whole season of before, that's just how bad a choice there is on TV now -- and I mellowed out with the music. Several were very good -- several were very bad. I never vote -- except for Design Star and Dancing with the Stars!
I've been watching Gretta VanSistern's interview with Sara Palin's daughter about her unwed pregnancy, and she's very mature for her age. Of course, being a mother will do that for you -- mature you in a hurry. She was discussing how they told her parents that she was pregnant. The boy just sat there on the sofa, and she was crying, and her friend just blurted it out.
But it got me to thinking about when I was in high school in Germantown, TN, and my next door neighbor found herself in the family way. They moved in next door when I was in about 8th grade maybe, and they had four kids. Ernie was much older than us, Gordon was a senior and had a band that practiced in their carport (which we all though was just too "groovy"), Gloria was older than me by a couple of years and David was my age and we became best friends. They had a great basement that the whole crowd from Germantown Heights hung out in listening to music and watching one of the three TV stations we could pick up then (not counting PBS, which didn't count if you were a teenager)!
David's dad was a retired Colonel (very strict, but a push-over for us neighborhood girls) and his mom was from England. The night Gloria and Rob told her parents they were pregnant, David and I were hiding in the kitchen listening to the whole scene. I wouldn't take a million dollars to be Gloria at that point! They ended up getting married, had a cute kid, Rob became a permanent college student (I don't know how many degrees he ended up with, but I never knew him to have a real job), and then they got divorced and Gloria became a stripper! I didn't say they were a normal family -- but they were fun to live next door to!
It was a great neighborhood to grow up in, really. We had a good crowd of kids our age that hung out playing football after school and hanging out in the little park. We had the few "wierdos" in the neighborhood that we were afraid to go near their houses. I went back in 2002 when I had my last class reunion and drove through the neighborhood -- it all seemed smaller then. Most of my old friends had moved on to other places, just a few of my mom's friends left in the neighborhood. We've all grown apart -- and I moved the farthest away. It's no longer home. And that's a wierd feeling, to not have a "home" to go back to visit.
Not like in Hartford -- when my kids come home to visit, everything is much the same as when they were growing up. Most of their friends' parents still live here -- and many of their friends too. I know they think of it as being too small-town, but it's actually quite comforting. This will always be home and a safe haven for them if they need it -- or to visit for a couple of days.
No comments:
Post a Comment