The Impoverished Gentlewoman

A '60s woman lost in the woods.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Spring Breaks

I didn't want this to be a seasonal entry because strange as it seems, when it comes to spring break, American society has regressed. Natalee Holloway,girls gone wild,being abducted and sold to white slavers,etc. I'm not going to see a documentary titled "College coeds in an Algerian brothel-how they escaped" and think,"gosh, that brings back warm,fuzzy memories about how it was in my day". Because thats where it all started. What went wrong?
When I was high school age (I say this because I never went to a typical high school.Rather, small private schools) I was too busy perfecting my role as Laura in my very own Glass Menagerie. However, I did read "Where the Boys Are" which unlike the movie, was rather dark and depressing. It was really a cautionary tale for young women.
I went to a private womens college for two years where I insisted on living. I had several groups of friends, very different from each other. Mary Cunningham was a commuter student from Deerfield. I used to hang out with her and her friends in Ft. Lauderdale(where they went to high school. Delray and Boca were almost villages then, absolutely nothing to do). That was my more normal experiences(drinking contraband beer,going to drive-in-movies to make fun of couples). It gave me high school experiences I never had. My roommate for the latter half of freshman year was Ginny, who hailed from a very wealthy New York family. I didn't care for her friends very much. They had names like "Daffy" and "Muffy" and would bounce into the room screaming "Ma Gaud! I have nothing to wear!!!". And then there was Carol who was the class intellectual. We were roommates in our second and last year. She would spray our room with 4711 every night to give us "sophisticated dreams".
But heres the thing-that year there was a class trip at spring break-to Nassau. Where Carol's family lived! So poverty-stricken as usual, I was able to indulge, even if it wasn't with the "class". It was actually a better deal (for innocents at least). We were well-fed, spent the day at the beach a block away or on Bay St. We went to the bars at night (no drinking age). James Bond fever was in full gear. I absolutely worshipped Sean Connery and they were filming "Thunderball" while we were there. They had "Junkanu"-spelling? which was a New Years celebration & parade for the film. I saw Sean Connery and felt I was in heaven. But when we all returned to school, there were fireworks. It seems as though the "class" who stayed at the hotel on the beach had boys in their rooms. They were called into the Mother Superior's office. Sixteen in all. The ones who told the truth were given a slap on the wrist. The ones who lied were expelled. Alas, Daffy and Muffy were no more.
The next year was more pedestrian. I went to the "Strip" with Mary and her friends. For those not familiar with South Florida, the strip is along the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. It got pretty raunchy at spring break(like the movie!), especially when the fleet was in. The most notorious place was the Elbow Room, a very sleazy bar. It was very large, I remember. I took a dare to run in,hit the back wall. A more adventurous friend went all the way upstairs and back but she was crying when she came out. We swore off sailors. And we were such babies...I smile at the thought. Many close calls but we gave each other false confidence.
When I was at the University of Florida, I gave spring break one more chance. I met Martha in a hall closet at a party my roommates were throwing. She was consoling a boy who thought he'd contracted mumps and was now sterile. I helped them finish off a bottle of Jack Daniels. We ended up in a fit of giggles. Martha was tall, Southern and very funny. We decided to go to Daytona Beach with an old roomie of mine,Jan. It was fun driving on the hard beach. But apparently, a religious group complained about "goings on" and alot of people had left. There was a dance going on behind walls. Live band, sounded good. So we pooled our money to get in and it turned out to be....a high school dance. Jan & I were afraid Martha would get arrested and we finally convinced her to leave. We broke the hearts of some teenage boys, I know. On our way back, we stopped at one of those anonymous bars in one of those anonymous strip malls and laughed because everything went so badly. Everytime I hear "Martha,my dear" I think of my last venture into Spring Break.
It was time to put away our childish things and go to the next thing.

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