RDP Thursday: ZENITH

When I was in high school, I was kind of a wreck.

I wore the wrong clothes, listened to the wrong music, I was a creepy geek who had long wild hair, wore black eyeshadow before it was a ” thing “. I played guitar in a rock band and believe it or not I was on the Honor Roll and my best subjects were Biology, Russian History and Creative Writing.

But like I said, I was freak.

At least that’s what I heard from my nearest and dearest and the obnoxious wonks I went to school with.

Out of nowhere this girl who sat  behind me in math used to tell me I should cut my hair- it was long and curly and wavy ( a la’ Ann Margaret who was my HERO ). Sometimes my snotty seatmate would even make snarky comments about my dark makeup too.

” Maybe ” my friend Leni  from Library sciences said ” she’s hot for you. ”

” Maybe ” I remember saying ” you shouldn’t do drugs before school. ”

I actually did cut my hair, no kidding I did it because some of the guys I played music with cared so much about their hair ( we were headed for the big hair bands at that time in the early 80’s ) that I felt like I was over the entire long hair experience. Everyone had long curly hair now.

And I did not want to be part of the herd.

A good ten years after I graduated from high school  I was coaching my son’s soccer team ( yep, I played soccer too ) and at our first practice I met the parents.

You know where this is going right?

There she was, with her son ( who was a cute kid and turned out to be heck of a goalie )- my seatmate who rode my back about my ‘rats nest’ hair and black eyeshadow and nagged me at least once a week- why did I wear a leather jacket in the summer-

she stopped when I turned around and she saw my face- and her face turned red  under her long curly spiral permed hair and dark eyeshadow. I wondered if she was sweating inside of her leather jacket, because it was a hot and bright August afternoon.

Speaking from experience she was.