Megan's Blog City Journal

Turning 17

Prompt: Was it a very good year when you turned seventeen? Tell us what happened that year.

I was in high school. Dad was in Viet Nam. Mom and I lived with her parents on a farm. I was in Drama Class, Plays, working towards Thespian Society which I achieved the next year. I was in Miss Indiana Teen-Ager Pageant. I won a plaque for being a State Finalist.

Smiley faces were in. David Cassidy was America's heart throb and I was in love with him. I wore short skirts, platform shoes, snake shaded stuff, peace sign chokers. Nixon was President and Watergate started. The Viet Nam War ended before the summer of 1973.

I went to the Prom with a guy who was attending Notre Dame University. I was trying to be with the neighbor guy down the road who was my first love. He never married anyone but he kept my high school picture in his wallet and took it out when he was in his forties. I had a boyfriend for a couple of months that I talked into coming back to school. He was a jerk.

I loved going to high school dances and basketball games. I had friends I hung out with. We went to a Beer Party once in the woods at a deserted house. I got in trouble because a guy took me home and three of my girlfriends were with us. I had one too many. I got caught smoking in the Bath Tub. These were the only two times I got in trouble in school except when Mom dropped my eyeliner brush down the sink and I kicked her in the leg.

I was taking American History, Drama, Creative Writing, Choir and English. I got A's in these classes. I loved listening to Alice Cooper and other 70's music. I wrote some stories and poems for Drama Class. I hated Typing Class and Bookkeeping. I got B's and a C in these.

Dad sent me dolls from Viet Nam, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, a sapphire ring and a pearl ring. He wrote Mom and I all the time. We wrote to him. He sent us post cards from the Asian countries.

Grandma took me to a lot of country and western shows. I saw Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins, Porter Wagner, Dolly Patron, Mac Davis, Junior Sample, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, JR, Buck Owens, Ralph Emery, Lynn Anderson and I was good friends with Bobby Harden of the Harden Trio when my parents and I lived in Tennessee. His sister Arlene Harden was a singer, too. You can find their music on You Tube. I got their autographs except for Dolly and Porter Wagner.

That was my year when I turned seventeen.

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