Drama and Maturity

School Mascots and Marching Team

Brace-free, while smiling with straight teeth, thinking I was "too big for my britches", as my father would say, I entered High School. This would be the mixing of old and new. My High School moved into a new building, but it was the city's namesake founded in 1881. So, the "River Rats" joined the old establishment, mixing the old with the new. I would be part of the first graduating class from the NEW Stephen F. Austin High School.

DRAMA
Looking back, I can say this was the year in which my peers became the most influential in my life. I wanted to be busy with friends all the time. I had a great advantage to get to know the high school boys from my church youth group when my Dad decided to coach the church basketball team. I was allowed to attend games, even if the rule was no dating until age 16, because my Dad would take me. This new team would draw boys to our church. My best friend would meet her "husband to be" this year (they just celebrated 30 years) and my future husband would play on the men's basketball team. Attending every church event revolved around my friends and the guys. The guys still talk about how they knew that if they touched me, my dad would come after them with a gun.  The other advantage of his being a coach was the guys would come to our house and my mom would fill them up with homemade donuts. So even in my naïve innocence, God had placed a protective boundary around me. I would be given the nickname "JC" at church, which is still used by these friends. Since I ran around with older youth, they all drove and my adventures went through the roof.

• Sunday afternoons were spent dreamy-eyed, watching the guys play football and then listening to them compare how big their strawberries (bruises) were
• Everyone would gather at the burger or pizza joint after church on Sunday night
• Spending the night with friends would bring opportunities for group gatherings….like stuffing ourselves in a phone booth and playing on a local swing set at the school
• Eating ice cream at the Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Shop...non-alcoholic daiquiri ice  made me think I was doing something risky
• Bras that fastened in the front….wow, was I "sexy"…only in my head!
• Movies – A Star is Born/ Jaws/ Rocky
• Music – Chicago/ Eagles/ BeeGees/ Barry Manilow
• Shop on Saturdays with my girlfriend and, because of babysitting, I would buy my first totally retail store outfit... I didn't have to sew it!!!

I would express myself in drama this year when the answer was "no" to all of my requests to be with the "group". I guess I wore my parents down because by the end of the year I was allowed to double date…by then, the boy I really liked wasn't interested. He had been my "boyfriend" for two long months, but this meant being together in a group and over the phone. I just thought I would die before I could date…wise parents with a too-big-for-her-britches daughter. I would express my "hormonal-induced" drama in my diary…oh my…my mother did survive. Maturity

School would bring the first-born leader characteristics into view. Since my neighborhood was supposed to go to another high school known for its state championship drill team, I was more than upset to enter a school with the original marching girls group still in knee-length skirts. I had watched from the bus stop for years when the drill team members left their homes in their uniforms for school. My best friend from church had just danced for her school drill team. With unwavering confidence, I decided to petition the principal with signatures, asking for a drill team to be established. I would speak directly to our principal with all the reasons for allowing the drill team to be formed. She agreed, with the understanding that there wouldn't be any school funding and I would have to find a sponsor. I found a sponsor and organized the first tryouts for the drill team by the end of the year with outside judges from other schools officiating. I tried out with a dance to "Sweet Gypsy Rose". So the "new" was bringing in their influence and the "old" wasn't sure how they felt. I would tryout for officer and became the first Captain for the Austin High Steppers. This would become my life at school….I would be very quiet in class with classmates, but would shine in my element. The summer would be spent preparing for the drill team's preliminary year. Choreographing dances and designing our uniforms, which I did, with the seamstress talent of my mom.

I would continue with youth choir and we would perform the musical "Alleluia" where my future husband would sing his first solo...which I don't remember!!

Our Nation would celebrate its 200^th Birthday and our youth group would travel to Dallas, Texas for a youth rally celebrating our Nation. I would meet my husband to be on this trip. Later I would write in my diary, "I met the greatest guy in the world." He and my mother would become counselors to for our youth trip to Glorietta. Even though there was almost seven years difference in our age, the youth leader, along with my mother, predicted that we would marry one day. Because of our age difference, he had to let me grow up…I thought of him as an older brother. I never remember life without him from then on.

Playing Cards with My Future Husband...Who Knew? 

Oh, even when I was allowed to double-date, I only had one offer. I would never get asked out from anyone at school or receive any invitations to parties…it was known that I didn't drink and I was in a drinking school. I would lead the drill team, but all social activities would revolve around church. Again, God in His mercy kept His hand on me and protected me against myself.


Thus was my school year of 1975 to 1976.


I am coming to the end of recording my youth with Mommy Piggy Tales. I hope this has inspired you to record your own memories!


(I am the one in the photo not looking at the camera)