11 January 2013

when i think about seventeen ...

Ever hear a song that takes you right back to high school?
{usually mine's a rap song, natch}

I ain't gone lie, I had fun in high school.
Possibly more fun than college, although college was definitely magical.
 {Don't worry, I ain't tryin' to ruin nobody's life or marriage, so I carefully chose photos for this post - anything that still looks questionable, I got permission for.}

I went to a high school in a small NC town {only public high school in the county at the time},
where everybody got along for the most part.
There may have been the occasional suspension for slappin' somebody in the face, but nothin' crazy.

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For me, high school was afternoon trips to Bojangle's {if i didn't have to babysit}
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wastin' way to much gas ridin' up and down the boulevard 
{with the windows rolled down just enough to seem mysterious if i was with somebody whose parent got them tinted windows, that is. me and the honda? naw}

jeans from
express

wantin' a wardrobe like the chicks in Coyote Ugly
coyote

rap music as loud as it would go
rap
too much DMD
... like 2 or 3 cans a day. Whattup, Mrs. White?!
 (I was her T.A. in 4th period and we drank the hell out of some DMD from the teacher's lounge.)
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too much Jack Daniels Downhome punch
{and the occasional Smirnoff Ice - woof!}

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deciphering pager codes.  
yep, you read right. everybody had a pager. no, we weren't drug dealers. 
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mud-slingin' in Toyota trucks
{and every boy I knew had one of those gel air fresheners - berry, coolwater}
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Carhartt

Timberland boots
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boys huntin' and talkin' about huntin'

football Fridays
{although I confess I never watched the games, I mostly wanted to dance to the drum music}

bonfires, house parties, sometimes mud ones
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takin' a whole lot of shots {insulin ones. because I ate all the time, and this was pre-pump}
did scare the crap out of my boy Daniel one time though, because he thought i was doin' heroin in the back of his truck. sorry bout that.

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and my beloved Honda, Tawanda
Tawanda was my homegirl.
She has heard so much rap, inhaled so much dust from the windows bein' down on a dirt road,
saw so many rounds of Popeye ...
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I love this picture, because it just shows how carefree life was then. And it gets you to thinkin', how much of 'adult' stress can we help? A lot of it, we can't. But, I'm sure as hell tryin' to eliminate and avoid as much of it as possible. Life's too short, friends.
One of my very best friends in high school was a guy, and the girls that I was close with weren't the 'mean girl/bitchy/jealous' types, so most of my high school life was way too much fun, and pretty drama-free.

I remember one time, my friend's nerves were so toe up over a dude that she threw her tea up first thing in the mornin'. Ain't that crazy? Wastin' a good Bojangle's tea over a dude! I think most of us have been there - maybe not throwin' up, but thinkin' you gone die over his ass.
Thank God for livin' and learnin'.

And I thought I'd met the love of my life, {at least twice}. 
They say you never get over your first love. Hmm ... I'd say your first love leaves a mark, and it's different than any other because, duh, you never been hit over the head with it before. It's fun, it's exciting, it's hot. You are naive.
But you grow up, and you realize all the reasons why it would never have worked.
And if you are lucky, you meet someone that is clearly made for you.

High school was cozy for me, because it was a small town, and our group of friends was so tight knit. And though there was more than one "group", we all meshed well, I think.
There won't shit to do in our tiny town. So, we always ended up in bigger towns nearby for restaurants, the mall, the movies.
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But, we typically ended up back at somebody's house.
Every weekend. All weekend, nights anyway. All of us. Together.
And I loved that.

I think if I could go back for a month, and come back to my life now, and have everything turn out just as it has now, I would.
Would you?

15 comments:

KayLynn said...

Lord woman now you have me wanting to go back to high school - just for a little bit.

Anonymous said...

AHHHHH! How fun! (Oh, and thank goodness for Jazzercise! Yikes!) This makes me smile! It is so sad that kids don't enjoy high school anymore because of drama. I LOVED high school! And college! And, right now is the best of the best, but still high school was awesome!!!! And, I would so mud wrestle right now. (Well, ya know, if I wasn't all knocked up. :)
XOXO!
Stacey

Emma said...

i love this post so much! not sure if i would go back, but i did have some amazing times... love those high school pics!

-Emma
chasingtexas.blogspot.com

Tracy said...

Probably best that Mama didn't know just how much fun you were having...

SHUG IN BOOTS {Beth} said...

Yeahhhh, probably so! :) All's well that ends well.

Meredith @ Barbell Wardrobe said...

pager, boots, underwear...necessities. i laugh because you have an eat beef sign in the back of your cars seat and cry because i had one and john deere tag on a camry.

my po-dunk high schools town only had a bo-jo's and a gas station that served hotdogs and ice cream.

kayla said...

So much fun! Makes me nostalgic for my high school days :)

Southern Sass said...

Oh fun post! I just might have to do a throwback post soon.

Always in a Southern State of Mind said...

Bo-haannn-geles!

Fun post!

Unknown said...

I so agree!!!

Brooke said...

LOL, I played the same music in High School! I remeber getting "The Chronic" CD, I thought it was so cool!

I would never want to go back to High School, It sucked for me! Plus, I partyed too much! Made a lot of bad decsions! Guess that is just part of growing up!

=) "So just chill, till the next episode" Remeber that song?

Suze said...

Oh my gosh, the PAGERS!! Lol, I recently had to EXPLAIN PAGERS to my kids- they had nooo idea. Too funny!

I loved that music too- haha, so hardcore.

This was such a fun post! I love it!

Julie said...

This post made me feel like I know you! Now I wanna go back to high school...
great carefree picture of you by the car!

Aleshea said...

I was just talking with friends about how much fun we had in HS and would we do it over again. Y'all sure had a lot if fun. The pagers were hilarious.

SMD @ lifeaccordingtosteph said...

I probably would, just to experience some of those things for a little while. And then come back to now.

I loved this post! It made me think backwards fondly.