Teenagers across Iowa
Over the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore year's of High School, a good friend of mine moved to Iowa, the other side of Iowa. Keeping in mind that this was before the Internet and cell phones, we were still just kids, we did manage to keep in touch with the guy and my whole group of friends missed him.
Through the course of the Sophomore year, I somehow got on the hardest diet you could imagine: a bottle of Squirt soda and a king-sized Snickers bar was the breakfast/lunch of choice. At the time I was working a paper route from 5am-6am, working for the school cafeteria 6am-8am, then rushing over to go to school at 8:20. I would stop at some gas station on the way, grab the chosen "meal" and then head on to school. After school I worked another hour at the High School Cafeteria, then off to afterschool activities, then off to work 5pm to 9 or so most nights. The evening job was usually concessions of some sort, so there was food available there as well, so it wasn't like I didn't eat, I just never made time to eat.
That same fall there were two cases of students in my High School being bitten by Brown Recluse spiders, one of which was a very popular guy and pretty serious. School was even shut down for fumigation.
I also had progressed through a couple more cars that fall, a '79 Datsun 620 pickup, '83 Toyota Tercel 4WD station wagon, '66 Dodge Dart 4-door, '69 Ford Econoline, and finally a '78 Toyota Corolla by Spring Break.
How does all this fit together? Well here goes:
The school had been fumigated over holiday break, and still another student was bitten. The decision was made to fumigate again over spring break, this time with all the lockers and desks and everything throughout the school open. This, in turn, meant all the lockers had to be emptied out. By Spring Break the collection of glass Squirt bottles in the bottom of my locker had reached 200+ in # and was still growing. While SD didn't have bottle deposits, Iowa did, and all the bottles were marked for Iowa deposit refund. They were loaded in to the back of the Corolla, all 6 paper bags worth, and the whole group of us decided to meet up with our friend half-way across IA and bring him back for the break. His Mom drove his half, and I drove mine. We lucked out, because at a nickel a piece for the bottles and 97 cents a gallon for gas we were able to fund the entire excursion on Squirt bottles.
Imagine, if you will, four 16-year olds, loaded into an old car, driving on free gas, half-way across Iowa. Sure, the car didn't have enough power to get us up any hills at over 40mph, that wasn't going to stop us from passing everyone we could going down the other side of the hill pedal to the floor! One poor guy in particular played hopscotch with us for over an hour, passing us going up, and getting passed by us going down the hundreds of hills on HWY 20 in western Iowa. He was a great sport about it, and we all waved our happy waves at each passing. I think how angry I would be now f a car load of kids did that to me and I wish I knew when and how I changed. How some things sure have changed.
It was an excellent spring break, too. Great time for all of us, and a couple great trips half-way across Iowa.
Through the course of the Sophomore year, I somehow got on the hardest diet you could imagine: a bottle of Squirt soda and a king-sized Snickers bar was the breakfast/lunch of choice. At the time I was working a paper route from 5am-6am, working for the school cafeteria 6am-8am, then rushing over to go to school at 8:20. I would stop at some gas station on the way, grab the chosen "meal" and then head on to school. After school I worked another hour at the High School Cafeteria, then off to afterschool activities, then off to work 5pm to 9 or so most nights. The evening job was usually concessions of some sort, so there was food available there as well, so it wasn't like I didn't eat, I just never made time to eat.
That same fall there were two cases of students in my High School being bitten by Brown Recluse spiders, one of which was a very popular guy and pretty serious. School was even shut down for fumigation.
I also had progressed through a couple more cars that fall, a '79 Datsun 620 pickup, '83 Toyota Tercel 4WD station wagon, '66 Dodge Dart 4-door, '69 Ford Econoline, and finally a '78 Toyota Corolla by Spring Break.
How does all this fit together? Well here goes:
The school had been fumigated over holiday break, and still another student was bitten. The decision was made to fumigate again over spring break, this time with all the lockers and desks and everything throughout the school open. This, in turn, meant all the lockers had to be emptied out. By Spring Break the collection of glass Squirt bottles in the bottom of my locker had reached 200+ in # and was still growing. While SD didn't have bottle deposits, Iowa did, and all the bottles were marked for Iowa deposit refund. They were loaded in to the back of the Corolla, all 6 paper bags worth, and the whole group of us decided to meet up with our friend half-way across IA and bring him back for the break. His Mom drove his half, and I drove mine. We lucked out, because at a nickel a piece for the bottles and 97 cents a gallon for gas we were able to fund the entire excursion on Squirt bottles.
Imagine, if you will, four 16-year olds, loaded into an old car, driving on free gas, half-way across Iowa. Sure, the car didn't have enough power to get us up any hills at over 40mph, that wasn't going to stop us from passing everyone we could going down the other side of the hill pedal to the floor! One poor guy in particular played hopscotch with us for over an hour, passing us going up, and getting passed by us going down the hundreds of hills on HWY 20 in western Iowa. He was a great sport about it, and we all waved our happy waves at each passing. I think how angry I would be now f a car load of kids did that to me and I wish I knew when and how I changed. How some things sure have changed.
It was an excellent spring break, too. Great time for all of us, and a couple great trips half-way across Iowa.
posted by Stephen at 5:26 PM
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