THREE FRIENDS AND THEIR ESCAPADES

When I first went to school, Mother walked with me on the opening day. There was no kindergarten in those days, we just jumped right into grade one. I remember that we went the longer and more traffic filled route so we could arrive at the front of Woodmont School instead of the back.

On the way we met two other first grade girls, Judy and Janice, walking with their mothers, also. This meeting would be the first of many for us because our friendship has lasted throughout our lifetimes. We would spend many happy hours together, and --- many times get into trouble for them.

Judy and Janice lived next door to each other about two blocks from my house and right on my way to school (the back way). We visited back and forth, spent nights with each other, and attended the Happiness Club together. Sometimes it was two of us or other times all three. All of us were involved in the smoking incidents that I have mentioned before when we would “borrow” a pack of Home Runs from Judy’s father to enjoy for ourselves.

One time they were spending the night with me and when we climbed into bed, it collapsed. We honestly didn’t do anything to break it, like jumping on it, but with our past history, I’m not sure Mother ever believed it. Anyway, I got a new bed out of that incident that is now upstairs in our guest room.

Judy moved to Chattanooga in the sixth grade. Janice and I maintained our friendship and joined the same high school sorority. That way we still managed to see each other even though she went to Harpeth Hall (a private girls’ school) and I went to Hillsboro. After high school, Judy’s family moved back to Nashville and we took up right where we had left off. She went to Vanderbilt, I went to Memphis State, and Janice went to Agnes Scott in Atlanta, but we all got together at holidays and during the summer.

It was during the summer just before I married the genius when the episode to top all others occurred. I had never been one to drink. I think I had had some alcohol on maybe two or three occasions, and because I was getting married soon, I wanted to have a night where I could really have some fun with the girls. (I guess I thought once I was a young matron, I would be too sedate for such behavior.) The opportunity for such a night soon presented itself when Judy’s parents were going out of town and leaving her there alone. So four of us (Barbara, another friend from high school and college, was in on it also) trooped over to Judy’s when the coast was clear.

We began the night by going to a liquor store in a part of town where we wouldn’t know anyone and sending Barbara in to buy the booze. She was the only one of us who was actually twenty-one, so the purchase was perfectly legal. She came back out with some bottles of cheap champagne, and we headed back to the house to have ourselves some party time. I suppose that for a while we had a good time giggling and having fun, but the thing I remember the most is how sick we all were. And the next morning the hangover was terrible! It was years before I would have anything to drink, so I guess something good came out of it, after all.

But the worst was yet to come. The next morning we cleaned everything up and made sure that the place looked all right, and Judy gathered up the bottles to throw away somewhere else. She was to get rid of the evidence on her way to school (she was still at Vandy). She decided rather than put them in a garbage can somewhere, to get out of the car and leave the sack on the side of the road. Two “well-meaning” ladies on their way to garden club saw her and took down the license plate number. Then unbeknownst to Judy, they got out and looked into the sack. I guess they thought there were kittens in there or something, but when they discovered empty champagne bottles, they called the police. This is the honest truth. And the police came!! The only way to understand their actions is to understand the fifties. The crime rate was not anywhere near what it is today, and something like leaving litter by the side of the road was important to those ladies.

Anyway, Judy’s parents of course learned what happened and they actually had to go to court and pay a small fine or something. Her record was kept clear, so there were no long term consequences. And my parents never found out, thank goodness. I had given them enough headaches through the years without adding THAT one to the list. A few weeks later I was married and I settled nicely into the role of wife and then mother.

Judy worked for American Airlines for a few years and then married and had three children. She later became quite successful selling real estate in Memphis and retired a year or two ago.

Janice went to work for IBM and went right up the corporate ladder. She ended up in NYC and took an early retirement like the genius did when IBM reorganized its huge company. A few years ago she married for the first time a widower with nine children, all grown and flown from the nest. She and her husband bought a condo in Nashville where they spend part of their time when they are not in NY or traveling.

The three of us still get together for dinner once or twice a year and have a great time reminiscing about all of our escapades, especially the last one.