Teenage Angst

My Gang Summer 1981

Today I got to thinking about my year in tenth grade. So much happened in that one year...things that would change who I was, and what I thought about myself...and others.

It was 1980. The year started out well. I remember having seen the movie Urban Cowboy several times and loving it. My best friend bought the soundtrack and we listened to it a lot. In early October we attended a church dance, and met a group of boys that went to another high school. They looked cool (leather jackets and all) compared to the nerds that we went to school with. We started meeting up with them on Friday and Saturday nights, after much pleading with our mothers. The first night we met them on our own, our mothers dropped us off at a Baskin Robbins, then continued to follow us slowly down the street in my moms car...talk about embarrassing! My best friend hooked up with Dave, and I began dating Mike. They were fun, like the same kind of music we did, and really were our "first" steady boyfriends that we had ever had.

Since they went to a different school than we did, the weeks seemed long...they called us every night. Friday and Saturday nights were spent with them, going to movies, bowling, or just hanging out. I was in love....my first steady boyfriend!

1 week before Christmas, I came down with Mononucleosis. I don't know how I got it...Mike wasn't sick. There was some speculation that I might have been infected by sharing Pepsi's with my fellow cheerleaders during practices and games...who knows? I was sick for weeks...I missed almost 2 months of school. During that time, Mike would come to the house to visit, but I was not allowed out. (Me and Mike, above)

March rolled around, and I was allowed to go back to school for half days. In the time that I was out, a new girl came to our school - Trish. My best friend had become friends with her. Upon my return, we formed our little group. She was even able to join the cheer leading squad for the rest of the season. A new guy had also come to our school mid-year. I met him at a party in March...a party that I was at without Mike. Uh oh.

Jim was very nice, and I just fell right in love with him. I had to break it off with Mike, which was not an easy task. But...I just knew it was the right thing to do. Our little group of friends was quickly growing. We were all sixteen, and we thought that we were invincible. Me, Trish, Eleni.....Jim, Todd, Chris, Pete, Brian......there were more. Every weekend, like clockwork, we would gather at The Lake....it was a park that was right next to the Bronx River Parkway in Bronxville, NY. We would have a boom box, and beer. We would party until midnight...my curfew. REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity was huge that year, and we rocked to Don't Let Him Go, Take It On The Run, and Keep On Lovin' You. We played air guitar to The Stroke by Billy Squier and Tom Sawyer by Rush. Nothing could touch us....

Of course, relationships began and ended. Our little group would have been considered incestuous if we had all been related, because we broke up and dated each others boyfriends/girlfriends. But it was ok....we were fine with it. As long as we were with who made us happy at the time, nothing else mattered.

My parents were extremely unhappy during this time. They considered Trish "wild" and the group that I hung out with "uncontrollable". I was the only one with a curfew. My parents were "the enemy". They checked my eyes when I would arrive home, to see if they were red. Had I been smoking pot? Was I drunk?

There was one unfortunate evening that came about after my mother read my diary. She claims that I left it open, on my desk in my room, for her to purposely read (which is so far from the truth). In the meantime, I was out....with Trish, Brian and Peter at Peter's house. Peter was my boyfriend at the time. We were up in Peter's room, listening to Kansas's Leftoverture album (I will never forget it) and Trish looks out the window and said "Uh oh, Missy...its your dad!" My dad drove a bright yellow VW bug...everyone knew that car and who drove it. We went downstairs. My dad grabbed me by the arm and drug me to the car, threw me in, and drove home. Apparently, what I had written in the private pages of my diary angered my parents immensely. While the heated argument was going on, Trish called. I told her to come get me. My friends came...and I walked right out the front door to to them...they were more of a family to me at that time than my own parents.

Its funny how I can look back on that now, and think "What the hell were my parents trying to do?" I KNOW I didn't' leave my diary open. I loved my friends. Having them was so special to me...especially since I had spent my junior high years not being accepted by others at my school. I finally had a group of friends who accepted for who I was. I wasn't an outcast anymore. I felt that my parents were trying to take that away from me.

1981 was one of the best summers of my life. It was short-lived, but memorable.

Eleni, Me and Trish 1981