Today, I want to write about being in high school. I went to a lot of schools. In one of these newsletters, I will recount all the schools I went to. I went to 2 high schools and 3 colleges, for starters.

During my Freshman and Sophomore years in high school, I went to James Madison. These were the best days of my life. Those 2 years.

[a James Madison High School Warhawk. The bird is black with a white and red outline.]

And I want to share that with you.

I’d like to set the stage for you - it was the mid-1980s. There was a kid in the school who wore a foot-tall Mohawk that he spiked with Elmer’s glue. There was a gal who must have made her clothes - she wore plaid pants and fingerless gloves. Her hair was teased beyond all gravity.

The standard makeup girls wore was royal blue eyeliner with light lilac eyeshadow and electric blue mascara. We wore L’Oreal lipstick because it smelled the best. We also wore Wet ‘n Wild cosmetics because the Kohl eyeliner and everything else they sold was only $1 at the corner store.

We read Seventeen Magazine, Glamour, and didn’t yet read Cosmopolitan magazine.

In my freshman year, I was best friends with Kate. I was also friends with Adina. I had known Adina at private school (which we both hated) in 8th grade, and then we were both in geometry together and had some good laughs together. She introduced me to the town deli that I love. I love that place. It’s also next door to a bakery now which makes almost the best pies in all of Virginia. (It may tie in first with Mom’s Pie Shop in Occoquan, Virginia. I’m not sure.) I found Adina maybe 20 years ago on a blog she writes about fashion. I reached out to her. She didn’t remember me, so I reminded her how we knew each other - from the private school we both hated, and she immediately blocked me. Good times.

I have few clear memories of being with Kate, but here are a few of them - Kate introduced me to “True Blue” - a cassette tape by Madonna. Madonna was a brand new recording artist at that point in her career. I have had a love of Madonna’s music and theatrical ability ever since. She is one of my absolute favorites. I found Kate recently on Facebook after searching for her every few years. She doesn’t remember me from high school either, but we are becoming friends again all these years later. She still loves music and we are probably going to try to get to the Grand Ole Opry together at some point !!! She says she goes as often as possible.

Cyndi Lauper was another musical artist that I loved. Also, we had Rick Astley, David Lee Roth, Metallica, Van Halen, KISS, and so many others.

Brian Boytano was the ice skater who wowed at all the Olympics, and so was Katarina Witt. It was a fun era - at least it was for those of us in high school at the time. I didn’t yet pay attention to what was going on in the news. We were too engrossed in taking tests and trying to get out of running laps around the track.

I took a lot of activities at this point in my life - I took private violin lessons. I practiced violin for at least an hour every day. I took private piano lessons. I loved my piano teacher. She knew I came in as a musician and didn’t ever talk down to me. She also knew I could read treble clef, no problem, but that I struggled with bass clef (I still do). And she knew that I liked music. So she would buy me the music I requested. If she put some music in front of me that I didn’t like after trying it for a week, I’d tell her, and she would “put it in cold storage.” This means she would turn the page in the book & I’d never have to look at it again.

In 18 months, I went from plucking out one note at a time on the piano to playing Für Elise (the standard song “everyone” played back then), Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” and “Maple Leaf Rag.” At the end of the 18 months, I performed George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” at the spring recital. That was the highlight of my piano playing.

We moved that fall, I switched piano teachers to a tyrant who poked my wrists with sharp pencils and I gave up piano after that. I wish we had found another piano teacher for me. But at that point in my life, I had been able to walk to my violin teacher and both piano teachers, so I guess switching teachers to one I would have to be driven to was out of the question.

I also took ballet and tap and performed in the winter and spring recitals. And, I took art classes at the local community center with a teacher named Joanne Greening. I found her on Facebook. I loved loved her as a kid. But she doesn’t remember me. C’est la vie. That’s what I get for moving 800 times in my life - a list of people I remember based on where I lived at the time, and none of them remember me.

I also did something that was the most fun ever - I worked with 2 different plays in the school. The first play was A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. I tried out to be one of the leads. I didn’t get it. Then I tried to be one of the fairies. The fairies danced, and I had been a dance student since 2nd grade. I figured I could be one of the fairies.

It turns out, that with my vision issues, I cannot memorize something I see through my eyes. You know, like choreography. It takes me a LOT longer to learn choreography than I guess is standard. My oldest son, on the other hand, can memorize choreography the first time he sees it, which is amazing. I don’t think he has a clue how amazing that is that he can do that. He probably takes it for granted that anyone can do that. I guess this is something I should talk with him about someday!

[I am having so much fun typing this and have so much more I want to say about these 2 years of my life, that I am going to tell a story now, and then close this newsletter because I think this newsletter is nearly long enough.

I will then continue (when I get back from my afternoon appointment) typing up more about this time of my life when I get home, and it will be next week’s newsletter.]

Dancing with the Fairies

I remember learning choreography for about 20 minutes (40 minutes?) in the hallway behind the stage with about 6 other gals. It was probably fairly simple. If I knew how to spell French ballet words, I would type up some of the moves I remember in my head, but I don’t know how to spell them.

I got up on stage, trying and trying to remember the choreography and I just couldn’t. I ran off the stage, crying.

All of these gals came to my side. They were so incredibly kind. They soothed me and told me to “just try again, it’s going to be okay.” I was too mortified and just couldn’t get back out there and try again. I just couldn’t. So I didn’t. I probably cried for the next few days about this. And I don’t think I ever even told my parents about any of this. For some reason, I never told them about my day-to-day school life. Ever. Also, at that time in my life, I had a very active little brother (he’s 11 years younger than I am), so our family was pretty focused on keeping him safe, dressed, fed, and out of trouble. I made the family dinners so my parents could watch and play with him.

I want to mention the gal who played Puck was amazing. Erica. I still remember her. She was someone I aspired to be - she was just an incredibly cool, smart, amazing, creative person. I wish I’d been brave enough to approach her to be friends, but I didn’t have the confidence for that.

The gal who played Titania, queen of the fairies was an extraordinary Black gal. She wore glow-in-the-dark fingernails and was just so kind and amazing. I love her smile, her enthusiasm, her poise, and her kindness. She is current-day-friends with another friend of mine in the St. Louis area now. They send me pictures now & then when they see each other for choir recitals or tea.

So, after tryouts, and because I wasn’t in the cast, someone said I could do makeup. So I got to do makeup for the production! I saw a gal lob off the tops of a bunch of lipsticks and put them in a container so we could put lipstick on different people, and she could still keep her lipsticks.

I loved doing the makeup for the cast. Makeup for fairies is a fun thing. It’s a super fun thing. I still remember the colors and the joy and some of the conversations I had with the makeup team and the cast and the fairies.

Thank you for reading my newsletter. I will write more about being at James Madison High School in next week’s newsletter unless something else comes up that feels more urgent that I need to write about.