The Saturday before Halloween, a town near mine, Hagerstown, MD, has the Alsatia Mummers Parade (I hope I spelled that right). They've been doing it for over 100 years, I think, and its a big huge thing, supposedly the largest Halloween parade on the East Coast, or something. And tonight is the parade.
But am I going? Oh Dear GOD, no! We went when I was a kid a few times, and we had to park in a mall parking lot like a mile from the parade route and walk there, and even parking that far away, it still took us like until daybreak Sunday morning to get back home with all the traffic. Well, not really, but anyway....
I bring this up because 20 years ago (oh God...has it REALLY been twnety freakin years?) when I was a senior in highs school, the senior class planned it's Class Kegger for the same night. There's a state forest near where we live and its riddled with dirt trials all through it and up over the mountains here. Back one of these roads was the party spot known to most teenagers as The Shale Pile. It was so called because, well, there was a big mound of shale on the side of the mountain next to the road. And we'd pull off there and party. Until the park rangers discovered we were doing this.
Then, on the road to the Shale Pile, off on the left, was an offshoot road then went down into a kinda of clearing in the forest. I think it was campsite of sorts. Anyway, since the rangers had cut off the Shale Pile, the kegger was held in this campsite.
The Class Kegger, for those of you who don't know, was a tradition for our school. Every year, some group of seniors would get together and have someone get them a keg, or two. And then they'd set them up (usually at the Shale Pile) and tell the rest of the seniors, and charge us a nominal fee, give us a cup, and we'd drink away.
Now, all through high school, i never drank. I didn't discover alcohol until the summer before my senior year. My uncle had a pool and I'd go there and hang out at the pool and with the cool kids in his neighborhood. And they showed me alcohol. I never got hungover (that wasn't until I went to beach after graduation, but that's another story), but we'd drink and hang out. And while I didn't really like the taste of beer, it freed up my inhibitions and allowed me to lighten up and have fun. Like the time David Hawbaker and I were drinking while in the pool (ah, the stupidity of teenagers) and I got up the nerve to yank his trunks off of him. And I wouldn't give them back. (But that's another story) And I digress...
You may be wondering what this all has to do with the mummers parade...bear with me, I'm getting there...
SO I made plans with my friends Connie and Aleia to go to the Class Kegger. But I didn't normally hang out with Connie and Alesia, so I told my parents I was going with my firend Andy to...(wait for it)...the Mummers parade. (Hence the connection) But I forgot to tell Andy of my plan. SO the day of the parade and kegger, Andy calls and i'm still asleep and asks mom to tell me to call him when I get up, he wants to see what I'm doing later.
Yeah...not good.
SO when I get up, mom tells me of the call. I feign confusion, like "What is he talking about? We're supposed to go to the parade!" so i call him back and while im in another room, but speaking loud enough so mom can hear me, I'm like calling him stupid for forgetting, and asking if we're still going and all. ANd so I thought i had my mother convinced it was just Andy being dumb.
Riiiiiiight, like my mom's THAT easily fooled.
SO then, a bit later, this time while I'm in the shower, Connie calls and tells mom to tell me she'll pick me up at liek 730 instead of 700, or something like that. yeah, I hadn't told Connie about the deception either.
Hey, I just started drinking like 4 months before this, i wasn't used to all the depection and alterior planning and stuff that was required! Gimme a break!
So I get outta the shower, and mom tells me about the call. now, to my credit, I can be kinda quick on my feet, cause without missing a beat, I tell mom that Andy said his car was acting up or something, so he was gonna have Connie drive us to the parade. She seemed to buy it and I thought i had dodged a bullet.
But then Andy calls AGAIN, and of COURSE mom answers it and gives it to me. And he wants to know where exactly the kegger is, cause he might end up going too. SO I go outside to talk to him to give him the directions. Outside, during the end of October, after dark, when it's cold. Like I couldn't jsut talk to him inside. I worried that it looked suspicious (and it did) but what else could I do? And when mom didn't say anything, thought I got away with it.
So then at the appointed time, I went outside to wait for Connie and Alesia. This again was unusual, cause normally, my friends came inside and hung out a bit before we'd leave to go somewhere. I just said we didn't want to be late.
SO when they pulled up, I hopped in the car and off we went. I remember on the ride, they had a large soda cup full of 100% proof something or other, or so they said. It tasted like fire when I sipped some down. I don't really remember a lot from the kegger itself, other than there were two camp fires burning about 20 feet apart, and the keg was between them. We each paid two dollars for the big stadium cup they gave us, and then mingled in with the crowds at either fire. People kept moving back and forth from one fire to another. And I remember the surprise of some of the people there gathered to see me there. As I said, I was something of a goody-goody or geek or soemthing prior to this. And actually, being there made me more popular as the school year went along.
I really don't remember more than that, but I know I got home around 200 I think.
And since this post is SO LONG, I'll continue the story on the next post.
POLT = listening to "Roam" by The B-52's
Just because you're a Republican and I'm a Democrat doesn't mean we can't be friends. I'll hug your elephant and you can kiss my ass. - t-shirt
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