Dear Teacher in Bed before Dark,
There was a time in my life when Friday night was for partying. And by partying, I am, of course, referring to slumber partying in the 90s.
As soon as that last school bell rang for the day, there was FUN to be had. We were some wild ones, I tell ‘ya. My best friend’s older sister drove us to the local Tom Thumb in her blue Camaro. The windows were tinted which allowed us to covertly scout out cute boys who wouldn’t have noticed us if we had been stripped naked, slathered in peanut butter, and set on fire, but in our adolescent fantasy world they were just as in love with us as we were with them.
Back at the house, we gathered around the stereo system (yeah I said it) and waited for the call-in radio station to play “It Matters to Me,” by Faith Hill. My teenage friends can attest that it really, really mattered to us. After the pizza with pineapple arrived and we had downed 14 two liter bottles of Coke, it was time for pajamas and truth or dare.
Any person who picked truth was a weenie.
Any person who picked dare was destined for humiliation.
We stayed up all night long. For the life of me, I don’t know how we did it, but I am so glad it happened without a single cell phone in hand.
Being in my fourth decade of life has me now wondering what our teachers were doing on Friday nights while we were out there painting the town red. I think maybe they were in bed like I am right now.
Do teenage girls even have slumber parties anymore? I truly don’t know.
If so, I think some of that foolishness could be cured with a stack of research papers for each of them to grade and a set of snotty, toddlers who are not potty-trained.
But then again, maybe I have simply turned into a weenie with age.
If I am going to be labeled a weenie anyway, I might as well ask some soul-searching truths instead of concocting a list of killer dares. So, here goes….
1) Are you in your pajamas before 7 p.m. too?
2) What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done at a slumber party?
3) If you could pick one boy to love for the rest of your life, who would it be?
4) Did your life turn out better or worse than you thought it would?
5) If you could stay up until 2 a.m. again, what would you want to do?
If you’re at all curious about my truths, they are as follows:
1) Yes
2) Naked, peanut butter, fire
3) The one I have
4) Better
5) Have another slumber party with four of my closest friends
Your turn. How would you answer?
-CDB