Upon reading Tom Lake

 I picked up the novel Tom Lake by Anne Patchet and was hooked immediately.  It started out with a young high school student auditioning for Our Town but she's telling the story to her three daughters now in their 20s.  And this is after reading My Grandmother Says She's Sorry by Frederick Backman with a Grandmother sending her granddaughter messages to deliver after her death to people who will fill in Grandmother's back story.  And this after Libby sending me a text message wanting to know more about my romantic past.

So, now I'm up at 3:30 AM can't sleep because I can't turn my brain off.  Maybe now that Libby is 17 and Anna 14, NOW is the time to tell some stories.  But where to begin.  Then I realized I'd begun with a post about being 14-15 years old and meeting my future husband. (click here)

So to continue that story. . . . .I was not at all interested in Dave Morgan.  He was too old (18),  too handsome and "stuck up".  My friend Hilda was aflutter after meeting him and I just looked at her and said, "His older brother is more my type---not as handsome, much friendlier and he has warm eyes."  

I was simply not interested in dating or having a boy friend---I really didn't see  much point in it.  I was interested in having fun in larger groups like our church youth fellowship, flirting but backing away---staying focused on being "successful" in school by being in clubs, being recognized as a leader, getting in National Honor Society.  I was going to go to college ( being the first female in my family) and had no interest in "relationships" other than friendship in a more brotherly kind of way.

Meanwhile, my friendships in high school began to shift.  My "girlfriends" were starting to be more interested in boys than I was. And they were getting very "catty" putting other girls down.  I hated that. I was interested in being part of the crowd and going to all of the dances---with or without a date.  Dancing was the point of  a "Dance", right?  I gradually found myself pulling away from my girlfriends and actually aligning myself with many of my "boy" friends or "brothers" which is how I thought of them. They were supportive, intelligent, funny and I was happier being with them than the anxiety of my "girl friends"

By our Senior year, my "brothers" were beginning to be interested in a group of girls a year younger than we were.  I knew several of them from church and dance club, so I tagged along to the parties.  As a group we called ourselves the "yo-yos" which described us perfectly---the ups and downs of adolescence.  (Uncle Harry Provost was part of this group before he and Aunt Jane met) I became such a part of the group, they somehow forgot I was a year older and invited me to their 50th reunion where I had a great time catching up with them.  In retrospect I wonder if I should have been in their grade.  

I started Kindergarten in January after I turned 5 in November.  St. Louis Public Schools had two classes a year for graduation, also.   The problem was moving to St. Louis County where they had only Fall enrollment.  What to do with those of us who only finished half of third grade---should we repeat it or push ahead.  Many of us were pushed ahead so I graduated from high school at 17 (not turning 18 until November of my freshman year of college).  So, although I was smart enough to not "miss" that half of third grade, I might now have been mature enough.  

There were several advantages to being pushed ahead in school.  One was I was not a "baby boomer"---that huge group of babies born after the war.  The enormous population bubble caused problems with the schools which didn't have room for all of the children.  So, I had a less stressful school situation being in a smaller class.  The second advantage was I had "flexibility" which I later used in college to "take a year off" college to live in Germany.  But, as a teenager, I probably would have been happier with the group of friends a year younger.