Monday, March 16, 2009
Rockin' it old school
So today I was at Kmart buying cat food (recurring theme in my life) and was behind a guy who reeked of Polo. Suddenly, I was transported to Bayridge, Brooklyn, 1987...
Back my senior year of HS some of my friends and I really took advantage of the fact that we lived so close to NYC and started going into the city as often as possible. At the time, I believe it was around 6 dollars on the bus, and the bus stop was an easy to walk to location centrally located in my town. I have many many happy memories of riding that bus. Going into the city was always full of the most amazing feeling of anticipation...anything could happen! And usually did...
St. Patrick's Day parade one year 2 of my best friends cut school and went in for the parade. (Sadly, I was still too hung up on rules to have had the nerve to go too) They met some guys from Bayridge and that's when the start of the Jersey Girls invading Brooklyn began...
If I recall correctly, the first weekend we didn't go to Brooklyn, but somehow convinced one of these guys (who we called "Guido" even though his name was Mike) to pay for us to get a room at the Marriott Marquis. I have sketchy memories of this weekend, but the ones I have are great. I told my mom I was going to spend the weekend with my friend Missy, who I was tight with till 3rd grade till she moved to another town. We had reconnected once we had driver's licenses. My mom always was cool with me hanging with her since she remembered her as the Brownie in my Girl Scout troop. Little does she know that the first time I ever got drunk was with Missy...
Anyway, the fact that she lived out of town made her the perfect alibi for our NYC excursions... So this weekend at the Marriott was, as they say, "off the hook"! We drank many wine coolers (yes, it was the 80's) and kissed boys. Good times were had by all... With or Without You is the song that brings me back to that moment...
Another time we went in we were only planning to go in for the evening, using the lie "movie and shopping at the mall". We missed the last bus home (which it scares me to admit I remember was at 10:10) and were screwed. One friend called home and said we found Mary's prom dress and went to Weehawkin to show her grandmother the dress and were going to spend the night. FYI, our Grandmother never lived in Weehawkin and hand been dead for 4 years.. Mary and I each called our respective moms and said we were staying at Carries, for the same reason. I think they bought it that time... We ended up walking around the city all night long. We spent some time in a 24 hour burger king and caught some zzz's in Port Authority too before catching the 6:30am bus home. I think to this day that stands as one of my most memorable adventures. "Heaven on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle brings me back to this time...
Soon after we actually ventured into Brooklyn. We thought we were so cool! We'd hang at the bball courts and drink beers. We'd sit on the stoop and drink beers. We'd chill up the alley and drink beers. You get the idea. Whodini's "One Love" brings me back to that moment so vividly I am almost drunk again. I downloaded that tonight :) Along with "Friends" and Newcleus's "Jam On It". I am listening now and flashing back in a big way...
There was one weekend we spent the whole time in the city that we were busted in a big way. At that time my best friend was my cousin, Mary- my mom's sister's daughter. We decided that our lie du weekend would be that we were going to Hofstra for the weekend. I had been accepted to attend in the fall. We came up with crazy details on this lie. We used the name of a girl we both had gone to camp with in 5th grade as who we were staying with. We said she was a theatre major doing a production of "Glass Menagerie" and that we would be hanging at rehearsals and thusly unavailable (I wrote my Junior Thesis on this play, knew it upside down and backwards in case quizzed on it). I forget the other details but we had them iron clad. We felt we were totally safe. Yeah but no... one of our mom's called Hofstra, determined there was no production of Glass Menagerie going on, no student with the name we gave and that we were full of shit. I surprisingly can remember being at a phone booth with Mary talking to our mom's on a three way connection and digging deeper and deeper graves. Good times. Very grounded when I returned home, but worth every moment.
Eventually we got bored with our Brooklyn boys, about the same time I graduated HS. But those memories will always stand as some of my best HS memories- even though they took place in another state completely.
And as I am here listening to Whodini I am transported to kissing cute boys, drinking beers at the courts, and thinking I am so freaking cool nobody can touch me :)
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I love this story! I was frightened of going to "the city" back then, I don't think I went by myself until after I was out of high school. Don't you love how a single song can bring so many things back, and can mean anything to anyone? I think that you mentioned that "Heartache Tonight" by the Eagles has bad connotations for you? Whenever I hear that song, I think of being 9 and camping at Round Valley with my dad, eating baked beans and Spam sandwiches by the fire (these are GOOD connotations, just wanted to point that out). Music is place, right? ;) How's that going btw?
I was (probably stupidly) never afraid of the city. It was/is such a magical place to me with such an amazing energy. If I could, I would love to live there for a while...
Yup, Heartache Tonight = bad. Glad for you it's a happy memory though.
Music is definitely place.