November 22, 2015-

Birthday Parties and Game Shows

 I just remembered that even at my own slumber party I got made fun out of which was so upsetting. I ran upstairs where I stayed for a few minutes and was crying a little. I think that was in 1981 and that 8 or 9 of my classmates were at it. Mom knitted mittens for all of them. We were sleeping in our furnished cellar.

   Something kind of funny did happen that night. We looked out the window and saw the shadow of someone smoking a cigarette which did scare us but it just turned out to be my Aunt Joan.

   Why did a few of us put a paper plate with potato chips on it on the stomach of Sandy who was sleeping? That was sort of crazy. I don’t recall what her reaction to that was.

   I was at Sandy’s b-day party and also 3 slumber type ones- Nancy, Michelle G and Ellen’s. It would have been 4 if I hadn’t been afraid of the 2 very popular girls that Michelle T invited to it. I pretended that I was sick which I felt pretty bad about. I should have just gone. They had been at my party and also 2 or 3 of the others.

   I guess that the taunting from my classmates was even worse at that time. She stopped being my friend shortly after this. I’m sure that it was another case of me not being cool enough for her like with my best friend Kelly.

   Maybe another factor was that she was upset that I had forgotten to put her name on the list of friends in the School Days book that Aunt Ann gave me. I felt awful about this and even apologized. I still have that; my report cards are in it.

   My friend Jane’s birthday was around Halloween time. She had a combo party but the only thing that I remember about this was hiding behind the couch just to see if anyone would notice that I was missing. Did they or was I just getting bored and eventually rejoined the party? I was a strange kid.

  Ellen’s b-day/ slumber party also included a trip to the roller rink but I didn’t do much skating because I was too scared. I had broken my arm doing so at my Aunt Ann’s house only about a year before this.

    Part of one of my birthday parties was at a bowling alley. I was not that good at this but did have fun.  I enjoyed watching the Professional Bowling (ABC Sports, I think) on TV with my family. Sometimes they’d use the song “Freeze Frame “before the commercial breaks. I’m almost certain that we watched a show called “Bowling for Dollars “too.

   My brother and I liked that and many other game shows. Our favorites were “Match Game”, “Hollywood Squares”, “The Joker’s Wild “, “Tic-Tac-Dough”, “Card Sharks”, “Wheel of Fortune”, “Name That Tune”, various versions of “Password” and “The Pyramid”, “Family Feud”, “Press Your Luck”, and “The Price is Right”; it is so cool that our grandma next door was in the audience for that in the late 70s.

 

 

 

Note-The 2 game show photos and Clark Lanes one are from the internet- I had posted more of the former but they weren't showing anymore- I never did claim them as my own so I am not sure why this happened.