I did have other friends, but this core group are ones I have maintained connection with through the years.
You might say I was a bit of a snob, one saving grace in my mind was refusing to be any part of Jr. League. I didn’t denounce anyone else for joining, but it was not in my wheelhouse and I felt a bit of pressure to be the Jr. League kind of a girl. I stepped away further from that focus by becoming a bit of a hippy in my twenties. I could milk a goat, raised chickens, catch and clean fish, pluck and dress a turkey, process a deer, raise all my own veggies, as well as live with an outhouse, a potbelly wood stove and only cold spring water. To take a shower I would stand on a chopping block and dump warmed teakettle water over my head.
I feel as though I ‘lived’ at church during my high school years with lots of Youth Group activities master minded by The Serg. Sports were huge in our town so weekends were about football, hockey, and basketball. Being from my family and a white, middleclass, conservative town, knowing how to ballroom dance was a must so from 3rd grade through high school I went to dancing school. I loved modern dance and was in the chorus for several theater productions, I was a cheerleader and participated in gymnastics. It was an extra treat to get to go out in the courtyard during lunch hour to work on the equipment (beam, trampoline, uneven bars) in the open air. I wasn’t too political at that point in my life, but many were; that came later for me. My high school years were fairly carefree.
The basement of our home was a haven. With six kids in the family, rather close in ages so we shared many friends and spent many hours either messing around down in the basement (TV, piano, pool table, bongo board, cards) or out by the pool.
‘My people’ were all part of these groups and we crossed paths in activities regularly. We weren’t a clique, but friends who had shared experiences, friends who could support one another even if we weren’t on the same path. Our home lives were a mass of contradictions, giving us all a good look at ways to ‘do life’ as a family unit. I certainly carried these lessons with me as my life changed and because less about me and more about others. We were a unique bunch… strict with consequences, free and easy, lots of kids, only child, encouraged to work, discouraged to work, quiet, roudy; we all need friends, we need to feel a part of ‘community’. My family and my high school friends were that for me.
Now, almost 50 years later, I still continue to count these strong, curious, brave and independent ladies as friends. Our paths have been enormously different, but once away from the confines of high school and social peer pressure, we have taken joy in one another’s accomplishments. These friends gifted me then and continue to now.