Back in the old days...Just after the earth had cooled.
When I was in High School, Yugoslavia still had a seat in the United Nations.
And in those days of yore it was not uncommon to have a "pen-pal", that is someone from a different country with whom you corresponded. As ridiculous as it now seems, people (even high school students) took the time to actually compose a letter on a piece of paper with a pen, and once finished writing, would then sealed the letter in an envelope and then air mail it to a person in a different country. This form of communication could take weeks.
Carla Zupanovich, a classmate of mine, had some shirt-tail relatives in old Yugoslavia who wanted a chance to improve their English reading and writing skills. So Miss Z became pen-pals with a second cousin back in the old country. Miss Z, apparently filled her letters with much juicy gossip from the hot social scene at Madera High. She intimately reported that in her algebra class "there were lots of real foxes!!!!!" [I think this is how high school girls write?????]
Of course, Miss Z's sighting of "real foxes", did not mean "real foxes", but "real foxes" as a term for some cute male classmates [No, I was not even in her league]. But when the old country cousin translated the letter from America, she understood real fox to mean a real fox, in fact several real foxes!!!!! The Yugoslav relative wrote back and inquired about the American educational system, where quadratic equations were held in such close proximity to wild animals. If in fact real foxes were allowed into school, she expressed concern that "reading algebra with a real fox, is not that very dangerous?"
Only in America --
Would you like your variable in a box?
Would you like it with a fox? -- Dr. Seuss
Grant was invited by the lovely Miss Kerrie Fox to attend her Prom [See Prom Prom; April, 2011]. Grant and Kerrie are in the same church youth group, but attend different High Schools. This was to be Senior Prom #1 (last week April 30). I don't know how much dancing goes on at Prom, but I do know that parents have to do a lot of fancy dancing while trying to impart wisdom to our son without seeming as if we are running his life and forcing him into decisions. For example; eight days before the event, a dinner table discussion was attempted by Mom;
"Have you thought about a flower corsage for Kerrie?
Do you know what color dress she will be wearing?
Maybe you can talk to your sister and find out what would be good..."
With 3 questions/suggestions in a row. It was too much. Grant abruptly cleared his plate from the table and went and sat in front of the computer.
A few days later, Grant and I met after school and went to the florist to pick out a rose wrist corsage with ribbon to match Kerrie's green dress. Grant told the florist, "As far as my fashion sense goes, I know jeans go with T-shirts, after that I am lost." I think between the two of us we did fine. The next challenge was dressing Grant. He needed a necktie to go with his pinstripe suit and mint green shirt. I pulled 3 choices from my trove of seldom used neck-wear. Grant sent photos via his phone to his sister in Oregon, showing each of the 3 ties matched with his shirt . Inga told him to wear the solid black silk necktie.
On Thursday night before the Prom, there was a dinner at the Fox family house to plan out Saturday's events and timetable. Grant was to provide the bread. After school he stopped at the grocer's and bought a tube of "bam biscuits", followed the cooking directions and confidently left the house for his dinner engagement with a basket of hot, fresh baked bread. He returned in a very upbeat mood with an empty bread basket, saying all the kids at dinner were "cool", though he knew only the two Fox sisters. His baking skills were suitably admired by the ladies.
Prior to his invitation to the Berkner High Prom, the limo had already been arranged, so he was off the hook for that touch of class. On Saturday, I loaded him with cash and off he went in pinstripes and black tie to escort Miss Fox for a grand evening. They formed a party of 10, five ladies from Berkner High escorted by young men - none of which were students at Berkner. I am not sure what this says about Berkner High and its population of senior males. Dinner reservations were for a table of ten at Benihana's, followed by the Prom at the Sheraton Hotel Ballroom in Las Colinas (on the west side of Dallas).
The dog barked from our bedroom at 1 AM as Grant returned, thumped upstairs and then down again, rummaged in the laundry closet and then continued rushing about the house in the wee hours. I got out of bed and asked about the need for all this noise. He was looking for his bathing suit. Neither of us could find it, So he decide he'd swim in a pair of basketball shorts. With that solved, it was off into the night once again. I made no jokes about skinny dipping. Nor did I joke about my definition of a successful Prom Night - A night when No life was destroyed and No life was created.
He can now claim that he attended Senior Prom with a real Fox. In Yugoslavia they may think to ask, "Is not dancing with a real fox very dangerous?"
Grant returned at 3 AM, he has since been mum on any real details, so I do not know how dangerous it was to spent the night with Kerrie Fox, a real fox. But if I had to guess, I would guess that it all went pretty well, Grant handling any dangerous situation with aplomb. I'd say attending Senior Prom with a Fox is way better than going with a hound.
[At Grant's request - No photo session is to be made public. But you can get a glimpse by digging into this blog's archive: "Home Coming", November, 2010]
When I was in High School, Yugoslavia still had a seat in the United Nations.
And in those days of yore it was not uncommon to have a "pen-pal", that is someone from a different country with whom you corresponded. As ridiculous as it now seems, people (even high school students) took the time to actually compose a letter on a piece of paper with a pen, and once finished writing, would then sealed the letter in an envelope and then air mail it to a person in a different country. This form of communication could take weeks.
Carla Zupanovich, a classmate of mine, had some shirt-tail relatives in old Yugoslavia who wanted a chance to improve their English reading and writing skills. So Miss Z became pen-pals with a second cousin back in the old country. Miss Z, apparently filled her letters with much juicy gossip from the hot social scene at Madera High. She intimately reported that in her algebra class "there were lots of real foxes!!!!!" [I think this is how high school girls write?????]
Of course, Miss Z's sighting of "real foxes", did not mean "real foxes", but "real foxes" as a term for some cute male classmates [No, I was not even in her league]. But when the old country cousin translated the letter from America, she understood real fox to mean a real fox, in fact several real foxes!!!!! The Yugoslav relative wrote back and inquired about the American educational system, where quadratic equations were held in such close proximity to wild animals. If in fact real foxes were allowed into school, she expressed concern that "reading algebra with a real fox, is not that very dangerous?"
Only in America --
Would you like your variable in a box?
Would you like it with a fox? -- Dr. Seuss
Grant was invited by the lovely Miss Kerrie Fox to attend her Prom [See Prom Prom; April, 2011]. Grant and Kerrie are in the same church youth group, but attend different High Schools. This was to be Senior Prom #1 (last week April 30). I don't know how much dancing goes on at Prom, but I do know that parents have to do a lot of fancy dancing while trying to impart wisdom to our son without seeming as if we are running his life and forcing him into decisions. For example; eight days before the event, a dinner table discussion was attempted by Mom;
"Have you thought about a flower corsage for Kerrie?
Do you know what color dress she will be wearing?
Maybe you can talk to your sister and find out what would be good..."
With 3 questions/suggestions in a row. It was too much. Grant abruptly cleared his plate from the table and went and sat in front of the computer.
A few days later, Grant and I met after school and went to the florist to pick out a rose wrist corsage with ribbon to match Kerrie's green dress. Grant told the florist, "As far as my fashion sense goes, I know jeans go with T-shirts, after that I am lost." I think between the two of us we did fine. The next challenge was dressing Grant. He needed a necktie to go with his pinstripe suit and mint green shirt. I pulled 3 choices from my trove of seldom used neck-wear. Grant sent photos via his phone to his sister in Oregon, showing each of the 3 ties matched with his shirt . Inga told him to wear the solid black silk necktie.
On Thursday night before the Prom, there was a dinner at the Fox family house to plan out Saturday's events and timetable. Grant was to provide the bread. After school he stopped at the grocer's and bought a tube of "bam biscuits", followed the cooking directions and confidently left the house for his dinner engagement with a basket of hot, fresh baked bread. He returned in a very upbeat mood with an empty bread basket, saying all the kids at dinner were "cool", though he knew only the two Fox sisters. His baking skills were suitably admired by the ladies.
Prior to his invitation to the Berkner High Prom, the limo had already been arranged, so he was off the hook for that touch of class. On Saturday, I loaded him with cash and off he went in pinstripes and black tie to escort Miss Fox for a grand evening. They formed a party of 10, five ladies from Berkner High escorted by young men - none of which were students at Berkner. I am not sure what this says about Berkner High and its population of senior males. Dinner reservations were for a table of ten at Benihana's, followed by the Prom at the Sheraton Hotel Ballroom in Las Colinas (on the west side of Dallas).
The dog barked from our bedroom at 1 AM as Grant returned, thumped upstairs and then down again, rummaged in the laundry closet and then continued rushing about the house in the wee hours. I got out of bed and asked about the need for all this noise. He was looking for his bathing suit. Neither of us could find it, So he decide he'd swim in a pair of basketball shorts. With that solved, it was off into the night once again. I made no jokes about skinny dipping. Nor did I joke about my definition of a successful Prom Night - A night when No life was destroyed and No life was created.
He can now claim that he attended Senior Prom with a real Fox. In Yugoslavia they may think to ask, "Is not dancing with a real fox very dangerous?"
Grant returned at 3 AM, he has since been mum on any real details, so I do not know how dangerous it was to spent the night with Kerrie Fox, a real fox. But if I had to guess, I would guess that it all went pretty well, Grant handling any dangerous situation with aplomb. I'd say attending Senior Prom with a Fox is way better than going with a hound.
[At Grant's request - No photo session is to be made public. But you can get a glimpse by digging into this blog's archive: "Home Coming", November, 2010]
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