Saturday, June 09, 2007

I guess I'm just a mean girl?

Last week a former high school classmate of mine called me at work all giddy about our upcoming 30th reunion celebration in Limestone. I barely placed her name and can't picture her face. It has been 30 years, folks. I never would have thought about it the entire 2007 year, so I wasn't really pleased she called to point it out. The blessed event is scheduled for July 4,5,6 and her selling points included:


  • Being on a float in a parade down Main St. Now as I recall, downtown Limestone is about 100 feet long, so I really wanted to know what was happening after that 10 minutes.

  • A cook out at Trafton Lake. Now I know this is a man made lake cause I watched in being made in the 70's and therefore the fishing has got to really suck!

  • Some dinner, some where. All she said about the dinner was "you can dress up or not." I'm particular about my dinners and whether to dress up or not. I like to know ahead of time.

I can't quite figure out how these events would take three days and can't imagine what one would do with spare time while vacationing in Limestone. Anyway, the call caused me to reflect on my high school days and really dig deep to find a reason to attend the reunion. When I attended good old Limestone High School, Loring Air Force Base was fully operational and like a mini city in the middle of a potato field. The school was a revolving door of Air Force brats who descented on Aroostook County like they were God's gift to the grand state of Maine. My particular favorites were the officers daughters who sneered "farmer" at you after they strutted by. The word "farmer" was usually said with so much hatred that they might as well have said, "scum, suckin pig." These are the same mean, down right nasty, girls who all knew my father was a teacher in this fine example of public education. They were the same ones who sneered "your father is a f_ _ kin asshole" each time they saw me in the bathroom while they were chewing gum and smoking something. All because Dad expected them to be to class on time, spit out the gum, and maybe learn something. If it wasn't for my family, a few select teachers and farmers, and good books to read I probably would have thrown myself in front of the nearest operating potato harvester. Oh yeah, the fact that we moved to Silver Lake each summer was a really big bonus. I can imagine how conversations would go at this reunion:

Former classmate: "So Susan, how many children do you have?"

Me: "None."

Former classmate: "Oh."

End of conversation.

So, all things considered, I will not be attending the reunion as I would rather be force fed live eel.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your class reunion has the same schedule as mine when I went to Maine for my 30th. It was cancelled due to lack of interest. Go figure. It was also the 4th of July, and I actually attended the parade and went to Trafton Lake. Limestone claims it has the largest 4th of July parade in Aroostook. It was mostly tractors and harvesters. I have pictures if you're interested. There weren't many people at Trafton Lake either. My 10th class reunion I was about 18 months pregnant with Emily so there was no way in hell I would show up there looking like everybody else. On the 20th reunion I actually planned to go because the Wrights, Kris and Charley were going, but it was also the day we launched the Hillbillys al la U-haul and minivan and headed to Florida. I have been to some of those
"find your high school classmates" websites. I don't sign up because if someone from that era of my life wanted to get in touch with me, they would. I don't necessarily want some people to find me anyway. They annoyed me then, and I'm sure they would annoy me now. Ahh, sweet memories.

Emmasensei said...

Susie, you are my absolute hero. I can't tell you how much this post made me laugh...particularly the last paragraph. Five stars!

susan said...

Thanks for commenting Emma Lou. I love the pictures your mother took last weekend. She is getting quite talented with the digital camera. Your new home in Virginia looks comfortable. I am so excited for you.