Blog Prompt Thursday, June 15

What were you like as a teenager?

Average. Yep, just average, at least in my mind I was. But maybe not quite average, I called mom to get her input and what she said kind of topples me from the average list.

According to her I was more trouble for my dad than I was for her. Then again, dad really didn’t have much of a teenage life so he probably didn’t understand the species too well. But I did annoy him a lot. I remember every time I did, he would give me a talking to. He would make a fist and stick out his pointing and middle fingers and prod me on the upper arm. I hated it and most times would end up thinking about how much longer he was going to be prodding me, than actually listening to what he said. Which is why I would, almost inevitably, make the same mistake again. If I had just ignored the prodding and listened I probably wouldn’t have annoyed him nearly as much.

And according to mom, what set me apart from most kids was that I called, all the time. She always knew where I was going to be. I called if the location changed. I called if I was going to be late. I still call her when I am leaving for a trip and when I get there. I call when I am going to visit and when I get back home. I just think it is considerate and respectful.

Another thing about being a teenager, I read a lot. A whole lot; more than most kids my age. We went to the library weekly and always had books at home. Now I have my own library at home and don’t have to worry about returning them. I still read a lot. Just about anything I can get my hands on, except westerns and gothic romances. Even I have my standards, lol.

Things I remember:
1) I did not wear make-up often. I didn’t like the way it made my nose feel and I still don’t wear it often
2) Bleaching my hair blonde.
3) Having all my hair chopped off to just below the ear.
4) Buying my own oxfords and wearing them. I loved the shoes. Not the pointy toed ones, but the round toe ones.
5) Babysitting. That is how I earned my money for shoes, clothes, my stereo and any spending money. I was a good babysitter.
6) Learning how to work the projector at the outdoor movie theatre.
7) Seeing Bob Hope while sitting on the shoulders of an airman because I was to short to see over the heads of the people in front of me.
8) I remember my first kiss.
9) Going to the Navy hospital in Guam where I would sing and talk with the guys who had been wounded in the Vietnam conflict were staying on their way back to the states.
10) Learning to develop film in the church’s dark room.
11) Singing with the Catholic Choir even though I was Lutheran.
12) The bomb scares the first two weeks of school every year in Guam and having to sit on the football field while they had dogs come and sniff.
13) And I did not drink until I was of age, unless it was a glass of wine with my parents.

Other than that, I was really just a average teenager. Doing teenager things, getting into teenager trouble.

UPDATE ... UPDATE ... UPDATE

As my sis/mom Bug wants me to point out, I liked bringing home strays. (Although how she remembers is beyond me, the tyke was still in diapers when I was a teenager.) But she is right, I loved bringing home strays: stray snakes, stray mice and stray boys.