Blog 19 Trying to leave my mark, Hijinks with Jeanie

    (Will everyone know your name)

I forgot to add on my last blog that while we were at the Olympics, our co-ed volleyball team won third and I made the top 16 in Tennis. Just FYI!

        I wanted to be known, not necessarily popular, but remembered. I served on every class council from 7th grade to Senior, except my Junior year, but was Jr High Student Council President, I was Parliamentarian in Junior High National Honor Society, rode on the Sophomore Homecoming float, was swimming co-captain my sophomore year and captain my junior and senior year,I was swim team Beau my junior and senior year, lettered all four years of high school in swimming, Rookie of the year 8th grade, most valuable boy swimmer all 4 high school years, choir 4 years, wrote our senior class song, drew the cover of our senior annual (with help from Vanessa), produced and directed the senior skit for senior day, President of the high school National Honor society, etc. If it brought attention to me, I was in it. I was very vain. But, not to the point of being friends with everyone i could. I was not trying to be better than others, but I loved attention.

        My senior year was filled with so many things that happened. I, also, became an Eagle Scout. Many people do not know this, there are actually ranks higher than Eagle Scout. For every six months service and receiving five additional merit badges, gives you PALMS. The first is Bronze, next is Silver, and the third is Gold. Then it starts over again. I finished my scouting years with four Palms, forty-seven merit badges, and one of the highest ranked Eagles in Dallas. I went on to serve as an adult supervisor until I was twenty-seven. The stories you hear about scouting are far and few, most are outright lies. I loved camping, teaching, and being a comrade for the boys I worked with. Nothing else even crossed my mind. This is getting ahead of myself, so back to school.

(If you don’t succeed, try something else!)

        At the first of each year, we would have fund drives. One was to simply go door to door asking for donations. When our group realized that Seagoville was swamped with beggars, I came up with the idea to go to another community. We decided which school area would have the most money and we went there. Without outright lying, we would tell the people that we were “seniors at the school” and we would point towards the high school with our hands. We were getting tons of donations …until….we came to a house of a swimmer that I knew. While someone was telling the parent of our plight, I started trying to get them to be quiet. Our cover was blown! However, the swimmer’s mother was so impressed with us that she gave us five dollars anyway. We came back to our school with the most money and out class sponsor was stunned when we told her what we did. (It worked, though!)

         We did another fundraiser by selling Hummel plaques. The student with the most sold would receive fifty dollars. I was asking everyone I came across to buy one. They were five dollars each. Near the end of the sell, I found out that it was between another student and me for most sells. I got desperate. So, I went to other students and asked them how many they sold. If it was less than ten, I would convince them to let me turn the names in on my list and then I would give them the plaques when they came in.

        I was not in it for the money, I was in it to WIN! So, being confident, but not for sure, I bought ten myself, counting on getting my fifty dollars back. When it was over, I had over 125 plaques. It was announced that I won and second place had only sold somewhere in the nineties. But, I did what it took to win, and that was my goal!!!

(Hijinks with Jeanie and the rest of us)

        Jeanie helped to bring me out of my “goody two-shoes” character. She had a mischievous look that could convince me to do any thing. She would do many things and soon, we both plotted many things.I only have enough room to tell a few stories, though.

        One time, we had to stop by my house before we went somewhere. .I cannot remember why, but she was in a dress. While waiting to leave, we decided to jump on our trampoline. When Jeanie started bouncing, her dress skirt would pop up like a parachute. I started laughing, not because of the parachute, but for the fact that she did not have any panties on and she was flashing me and the entire neighboring houses.

       At Halloween, our group decided to go to the Senior Costume Party as the Addams Family. It was awesome because we had all the main characters. I went as Lurch, Vanessa as Uncle Fester (first prize winner), Cheryl was Gomez, Betsy was Morticia, Jeanie was Grand mamah, Teresa was Pugsley. I had our convertible and so we went to Buckner Blvd and started egging all the pedestrians we past. We deliberately missed them, but got very close to scare them.

        Later that year, Jeanie and I decided to audition for the Six Flags shows. We were too scared to audition alone, so we did the duet, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. When we got to the auditions, we were the second ones to arrive. It was at the SMU Auditorium. It was a full house.

        When we got on stage, we were a bit nervous. They started the music and then the inevitable happened…..Jeanie choked. No, Jeanie literally choked. She started, “You don’t bring me flowers. You don’t sing me love…UUGGHH,UUGGHH!” I could have died if it was not so funny. Without skipping a beat, she asked if we could start over. You could hear laughter in the Auditorium. The judges said yes and we got through the song. Noone could leave the stage faster. Needless to say, we did not get a callback.

        Before the audition, we went to my house to practice one day. As we came into the house, I directed Jeanie to go through the kitchen to my room because it was the only clean room in the house. I closed rhe front door and turned around to see Jeanie back in the living room with her hands on her face and quite shaken up. She said there was a RAT in the kitchen eating our dog;s food. I said that we had mice, but not rats. 

       After shutting the front door, I went ahead of Jeanie to assure her that it was a mouse. But, to my embarrassment, it WAS a RAT!!!! I leaped at it , stomping my feet, and even hit a broom near the rat. It simply looked at me and slowly waddled toward the corner of the the bar and wall to an extremely small hole and  that rat squeezed right through the hole like I was not bothering it at all.

        I grabbed Jeanie, who was still in shock, and took her to my room. I was so embarrassed that I made a promise to clean the living room, dining room, kitchen, part of the hall that went to my room, and my bathroom. I swore to keep them clean until I went to college. I got dad to some rat traps and to my surprise, each time I could get a trap set, a trap would go off. In no more than an hour, we had captured at least fifteen rats. It made me sick to my stomach.

        One day at lunch, we decided to leave the school grounds (which was a no-no) and go to the Dairy Queen. I was in the convertible, again, and I sneaked my car around behind the football field. There were about five of us. We no sooner got away from the school when Jeanie sat up on the back of the car and started yelling loudly, “Call the Principal, We are Skipping School!!!!! By the time we came back, our principal was in the parking lot looking around. We immediately turned back around to the front of the school and I dropped everyone off. I then took my car and hid it behind the football field and sneaked across the field back to the lunch room. Whew! We made it back without getting caught.

        For Christmas that year, we decided to go caroling. we went to Pleasant Grove and wanted to sing to the couple that every year decorated their entire yard (which was on a hillside.) We knocked on the door and then started singing (VERY BADLY). The couple asked if we were going to sing anymore? We said yes, and they immediately ushered us to the side of the house and had us sing there. I could sense the discomfort, and as we started again, we were sooooo off key. I started yelling for us to stop,but they kept going. We no sooner finished the song that the people thanked and said they needed to go back in the house. (How Rude) We stood there not knowing what just happened, but finally took the hint and left.

(This blog is too big, so I will have to finish it (FINALLY) on Blog 20!)

• 24th Oct 2017
• mylife
• 2 Comments
• Uncategorized