Posted by:
catnip
(
)
Date: August 14, 2019 11:30PM
I had been part of one particular group (girls only) for about a year and a half. We had done things like going to a movie together, meeting for a Saturday lunch at a favorite restaurant, kid stuff like that. One of the girls invited the rest to a sleepover on a Friday night. I was thrilled. We chattered like squirrels - the hostess-girl had a swimming pool at her house!!
My parents reacted very negatively. Both said NO. My father (usually the more permissive one) told me, "Those are for college girls, not junior high girls." It turned into an unbelievably bad family brawl. I retaliated by totally refusing to participate in class, do homework, or study for tests. Teachers called my parents. I told my parents, "Let me go to the sleepover, and I'll 'do' school again." Every waking hour at home was filled with hostility. It was AWFUL.
My mother pointed out that I didn't even own a sleeping bag and would be "so ashamed" by taking blankets and a pillow. I wouldn't have cared.
After one of the most horrible weeks I can remember, my father presented me with a brand-new sleeping bag on Friday morning, and told me I could go. It was clear from my mother's behavior that she wasn't happy about this, but for once, Dad put his foot down.
When Mother drove me over to the girl's house (a lovely home in a very posh part of town), she informed the girl's mother that I was to go to bed at nine o'clock, and a lot of other nonsense. It was embarrassing to hear her rattle on, but the hostess-mom clearly understood that she was dealing with a nutcase, and agreed to everything, so that Mother would go away placidly and not yank me back out.
The hostess mom told me, "This is a sleepover. When you girls go to bed, or IF you go to bed, is up to you." OMG. I could hardly breathe; was this wonderfulness really happening?
We had so much fun. We played in the pool for a while, got out, ate barbecued hot dogs and burgers, gossiped like fiends, styled each other's hair, speculated on which guys at school were hottest. . .on and on. And then, around three in the morning, we decided to hit the pool again. It was Paradise.
I may have gone to other sleepovers, but I will never forget that one. We were all good friends anyway, but it seemed like we really bonded at that time. Later, we would be split up and many of those girls went to different high schools, but that memory is golden.
My girls were never invited to group sleepovers. They would be invited to spend the night with one girlfriend or another, and we always knew the parents, so it was never an issue.
My dear, sweet Dad - giving me that sleeping bag and allowing me to go to that sleepover! Over the next decade or two, that bag got a lot of mileage on it! Happy, happy memory!