February, 1992
with Damon and then accidentally with Corey
Friendly Center sort of and then about three months later at the dollar theater for real
*Disclaimer: I have COMPLETE permission to tell this story. My high school sweetheart and his wife are awesome and good friends of mine. To quote REM, Don't go back to Rockville! Don't do it! But there is nothing wrong about writing about Rockville to get a good laugh. I can't write fiction, I have to write in my own voice. So, here we go...
One time, in high school, there was this boy in my English class. Isn't that the way it always starts? A boy in your class? He stares at you, you stare at him, and then finally, after he defends your argument during a Huckleberry Fin discussion, you get together?
He asked me to a movie!
He let me pick it!
I picked Fried Green Tomatoes.
I had heard it was a really, really good movie. A lot of laughs, a lot of tears, an ability to play with time and space...all the things I care about now and cared about in high school.
*Side note: I did have a Spanish poster of this movie in my classroom, and I did have a mother ask me if I was going to show it to a class, and I did tell that conservative mother absolutely no! It was just a matter of teaching Spanish adjectives: Tomates verdes fritos...how else do you teach adjectives to middle schoolers? She was fine once she knew it was about the title and not the movie.
Back then, I didn't know that Mary Louise Parker would one day be my hero Nancy Botwin...another day, another post...
Back to 1992...
We bought the tickets no problem, we bought the popcorn, no problem...
And then...my date disappeared...
and he didn't come back...I was alone!
Where did he go?
The men's room?
I don't think so....
and he didn't come back
and he didn't come back...
Until finally, Corey, a fellow redhead, showed up out of nowhere and walked me out of the movie theater.
Um, what are you doing here...
Well see, he isn't supposed to talk to girls...so this is against his rehab rules.
Rehab rules? What rehab rules?
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!?!!
Damon is in a drug rehab program and they restrict dating, and he broke the rules because of your.....
He got kind of quiet, like he was mad about it.
My what? My winning personality? My beautiful smile? My intelligence? Corey, you better start talking!
No...big surprise...when will I learn from history?
This poor boy, all of seventeen and in drug rehab, broke the rules to go out with me, because of my...here it comes...
Well, Page...it was the hair.
Oh come on..for real?
Yep...
so therefore, to keep him from being locked up in drug rehab, Corey had to keep going...
Look, let me walk you out and you can meet him around the corner, ok?
Well, I was still me, so I had to say...
But what about the movie?
Can't you see the movie later?
Fine!
Fine?...you know, he sacrificed a lot for you and your hair. I'm a redhead too and we men don't get the same reaction.
OK, Let's go meet him...
So, Corey the redhead walked Page the redhead out of the movie theater to meet Damon who had finally asked her out illegally-only to realize one of his rehab counselors was taking a date to the same movie.
Doesn't that all make sense to everyone?
We didn't see Fried Green Tomatoes that night. We watched it about three months later when I made that Weasel finally take me to the dollar theater to see what should have been our first date.
It was a great movie. The theme between movies and books seems to be "tone it down." Especially lesbianism and racism.
As for the high school sweetheart, I loved the entire time we were together and when it was time to end, it was time to end. That is the way it works. No going back to Rockville.
But I love sharing the stories about what was!
Just make sure you are allowed to date when you date....
And keep the red hair!
No comments:
Post a Comment