Blogging Bicentennial

By Eilene Lyon

I know that people generally celebrate blogging anniversaries, but since I was on hiatus when my anniversary came around (and likely will follow suit each winter), I decided to celebrate this, my 200^th blog post.

For something a little different, I “borrowed” these questions from Ally over at The Spectacled Bean.

Think about your SENIOR year in High School. The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!

1. Did you know your current significant other? Gosh no. We met when I was 35. Our 20^th anniversary is around the corner.
2. Make and year of car? 1974 Vega, handed down from my dad, then older brother.
3. What kind of job? Bussing tables and stocking salad bar for Ponderosa Steakhouse.
4. Where did you live? For the first part of the school year, we live in Wright Patterson Air Force Base housing. My dad was retired from the Army that year and in order to finish my senior year in Fairborn instead of going to a FOURTH high school, my parents rented a house not far from the school. My younger brother, unfortunately, had to do his senior year at a new school the following year.
5. Were you popular? I would say not. I was pretty shy my senior year. And a dork. Dorks aren’t usually popular, right?
6. Were you in choir? No, I was in drama, though not good enough to ever get a decent part. I mostly did backstage work to earn my thespian title.
7. Ever get suspended from school? Certainly not in my senior year, but we probably got in trouble for a prank or two. I got in the most trouble in my freshman year.
8. If you could, would you go back? Hell NO!
9. Still talk to the person that you went to prom with? I never went to prom. Instead, a girlfriend and I went to a horror movie, hung out at her place for a while, went to the school as the dance was ending to scarf up any leftover snacks, then went to the after-prom and TPed all the cars after it had rained. She and I were in touch for a while on FB, but she is now deeply fundamentalist Christian and I am anti-religion. Hard to really find common ground.
10. Did you skip school? Not in senior year, but as a sophomore at Corvallis High I skipped a couple times at least with two friends. We went to the five-and-dime store and fooled around in the photo booth – remember these?
11.  Go to all the football games? As a member of the band, it was required. We had a much better band than football team! In fact, I actually lettered for marching band. Note that feature photo: Lisa is raising her index finger to indicate that we’re number one – because in our junior year, we won first place at every contest. We did well senior year, too, but didn’t win every contest.
12. Favorite subject? English literature and art.
13. Do you still have your yearbooks? I have the two from my last high school. I also have some scrapbook material. Best of all, Lisa and I both saved the notes we exchanged because we didn’t have classes together. I’ve been organizing them and think they might make a good book for people with some nostalgia for the 1970s. What do you think? If it’s a marketable concept, we want to use it to raise money for teen suicide prevention.
14. Did you follow the career path you planned? Never really had a career. I did many, many different things before arriving at my current (non-paying) writing gig. I thought I wanted to be a cop after reading too many Ed McBain novels and watching Hill Street Blues. Even got an associate’s degree in Law Enforcement and worked as a security officer at King’s Island amusement park for two summers. I do not have the proper temperament. Hate conflict. Love investigating, though.
15. Did you have a class ring? (Warning: non-PC language to follow) I always thought they were retarded. Still do.
16. Still close with your best friend? I visited Lisa once in California about 7 years after graduation and then at the 10-year-reunion. We had a little interaction on Facebook. But last month, I visited her again in California after a nearly 30 year gap and it was like all those years hadn’t passed at all. It was a wonderful visit and I loved getting to know her family!
17. Who was your favorite teacher? Mr. Seewer, my English lit teacher.
18. What was your style? I tended to dress in mannish clothes. It was not stylish at all.
19. Favorite shoes? (Dork alert) A pair of white leather Nikes. I used white shoe polish on them to keep them looking sharp.
20. Favorite music? Top 40 Rock; had a thing for Chicago, because I was a horn player and thought Pete Cetera was to die for.
21. High school hair? Longer than shoulder length, side part (right) and bangs.
22. What kind of cologne/perfume? Can’t stand it.
23. How old when graduated? 18
24. Did you play a sport? Marching band definitely qualifies. My gosh, that is physically demanding!