Great friends - great memories

Back in February I went out to lunch with a few of my great high school friends. From left to right in the photo, they are Leann, Kim, Michelle, and Cheri in front. Here on this 4th of July weekend, I am recalling some great memories. I was in the American Fork Marching Band - AND PROUD!!! Kim Cheri and Leann were in the color guard, and Michelle was our biggest fan and ardent supporter. (except Virgil, of course:) Summer marching meant early morning practices and many long, hot, sweaty parades. (I marched back in the days of the SUPER hot uniforms. I believe the ones they have now are a bit cooler, which would make it a little less torturous.) This photo is of the AF marching band when they went back for the Macey's parade last November. (Deseret news)

I remember nights where we would hang out all night doing a whole bunch of nothing; (cruising in the YUGO) then head out the parade - marching on no sleep. (We maybe weren't the smartest teenagers in the world... but we had a lot of fun!)

I was the section leader for the flute section, and we had a wonderful group. (co-leader actually, Julie A. and I shared the responsibility) I remember the night we had a sectional sleep over at Julie's. She lived near the drum Major's house, and we had planned a little toilet papering surprise for him. One problem - one of the girls had a crush on the drum major (this was a new development and we didn't know) and she told him about our plan. SO, the drum major invited the trumpet section over to his house to "surprise us." MAN oh MAN - what a night that was! Suffice it to say there were water balloons, bright lights, a lot of running and screaming, and all sorts of "fun"!

Another parade memory I love is the year after I Leann, Kim, and I graduated, and Cheri was a senior. It was the day of the PG (strawberry days) parade, and we were going to support Cheri. Leann's little brother Taylor was in a little singing/performing group called Sunshine Generations that would be rising on a float in the parade. Leann was in charge of getting Taylor ready and at the parade on time. She fixed his hair just right then started spraying it with hairspray. I swear she used 1/2 a bottle on that poor kids hair! "It might be windy on the float" We were laughing SO HARD! We watched the parade, cheered for Cheri as she marched by, and made fun of Leann as the Sunshine Generation float passed by. "Leann, his hair moved, get up there quick, more hairspray!!!" I still chuckle just thinking about it. FUN FUN

another GROSS but fun memory - another TP adventure. We had toilet papered a friends house (same Drum major as mentioned before) and they returned the favor, except they added an extra surprise. One of our friends worked a a local fast food place, and when he was there at closing time, he collected all the uneaten food that they throw out at the end of the day, and they added that to the TP mess. IT WAS GROSS! But we made it grosser, by bagging it up, leaving it in a hot shed for a week, then returning it to them!

Running out of time here, and starting to worry that ya'll will think I'm a serious trouble maker, but just for the sake of Me, Cheri, Leann, Michelle, here's a quick list

* fly bys

* Eric the awful

* writing raps

* "funnelmuckers"

* riding in the trunk in order to find out if "HE" likes me

* sleeping on Lonny's lawn

* the Yugo - scrounging up pocket change and anything we could find on the ground to put more gas in the tank.

* sleepovers lasting 3 weeks

* Virgil wearing his Bermuda shorts

* Salt and Peppa

* Camping with Leann - and the crazy camper woman

* station wagons and barricades

* "sexy model" shots on the Kmart kiddie carousel



.... what adventures we had. I love you guys! It was great, but I'm not saying I wanna go back and do it all again. I'll just enjoy the memories and hope my kids are more wise than me!