This discussion of long-ago places to hang out takes me back in time to our early teen age years when we were all trying so hard to be grown up.  I can remember Shadrack, the Jr. High social club.  It is hard to imagine we had a social club at 12 years old.  We could pledge when we were in the 8^th grade and be members in the 9^th grade.  Remember the ‘pledging experiences’ when we all ran around offering a box of candy to members and saying “Can I do anything for you today, Mam?”.   

Then there was the era of the ‘blow-up bras’ which were especially popular when we were waiting to develop.  These bras came with a little straw you used to blow them to be the size you wanted for the day.  The boys got wind of these and were rumored to carry pins around to stick in the girl’s boobs.  They would test you to see those who noticed with a scream and those who were unaware that anything had happened and soon became lopsided.  Then the jig would be up. 

I believe I was in about 7^th grade when I started shaving my legs and experimenting with make-up.  My mother loudly disapproved of both as she thought I was way too young to begin this behavior.  She would tell me horror stories to scare me into not shaving my legs such as it would encourage hair growth and soon my legs would have the texture of a grown man’s shaven face and would ponder the question of could your legs actually grow a beard if you quit shaving them. 

Then there were the ‘can-can’ petticoats’.  We would wash them, then starch them without diluting the starch, then spread them out to dry in the sun on a flat surface.  When dry, they would stand out perpendicular.  Most of us had more than one but we had no problem deciding which one to wear because we wore them all.   They were so hot in the summer time my legs would sweat.   I would sit in class and wonder of the sweat on my legs would combine with the undiluted starch in my petticoat and would turn into a paste and get on my legs.  

I think my active imagination was stimulated by the imagination my mother modeled in the crap she told to get me to check my behavior.  Maybe I will get up the nerve to tell you what she said would happen if I sat in a boy’s lap.