Got a message from a friend from grade school/jr. high. We've been in touch since the 20th reunion. I didn't go back in person, but people were reaching out to each other. We've stayed in touch, intermittently via email. She's always been a good egg, I don't know if I've ever been as good a friend to her. We were not in the same classes in high school, so we drifted then. She was the one to tell me my HS bully, one of them, wanted to apologize. I'd honestly forgotten, chalked it up to bully's bad homelife, left it all behind. Still, it was good to hear.
The 40th post graduation year is next year, and the organizing has begun. I won't be going, but I want to know how they're doing. The obituary list is disturbing. About 1/10th of my graduating class is dead.
I knew about my (completely unrequited) crush's cancer death not long after graduation. And the friend who became a homicide detective, murdered while investigating Detroit gangs. Two friends, who died sometime later I had not heard about. We aren't that old that so many should have died of natural causes.
And then there is the 'joke-boyfriend.'
I think it was 8th grade, and one guy who never spoke to me before, and I had no interest in, laid it on thick one Friday. "Be my girlfriend! C'mon, we can go steady!" All day long. I blanked him, ignored it all as irrelevant teasing. Didn't deign to answer at all, with so much as a word or a look. Over the weekend, I began to wonder if, well, maybe he meant it. Irrational, but it soothed my loneliness. On Monday, I watched for him, willing to give it a go, why not. But he was back to ignoring me. My first impression, that it was a joke, or a dare, had been right. Flirt with the class goat, the odd, awkward, swot, crybaby. Even the smarmy smoker of my class wouldn't want me. My heart hardened. At least he didn't keep up the joke. And I trusted my gut had told me right, and I trusted it more.
Mostly because it was only one day, and my reaction was effective, I didn't hold it against him. Valuable lesson, too. Never trust the effusive salesmen, give them nothing to grasp.
I hope he got it out of his system and became a good human.
3 comments:
I've lost touch with all those from school and most of those from Art College. Cycling has kept a lot,and fb has helped.
Having a husband who dumped an address book and a box of penpal letters did not help..he is now ex- .
Sometimes I envy those who stayed put. I've moved well over 30 times in 66 years....
There was a lot of reconnecting around my 20th high school reunion in 2005. We scattered and only a few of my classmates remain in the area. Los Alamos, NM is a weird place to be from.
I'm glad you can remember having your defenses proved correct. Although it's too bad they were needed.
I mostly didn't keep in touch, and even that was sparse. But when the 20 year mark appeared along with the internet, there were light connections.
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