Happy Hour #3 should be renamed “True Confessions”. The topic of the Happy Hour was "Tell Us Something You Did In Your Youth that Your Parents Never Knew"
Our wonderful club members basically fall into four categories: 1) Underage Drinkers/substance users, 2) Juvenile Delinquents, 3) Daredevils and 4) “In a Category All Their Own”
1) Underage Drinkers/Substance Abusers:
Carolyn borrowed her parent’s car and snuck across the Missouri line to Kansas every Saturday night to drink 3.2% beer and eat pizza.
Kathy Gailey snuck across the Michigan border to a Canadian cemetery to drink Apricot Brandy.
Horace Crawford told his parent he was going to the drive-in movie and actually drove 200 miles to El Paso, Texas and crossed the border to drink Tequila Sunrises. (BTW he was 15)
Tom Port went to Mexico with his brother and did LSD-no further details were divulged.
Glen Weber didn’t give many details but did say his father would wait up for him to come home on Friday nights and the following morning he would be pacing outside his room waiting for him to wake up to start his chores. Glen did say that some of those mornings were pretty rough.
Steve Wilcox used to work at Safeway. He told his parents he was working the night shift and actually drive to Tahoe with his best friend at the age of 17. He did not confess to imbibing but one can only imagine.
2) Juvenile Delinquents:
Our Best known Juvenile Delinquent, Chris Gallagher was unable to be on the call so we will have to catch him at the next Happy Hour.
That said, Priya, Patti and Collette could each host their own Hour of Confession. We only got snippets of some of the things they did and we will have to set aside more time to learn the “rest of the stories”.
Priya confessed that her parents did not know anything about her life and still don’t know! Not about a boyfriend, her solo trip to Jamaica, her switching majors at Stanford (they found out when she graduated) and the story about her being rescued by the Coast Guard in the Gulf of Mexico while paddle boarding.
Colette confessed to taking her mother’s home canned grapes to make her own alcohol in her room. She admitted that it didn’t taste that good and that you didn’t feel good afterwards. Apparently, she has many other stories but wouldn’t tell some of them in our company. Stay tuned for more--
Patti made the local newspaper after being involved with a fire in the bathroom at the Church. She says she didn’t start the fire but was trying to protect the person who did. Gary Sloan named Patti the original Juvenile Delinquent and that we could spend hours listening to her tales.
Mike Thielen was raised in the Catholic Church didn’t always make it to Mass. He preferred to sneak off and play baseball. When he was 12, he was with some friends and they were throwing baseballs at the head of the Mary Magdalene Statue on the third floor of one of the Church buildings. Mike’s very accurate throw knocked the head off the statue.
Norbert (known as Sonny) grew up in a small town in northern Kentucky. His mother would send him outside after breakfast and not expect him to come home until dinner. He confessed to having numerous rides home in the local police car but would NOT say what he did to get the ride. On one occasion he was actually placed in a jail cell and it scared the *&^% out of him. Who knew that Norbert had such a past?
Steven P confessed to holding “shot gun Saturdays” where he and his roommates would shoot at a 24 pack of beer. On one Sunday he took the fall for everyone and got a $1,000 fine for shooting at the cans. He paid the fine by saving empty beer cans and turning them in for the 5 cent deposit fee. That had to have been a lot of beer! He actually could be in two categories- Underage Drinking and Juvenile Delinquents.
3) Daredevils:
Ed Duarte was 18 years old in 1957. His friend tricked out a hot rod and they decided to drive to Santa Cruz from Visalia one night at midnight. The stopped by a field to sleep and it ended up being in front of the cemetery gate. His friend (who Ed’s parents thought was a little unsavory) told Ed that night that his license had been revoked two weeks before so he needed Ed to take his place in a drag race the next week. Ed “ran it thru the lights” and actually won first place. His parents never found out.
Jerry M told us his father swapped a 73 Malibu station wagon for a motorcycle. While his father was at work, Jerry would take it out for joy rides. His father decide to take him to a motorcycle dealership to “teach” him to ride and his father soon learned that Jerry already had some advanced moves on the bike.
Gobind was not allowed to go to the movies. When her father was on a trip out of town she snuck away with her friends to the movies. Her father returned earlier than expected and she got busted.
Judy Port’s mother was a librarian and forbid her to read comic books. She had a stash of comics that she hid in the olive tree and blissfully read her comics, completely out of sight of her family.
Judy Lewis claims she was a “goody two shoes” while growing up and never did anything wrong. However, upon reaching adulthood- that all changed. Judy confessed to whiffing Nitrous while on duty in the maternity ward in 1970. Luckily there were no birth emergencies on that shift.
4) In A Category All Their Own:
(I cannot even begin to give justice to the following two stories)
Gary Sloan confessed to be a virgin until he was 19. Gary grew up in Southern California and his parents had a pool that was on a hill above the backyard. As a teenager he would invite his dates over to go skinny dipping after their date. Gary swears that he was a perfect gentleman (albeit in the buff)
Gary also went on to relate a story about the night he was picked up (in a bar in SF) by the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She offered to cook him breakfast and he was thrilled he was going to get lucky. They danced and flirted until it was time to leave at 2:00 am. On their way out the door, Gary was warned that the woman may not be all that she seemed to be. Gary shrugged off the warnings and went anyway. However, during the ride to her place, he mustered the courage to ask if she might be a “he” to which there was a pregnant pause. Gary asked her how far along she was in her transition and learned that she still had her male genitalia. Gary asked how she planned to be intimate with him and her reply was “we could work it out”. Gary went home without “working it out”. He called his mother the next day to relay the story and his good Jewish mother’s comment was “You could have worked it out”
Geoff Disch had a similar situation while playing poker at Harrah’s in Las Vegas. He was with a friend and they wanderer into a party in the bar. His friend proceeded to start making out with a woman at the bar, meanwhile Geoff was approached by a man who asked him to dance. Geoff immediately told the man he was with his friend and he leaned over and kissed his friend passionately on the lip, whispered I am going to bed and left.
That was the end of the True Confessions.
We finished the evening with a fun art lesson taught by Steven P. We learned to draw three flowers and had a great lesson.
I need suggestions for next week’s topic. Please send me your ideas.
Stay safe
Carolyn
