by Barb, in Maine where we’re having a rainy July (so far)
Continuing with our theme of Hangouts & Hideaways, Wickeds where was your high school hangout? The convenience across from the school? The mall? Under the bleachers? Tell us about it and what shenanigans you got up to if you dare!
Edith/Maddie: I remember a lot happening on and under the bleachers of my high school’s football field. Friday night games were a Very Big Deal in my little suburb east of Los Angeles. Everybody went. There was always a “Fifth Quarter” dance in the gym afterward (dancing to In a Gadda Da Vida under a spinning light ball, with Julie Krug reputed to be wearing no underpants…). And under the bleachers when I was in ninth grade, Dave Roth somehow thought it was a romantic overture to snap my bra in back. Now I might consider that abusive. At the time? I wanted all the experiences, all the shenanigans – and it never went further than that, anyway.
Julie: The Hanover Mall in junior high, Downtown Annapolis or my parents’ basement in high school. And there was a lot of driving and coordinating to get something–like a Slurpee. I was a wicked nerd in high school, so no shenanigans for me. In fact, I skipped school once and had lunch at the mall with my friend Paula. I was such a wreck I confessed that night, and my father wrote me a note.
Liz: The mall, totally! The old Methuen Mall in my hometown was THE place to be on Friday nights. If you were going to meet up with a guy, that was usually the place to do it. I remember setting up my best friend with another friend of mine for the prom, and we arranged to meet at the mall with our respective posses to gauge the situation. I usually had to lie about going and pretend I was somewhere else, and then hope no one told my parents.
Jessie: Like Julie and Liz, I am going to have to go with the mall too! I spent a lot of hours there before I was old enough to have a driver’s license shopping with my sisters and my friends. As soon as I turned sixteen I spent most of my free time there working at a variety of clothing shops.
Barb: In summers in high school, it was the parking lot of the Dairy Queen. The cops would show up every once in a while and we would break into smaller groups and walk around the block, arriving back as soon as they left. Looking back, I feel bad for the poor guy who owned the franchise, who was just trying to make a living. On the other hand, we never interfered with customers that I remember and I ate more than my fair share of Dilly Bars. Our town was small enough it seemed you couldn’t get away with anything, and my parents were duly informed by some busybody driving down the main drag when I puffed on my first Winston there.
Sherry: I can’t imagine you smoking, Barb! We hung out at a place called The Barn after high school games. It was part convenience store but it also had food. It was the place to see and be seen.
Readers: What about you? Where was your high school hang? Any notable shenanigans (that you’re willing to tell us about?)
I remember some minor shenanigans, but I’m taking those memories to my grave! As for hangouts, I lived too far out in the country and was too much of a geek to spend much time at the mall or in town, both of which required my folks driving me there. Or maybe I’m blocking it all out! Amnesia!
Having your folks drive you. The worst!
We spent a lot of time at Eat n’ Park or Denny’s (coffee and bear claws at E n’ P, the Super Bird at Denny’s). Sometimes we’d skip first period and get coffee at a store/restaurant called the Village Dairy (commonly known as the VD). A friend’s mother went to bingo every other Friday, so there was always a party at her house. We’d drink bad beer and listen to albums by Elton John, America, and I can’t remember who else. Most of the time though, I spent at home reading books by Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, etc.
Meet me at the VD! Your parents must have loved that.
I lived in a small town and went to a regional high school so there wasn’t much for us teenagers to do. We would hang out at each others houses and sometimes the local pizza joint. The church would have Friday night dances and I would go to those when I felt like it. None of the boys ever asked me to dance. Silly boys!!
Boys. Honestly.
The town we lived in during my teenage years had two A&W driving ins. Since you couldn’t just park and take up space, we would drive from one cruise through and then drive to the other. Then if we wanted to stop for a while, one person would order something small to be a paying customer allowing us to park for a while and visit with others. Texarkana is a twin state city with half in AR and half in TX so cruising down State Line was popular where you taunted the other side. During the rivalry football game state line usually got very rowdy as you can imagine.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
It sounds like a scene from American Graffiti.
I went to an “away” school. Although I was a commuter student, school was 40 miles from my home so not too much time for hanging out when my mom was waiting outside as my ride. The school hangout was a diner in Upper Montclair named Temmel’s. If we had play rehearsal, or I was spending time with friends who were townies – that was where we went after classes.
Shenanigans? Well, it was an all-girl school so that limited things a bit. Part of our detention was attending dances at West Point – we were bused and carefully chaperoned, but there are those walks along the Hudson. I think my entire high school learned to kiss at West Point. Those boys may have been on their way to becoming officers, but they were trying very hard to forget to be gentlemen!
One of our biggest rebellions was skipping school and taking the bus to NYC. It was the 1960s so a lot was going on, especially in the Village. It was not unusual for us to call in sick from the only pay phone on campus – outside the principal’s office. We became quite adept at changing from our uniforms to jeans and peasant blouses in the rest room of the Port Authority Terminal and stashing our gear in a locker. We were almost caught once when we ran into one of the nuns in the terminal. I’m sure she knew what was going on, we told her we had emergency doctor’s appointments, but she also knew kids would be kids.
Taking the bus to the Port Authority in the 1960s! I remember it well. I had moved from Montclair by then but would take the bus from northeast PA and meet up with friends. My grandparents had an apartment on East 36th street that was sometimes vacant…
Hey, Barb~
Just popped in to say I am also from northeast PA. Small world! I love my bus trips to the city!
My family moved to Kingston PA when I was in seventh grade. My brother and his wife still live in Dallas, PA.
Nice! A bit west from me. I’m right up against NJ. I’m considered the Lehigh Valley- Northampton and Lehigh Counties. I’m right by Lehigh and Moravian Universities. Bethlehem.
I love everything about this!
Edith/Maddie – under the bleachers was indeed the place to hang out. You and Dave is now an image I’ll see in my mind all day. Ick.
Ick, indeed, Tina!
I was a super nerd. I never hung out anywhere and never got up to any shenanigans. If I was at the mall, it was to see a movie and we left immediately after.
Wow. That is quite impressive, even among all us nerds.
I saved my shenanigans for college. 🙂
There weren’t too many shenanigans over here in PA. We had the usual football game, mall, and movie/ diner hangouts. We’d hit the usual haunts, but I was one of the “bad” girls smoking in the bathroom (in the 80s) So, the days of smoking at school were over. Well, getting away with it, anyway. I rated my dates on the gum scale. Will it be a Chicklet or a Hubba Bubba? How long will I be dating THIS one, in other words. LOL!
What fun to read these! Alas, I was a library nerd … I didn’t get into shenanigans until college, when the world opened up around me. So I’m relying on your recollections!
College shenanigans are the best shenanigans.
I didn’t really hang out anywhere in high school. Never went to sports games. I guess you could say I hung out at youth group.
Youth group–a definite hang.
School clubs and Junior Achievement were my usual spots, with an occasional movie. My senior year there were a few school dances and dinners with a beau, but mostly study, study, study because Dad told me from kindergarten that if I wanted to be a teacher, I’d need a scholarship. 😉
I kept myself in the library, because I did not want to get into trouble, so the Library was a safe place in HS. I always heard of kids ditching and going to some lake near the school, and up to this day 40 something years after graduating HS, I still have no idea where that place is. So I was safe in the Library.