And hopefully the final episode.
19. What was your first run-in with the law?
When I was a junior in college, I went to a local bar with a friend who had graduated the previous year and was in town for a visit. I didn’t have a fake ID on me. I think I didn’t have even a real ID on me at the time. This was not a problem in this particular bar, where we proceeded to get pleasantly sloshed on a surprisingly small amount of beer.
It was cold outside, and upon leaving the bar, we were struggling with our coats. One reason we could not get our coats on is we were laughing. Turns out we were laughing too hard to notice the cop approaching us.
While my friend fumbled with his driver’s license, the cop asked me how old I was. “Twenty-one!” He asked me my birth date. “<month> <day> nineteen-fifty-uuuuuuuuh.” I was too drunk to calculate what year I should have been born in order to be 21.
He wanted to know if we were driving. “No, sir.” Truth. We had walked over to the bar from a nearby party.
“Since you’re not driving, I’m going to let you two go this time,” the cop said, then looked me in the eye. “But next time, I’ll take you down to the station and we’ll find out how old you really are.”
20. When was your first detention?
First and only detention was in high school. I was a junior, a math geek with a math teacher I could not stand. No one could stand him, but my best friend claimed he had it out for her.
One day, she and I ditched school and rode the train downtown to go shopping. The next day, Bad Math Teacher asked my friend for her pass back into class. Of course, she had none. He did not ask me, though. After she left the classroom to report to the dean’s office, I sat there and seethed for about five minutes. Then, with total adolescent loyalty and self-righteous abandon, I stood up, told the teacher to go to hell, and stomped out of class.
To make a long story short, the administration seemed inclined to overlook my behaviour – this teacher had been a problem from day one and he was not going to be back the following year – but Bad Math Teacher would not be mollified. I had to apologize to him, after which he threw me out of his class. I was transferred to the class of a math teacher I really liked (big punishment), plus had to serve a week of detention.
The other kids in detention were surprised to see me. “What are you doing here?” Apparently, my little bit of celebrity had not leaked down to the masses yet.
I just realized something. I worked at the public library most afternoons. I don’t recall detention impacting my work schedule. Had I already quit for the summer by then? It’s a big blank.
21. What was the first state you lived in?
The same state I was born in – Ohio. I currently live in the state of denial.
22. Who was the first person to break your heart?
Hmmm. I’m not sure anyone ever “broke my heart”. Many relationships did not work out, but I don’t recall feeling brokenhearted about them. I’m still brokenhearted about Buddy, though, a stray cat my daughter brought back from college. He stole my heart, then was diagnosed with feline leukemia and tested positive for FIV. He was so sweet. I still miss him.
23. Who was your first roommate?
Judy. (This was before people started replacing -y with -i at the end of names.) I was a freshman and she a junior, having transferred in from a community college in order to be near her boy friend. We got along okay, more so the first year we roomed together, probably because she was gone most weekends, visiting the boy friend. They broke up, though, so our second year of forced cohabitation was not so smooth. She was in panic mode about graduation and studied constantly and was always there. I had become a hippie, smoking cigarettes (and worse!) By the time she graduated, we didn’t have much in common.
Someone once described Judy as “a very nice girl, but toys in her head.” and yet, she eventually married a doctor, bore him three kids, and now spends her leisure time skiing and playing golf and tennis.
24. Where did you go on your first limo ride?
It wasn’t a limo limo, but one time my dad hired a driver with a Town Car to take me to the airport so I could fly back to school. There must have been a reason he couldn’t/wouldn’t make the three-hour round trip to Logan and back, but I don’t remember.
WHEW! Done with this meme! Now I can resume my regular life.
