If you remember a couple posts back I talked about how I was having a wonderful summer and spent most of it with my best friend, Laura. One thing you need to know about me. Although I am an extrovert, I tend to have only a few really deep relationships at a time. Laura was my friend, but really, she was more like the sister I'd always wanted (my friends with siblings always thought I was crazy to want siblings). Her mom practically adopted me into the family. Her younger sister and brother even liked me. We were together all the time that summer.
And then one ordinary day, Laura said she had something really important to tell me. Her father had been promoted and the family would be moving. By the end of the summer. To Washington. "Oh", said I, "You mean D.C.?" (thinking that was not so far, we lived in PA). "No," she says, "Washington STATE."
Ohhhhhhh....my little 8 year old heart had just slid down into my stomach and stayed there like a lead weight. My Very Best Friend was moving as far away as she could move and still be in the country. I wasn't just devastated; I was numb. We were still together all the time for the rest of the time we had, but it was a bittersweet elation. Almost like when you know that someone is dying and these are your last days with them. Yeah, I know, it sounds really maudlin and dramatic but that's how I felt.
We promised to write each other all the time, and actually did. Laura and I kept a regular correspondence through all our school years right up until we left for college, and even a bit in college. But I only actually saw her in person twice after the Bentleys moved. They came back to visit once when Laura and I were in middle school (8th grade, I think). And once again, when we were in late high school or early college. That was it. Now that we have email and such, I keep thinking I should look her up again. Maybe someday I will...
So I went into 3rd grade, absent one best friend. And with the new classroom system, these 30 or so kids were now my classmates for life. I got put into the top section, and my 3rd grade year was not too bad, but I was very lonely.
In 4th grade, I was determined to Get Involved. A lot of my friends had started playing an instrument at the end of 3rd grade and joined the band beginning of 4th. Not wanting to be left out, I begged and pleaded with my folks; they got me a flute for Christmas and I started lessons, and joined the band when I could play well enough. Of course, I'd overlooked one thing. I was setting myself up BIG time for the torment which was to come.
You see, since I was awkward and shy, I was already a geek. Then I got put in the top section, and became a smart geek. Then I joined the band and became that epitome of the teased, a Smart Band Geek. More's the pity for me. (At least now I have the consolation of my husband who was also a Smart Band Geek and understands me!)
Of course it was all over the day the 4th grade girls started to become fashion conscious. I had a love of comfortable clothes, and if they fit, who cared what they looked like? At the time I was crazy about those Garanimals matching knit top and pant sets. So crazy about them, that I wore them long past my end of 3rd grade growth spurt. You see what's coming, don't you? Yeah....
The summer before 5th grade, my mom and I went on a whirlwind shopping trip. It seems the "in" girls had to wear jeans. I had never owned a pair up till that point. I hated them - most uncomfortable things on the planet when you're short with no waist. It was 1978, on the leading edge of the designer jeans craze....(fade out dancing to "Le Freak".)
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