12 replies to this topic

[Mike in STL]

Thought of this with the new topics of the day and remembered it when I posted a sort of coming of age tale in the other thread.

 

I love coming of age stories. Especially now that I'm older. There seems to be just an innocence about them. Kids going through adolescence, trying adult things and then perhaps facing the consequences. Freaks and Geeks, The Wonder Years. The Sandlot is my favorite. The tobacco on the carnival ride. Squints kissing Wendy. We've all been there. 

 

One of my coming of age stories is probably more American Pie than Wonder Years.

 

I was 16 and my girlfriend missed her time of the month by 2 weeks. She told me if she gets to 3 weeks we have to get a pregnancy test and I have to go with her to buy it and be there when she takes it. Longest week of my life. Checking with her like 5 times a day. "Did you get it yet? How about now? Call me if you get it. I didn't hear form you. Did you get it and forget to tell me?"

 

3 weeks come and we bite the bullet and go to Safeway. She's looking them over and every time someone comes down the aisle I turn around like I'm looking at cold medicine or something.

 

She picks out the test she wants and we go to checkout. I'm following her and she picks the checkout line with no line. I look up and the guy working the register sits like three seats away from me in Biology class. We're not friends at all, never talked before, we just sit 10 feet away from each other every day. She puts the test on the belt and without hesitation I put the divider behind it and grab a candy bar and put it down as if to say, "we're not together." 

 

So she calls me a bleeping bleep, smacks me in the arm with the divider, the guy rings it up, looks at me as he gives me change, chuckles and says "looks like someones going to have an interesting night." I could have punched him in the face. 

 

We go back to her place. Unbeknownst to me, her mom knows what was going on the whole time. Her mom knew we had been active, knew why were going to the store, sits with me in the living room for the whole 3 minutes my girlfriend is sitting in the bathroom waiting for the results to show up. Longest 3 minutes of my life. Absolute silence. Fearing the worst. 

 

Turns out she wasn't pregnant, thank god. She got it the next morning. Her mom told me before she left the room, "be lucky I'm the one that found out and not her father. Let's never speak of this ever again." Her mom knew because she put her on birth control which ended up screwing her cycle up, hence the scare when 3 weeks went by.

 

Next day in biology class as we're leaving, guy from Safeway walks up and says "everything good?". I'm like "all good, very relived." He's like "....cool."  We never spoke again. 

[BSLChrisStoner]

Also a fan of The Wonder Years, Freaks & Geeks...and Movies in that same ballpark...  Stand By Me, Dazed and Confused, Dead Poets Society, Fast Times, Kids, etc...

Away from sex, or just basic teen awkwardness....  a few things stand out...

 

1) 2nd year out of HS. Had just gone to community college, so I hadn't that college experience of being away. Decide to move out of the parents house into a townhouse (owned by Rob's brother) with a couple of friends.  We were dumb, naive. Not best roommates... but it was an experience.

 

2) The following year, I go away to a 4 year school just north of Tampa. First time really away. Seeing a different area. Having to meet new people. Was only there for a year, but I'm glad I went.

 

3) First full-time job.  I had worked essentially full-time hours as a part time employee for several years prior in retail, and with the Orioles (gopher capacity... box office, tours, etc)... but those were as hourly positions with minimal responsibility. Going from that to what I consider the first real job was a change. Being in a professional office setting. Different personalities. Range of ages, but I was certainly among the youngest. Within 6 months of starting, I was (by random circumstance) in a situation where I had an immense amount of responsibility on my shoulders helping maintain a large corporate account. Handling calls with the client, their National level broker, colleagues from different offices across the globe. That will grow you up quick. Still it was a transition that continued. You don't go from 0 to experienced overnight. 

[The Epic]

I got several. But I’ll share the main one. Not a good story, but definitely coming-of-age.

 

I was an incredibly sheltered youth. Hung out with friends only to play sports or go to their houses. I really didn’t know much about anything outside of school. Very non-street-smart.

 

When I was 17, my friend and I went to a house party (my first house party ever) that was being thrown by a mutual friend. His mom was there to watch, but she didn’t care if people drank or anything, as long as they stayed in the house. Anyways, as the party ended, the mutual friend’s mom was really drunk and asked us to drive her home. Cool. She’s chatting it up with us, and says, “Hey, can you stop here (a gas station on Northern Parkway at 1 in the morning)? I’ll be right back.” Hey, cool, no big deal. Thought nothing of it, and she walks off. My friend and I go to (I think) New York Fried Chicken, and chill out. She comes back from around the corner, 20 minutes later, stuffing something in her pocket, and we’re like, “Man…she looks REALLY drunk. Let’s get her home.”

 

We drop her off, and before my friend drops me off, we sit there in silence for like 2 minutes. Kinda like both of us realizing at the same time what just happened.

 

We told our friend the next morning, and he’s like, “Yeah. And?”

 

(Epilogue: She’s fine and clean now. She got help not long after that.)

[NewMarketSean]

A few things:

 

I got a job right after I turned 14. I wanted money in my pocket so I got a workers permit and got a job at Charlestown in Catonsville. It was a great place to work for teenagers. Got to meet a lot of people from the city who I otherwise wouldn't meet, and since I went to HS in Towson, I got to meet a lot of people I would have met if I had gone to Catonsville. Still have friends I met at Charlestown, so that's pretty cool. But the coolest thing was being around older people...actually seeing them every day and getting to know them. The residents donated to a scholarship fund so they were very interested in your schooling, where you were planning to go to college, etc. It was a very good experience for someone so young to have relationships with seniors: people who lived through the depression, WWII vets, people with tons of life experience.

 

And I went to HS in Towson to attend a magnet school there for writing. It was a huge step to take for a teenager, to choose to go somewhere else -- brand new school, very little people I knew going there -- but it was probably the most impactful experience of my life. Learned a lot about writing, and myself, and I met my future wife there. The sports sucked though....

 

Getting my license at 16 and driving was pretty crazy. I don't remember being  freaked out about it, but it was a surreal experience for the first week or so. I drove to Towson a lot for school, had a girlfriend who lived in White Marsh so driving on highways, paying tolls, etc, was a big step for someone with a new license. Got lost a few times, but always managed to find my way.

 

Finally, I wasn't playing much on the CCC baseball team so I decided that I would quit and work more. That was probably the moment when I realized that I was an adult and that stuff that wasn't going to pay off down the line wasn't worth it.

[Mike in STL]

^^^^

 

Same here. I quit sports my senior year when I needed the money more and realized that I couldn't major in playing baseball. 

 

I was such a bad driver at first. About a month after I got my license, I had an 82' Ford Fairmont with the bench seat in the front. I had a water bottle roll across the seat to the other side and did the thing where you lean over to grab it, but in leaning also turned the wheel, took out two mailboxes in the process. 

[Mike in STL]

Man how times have changed. My dad used to take me and my friends down to the corner store for snowballs or candy in the bed of the pickup truck doing 40-50mph down the road when we were 5-10 years old. Now a days it seems like they want kids to be strapped to a car seat until you turn 12 or something. My niece and nephew still have car seats. Not the baby kind that you can carry them around in, but a car seat. They are going on 8 years old. 

 

If you put kids in the bed of pickup today you'll likely face the death penalty.

[glenn__davis]

I don't have any stories as good as some of you all, I'll gladly admit that I'm a pretty square guy so I never got into anything too crazy.

 

A few experiences that I think of off the top of my head:

 

• When I was in HS, a kid that I road the bus with took off on the last day of school (hook day as we called it) and drowned in Pretty Boy reservoir.  We weren't particularly good friends or anything, but I just remember that disbelief that i had just seen him that morning, and he was alive and well, and now he was gone.  
• My grandmother passed away suddenly when I was in college.  She was the only grandparent I really knew, the rest had passed before I was born or when I was very young.  I remember my Dad waking me up around 6AM, asking me if I was alert enough to understand things, and then giving me the news.  I was also tasked with calling my siblings to let them know.  I'm 10 years younger than my brother and 14 years younger than my sister, so I was always the "baby" of the family, and that was one of the first times I was looked upon as an equal in terms of being an adult.
• And of course, having that 1st kid, and feeling both the incredible joy and the incredible weight that comes with that.

[DJ MC]

When I was seventeen I didn't have a car, but my mom would occasionally allow me to drive her to work and drive to school, especially on early-dismissal days (mostly so she wouldn't have to leave early to pick me up).

 

One day, I was driving home up 702 heading home. I had my Discman plugged in with a cassette adapter to the stereo of my mom's Saturn (future topic idea: come up with a more 90's sentence than that). I had the windows down, and I was just enjoying the early-summer weather. Then my CD player fell out of whatever jury-rigged space it was sitting in, and I reached down to grab it. I still don't REALLY know what happened--I think I heard my tires hit gravel and jerked the wheel--but I went from going 60 in the left lane travelling westbound to dead stopped on the right shoulder facing eastbound.

 

Fortunately (I mean, INCREDIBLY fortunately), there was nobody around me when it happened, and the car itself was fine, so I was able to turn around and keep going. But that was a real slap-in-the-face wake-up call that, hey, you're heading into the real world, and if you aren't paying attention someone can get hurt.

 

The year before, a guy I knew in high school died in a car accident in almost the same way: something fell on the floor of his car, and when he reached down to grab it he crossed the center line and hit another car. So the realization that I had done the same stupid thing, only coming out OK due to essentially luck, drove the point home that much harder.

[DJ MC]

Man how times have changed. My dad used to take me and my friends down to the corner store for snowballs or candy in the bed of the pickup truck doing 40-50mph down the road when we were 5-10 years old. Now a days it seems like they want kids to be strapped to a car seat until you turn 12 or something. My niece and nephew still have car seats. Not the baby kind that you can carry them around in, but a car seat. They are going on 8 years old. 

 

If you put kids in the bed of pickup today you'll likely face the death penalty.

 

When I was ten, my Cub Scout den was getting ready for it's first real camping trip, so my dad, the den leader, found a place in Westminster where he could get some tents (I don't remember if they were rented or borrowed or what). One of the other dads had a pickup, so they arranged to drive out together. Since the bed had a cap, the other dad's son and I rode out to and back from Westminster in the bed.

 

Recently, my family was visiting family friends in Memphis, when during a discussion (I don't remember what it was about) someone suggested going in their pickup with me and their kid (both adults in our 30s, by the way), riding in the bed. That was pretty much shot down as an insane plan.

[The Epic]

I always rode in the bed of my grandfather's pick-up. Man, those were fun times.

[NewMarketSean]

Broke into Five Oaks pool with some friends once after hours. Pretty sure it was Labor Day weekend '93, or close to it. Chris, pretty sure it was me, Matt, Chris C, That Ginger Who Lived on Blakeney, Frank B, maybe one or both of the Coliani Bros were there. We walked from Paradise in Catonsville all the way to the pool down Frederick Road with towels draped around our necks at like 10 PM. I think we stole some stuff from 7-11 before we went, maybe not. Swam there for about an hour, headed over to Montrose Manor apartments which had a pool and started making a ruckus. Someone started throwing rocks down the hill at us -- like big ones.  I remember them splashing in the pool. The cops showed up, we scattered and hid in the woods by the old Streetcar trail until the morning. I walked into my parents house around 6 AM, dead tired, and told my mom I felt sick and that's why I left whoever's house I said I was spending the night at. Pretty sure that was Labor Day weekend before I went into high school. Probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done and probably one of the last, dumbest things...although I am sure I am forgetting some things.

 

Nope. I remember something. It was actually just the 20 year anniversary of it. Labor Day 1997. I went on a mountain bike ride with some friends through Patapsco State Park near the Southwest P&R. Followed the river all the way over to Route 40. It was dark by then -- well after 9 PM. We come barrelling down that big hill heading back toward Catonsville on the shoulder of Route 40 doing like 50 MPH. On the shoulder. In the dark. With traffic whizzing by us. And it's a pretty narrow shoulder. Just insane no one got hurt or killed. We walked up the hill then for some extra thrills we rode down Winters Lane on our way back home. Got heckled the whole way and I'm pretty sure about half a dozen people were chasing me at one point wanting to steal my bike. I still have that bike and I ride it to work sometimes.

 

So I pretty much book-ended high school doing some really dumb shit during Labor Day weekend.

[GabeFerguson]

Summer after graduating HS, I road-tripped out to Sandusky Ohio with a couple of friends to spend a weekend at Cedar Point Amusement Park. For those of you who may not be familiar, it was/is the home of all the biggest and baddest roller coasters on the planet.The park is a ton of fun and my friend's aunt lived a few minutes away so we were staying with her.

 

On the way in to her place and on the way to the park everyday, we passed through this long narrow stretch of road that was bookended by two railroad tracks that were kind of built up on both sides, essentially like massive speed bumps. I'm driving my beat up old 92' Nissan Sentra at the time. Anyways, me and my buddies think it would be fun to try to hit the tracks at a speed that would be probably somewhat reckless before we leave town. So on the last night we are there, we drive out to the stretch of road and I just step on the accelerator, hurtling down this road at a speed that I am to this day astonished we were able to survive. As I am approaching what looks like a wall looming in front of me, the reality of what is happening finally hits me and I have the sense to hit the brakes and slow down to a speed that likely saved our lives. 

 

Needless to say, I still hit the tracks going way way too fast and launched my car into the air. Somehow, I managed to land without flipping the car, but completely smashed the transmission casing on impact and essentially just rolled to a stop a couple hundred yards down the road. Nobody even had a scratch on them by some miracle. The next day I went back to the tracks and saw where my car had landed because there were chunks torn out of the asphalt. It must have been at least 50-60 feet from the tracks. By far the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life and I am lucky to have survived it.

 

Perhaps the funniest moment happened right after we pulled to a stop in front of some guys house. One of us got out and knocked on his door and asked if we could borrow his phone. He looked at my car, asked us completely nonchalantly if we were the guys who had just jumped the railroad tracks. I don't think any of us said a word, but he handed me the phone with the most knowing look I have ever seen in my life.

[DuffMan]

This one is a more recent one, but I think it counts as well.  3 and a 1/2 years ago we were getting ready to move.  The plan was to buy our new house and then we had 2 weeks before closing on our house we were selling giving us 2 weeks to move everything over without having to rush.  3 or 4 days before we were about to close, I get a call from the mortgage company, they informed us we couldn't do it this way as it would mean two mortgages at once.  So we had to buy/sell on the same day.  After stressing over the whole buying/selling process this really flustered me.  The day I got this call my kids were at my parents house so when I went to pick them up of course I immediately vented/complained etc.  Now my parents were very comforting and offered their support, but I remember them asking "what do you want to do?"  meaning  they would help anyway I wanted or needed but I was the one running the offense and calling the plays.  Being 32 at the time and already being married with 2 kids, and  having already bought one house I had already done plenty of "grown up (adult)" things  but that day was when it really sunk in that I was the one in charge now.