I don’t know why this popped into my mind as a blog topic on a writerly, bookish blog, but it did, so I’m going with it.

Here are the memories that surfaced first (and remember, these memories are close to 60 years old):

1.  The student who brought peach Schnapps to school and got caught. I’m pretty sure he isn’t on social media much, if at all, so hopefully he doesn’t see this. He is one of my good friends who’ve stayed in touch over the years. The others weren’t quite so rebellious.
2. The guy who bounced when he did the Lindy Hop. He was cute though. And he grew up to be a very handsome guy, and musical too.
3. The girl who was so brilliant in math class she made me want to cry.
4. The group of girls (including me) who dressed up in white shirts and black slacks and did a choreographed performance of “St. Louis Blues” for entertainment for one of our dances. I think we were a big hit (at least that’s the way I remember it).
5. The group that dressed up like hillbillies and performed “Doing What Comes Naturally” for a talent show. If my memory serves correctly, we were brilliant.
6. The day I got sick at school and a friend loaned me her very nice sweater because I was chilled…..and I threw up on the sweater.
7. The day my English teacher gave me back the poem I’d written and told me I should consider being a writer…(I think about this a lot because I suspect she would be horrified I chose crime fiction over poetry and literary works).
8. The one time in four years I tried to skip a class (gym) and was so dumb I skipped with a bunch of girls and we only went to the greasy spoon diner near the school and probably gorged ourselves on greasy fries. And yes, we got in trouble for it, but I can’t remember the punishment.
9. The time I tried out for a play and won the part of Penny in “You Can’t Take It With You” senior year. I have zero recollection of the performance. For all I know, I stood frozen on the stage while everyone recited my lines for me. My husband was in that play as well but probably remembers his lines perfectly, even now. (Yes, we met in high school, never dated, didn’t see each for 25 years after graduation, then met again and got married…and we recently celebrated our 30th anniversary).
10. The school I attended was the lab school for the University of Illinois, and many of the students were so smart they took 7th and 8th grade in one year. I went in as a normal freshman and I received top notch grades. However, the majority of the other students received “top-notcher” grades than I did, forcing me and my good grades into the bottom half of the class.  Now that’s the thing that makes me think of writers and writing. Some of us produce some pretty darned good stories, but there’s a bunch of authors out there who produce “gooder” stories, and so there we are, still swimming around in the lower half of the class. Just like high school.

Okay, that’s enough of that nonsense. I knew we’d somehow end up talking about writing and the writing life. If you’re a writer who feels as though you’re down here in the bottom half with me, care to join me for a glass of whine…or maybe we should try the peach Schnapps?