Saturday, January 24, 2009

high school date disaster

I got an out of the blue phone call from an old friend the other day. Amy and I met in Mrs. Dupont's Algebra class. We were both among some of the only freshman in the class, and we were both taking it for the second time. Both our brains are better wired for the world of literature and the humanities. We hit it off right away, and enjoyed plenty of times through high school.  And if "enjoyed" isn't the right word, then "survived" would be.

We got to reminiscing, and this one group date we went on came up... 

Our dates consisted of some of MHS's finest. My date happened to be our Valedictorian and the rest of them were sitting in the top twenty, for sure. Smart guys. Fun guys. Failed-to-fully-plan guys. 

We met up early. We filled up a suburban and a minivan -so there was more than ten of us, the actual number I can't remember. I CAN remember though, that our destination was somewhere near Strawberry, and that at least a FULL hour AFTER we passed our turn off, they realized it. 

They finally found the place they had planned on, and we began to hike in to the place that we were going. We, being the girls, didn't know where exactly that was -we just knew that we had been told to bring suits and towels. The hike in was a little longer than I think they realized. It took us awhile, but we did get there. And "there" was pretty cool. It wasn't a lake, but it was large enough to swim and dive in. It was rather secluded and we enjoyed the air and sunshine and water. It was worth the hike in. But maybe not the hike out.

Because we had lost the time in getting there, they pushed our time there as far as they could, and then some. The sun was starting to set and we knew we were in a hurry. They had promised our parents we'd be home around six or six thirty. I don't know how they planned it out. I DO know that the next thing I knew we were climbing onto a water pipe that wrapped itself down the mountain. All however many of us, began running down this plank -it was just wide enough to run on, and under it was rusting pieces of sheet metal, and under the sheet metal was water, rushing in the same direction we were. Totally unsafe, but kind of a fun little adventure... 

It took awhile, but we finally got to the end of it -only to find that it dropped us off in a place away from the minivan. Luckily there was a guy in a truck that happened to be there and we explained to him what was going on -and then we all hopped in the back of his truck and he took us up to the minivan -which we all squashed into and drove back up to the suburban.

It was almost dark by then, and I was starting to stress about being so late. Of all my friends, I hands down had the strictest set of parents and six thirty was the absolute latest that I could possibly walk in the door without being in some serious trouble. I couldn't believe no body had thought to bring along a cell phone. 

We probably would have made it in decent time if two things hadn't happened.

One: The tire on the suburban had gone flat.

Two: They tried to put the mini van's spare on the suburban -which, of course, didn't work.

It ended up that all of us had to pile into the minivan all the way to Payson. We were crammed in there like the clowns in the circus. We stopped at the McD's in Payson and realized that we didn't have enough change to call everybody's parents from the pay phone. One of the boys had very responsibly left a paper next to his phone at home with everybody's names and home phone numbers. He insisted he'd call his dad and have his dad call everybody on the list to tell them what was going on and that we were safe and on our way home. By that time I wasn't the only one stressing about it. So he called, and we breathed easier, and after we had a bite to eat inside -we went to get into the minivan and guess what...

 The driver had left the keys in the ignition and locked the doors.

Great. Now what? We stood around for a few minutes trying to decide what to do -and then someone who had their car keys tried and miracle of miracle's their keys opened the minivan. 

It was pushing midnight when I got home -and it was so not good. I had never before and never since seen my dad so upset. The father who was supposed to call and tell everyone's parents that we were okay, didn't. My parent's weren't the only ones who had hit a panic mode... bishops had been called, Sheriff's offices had been notified...

It's laughable now, but not then. 

SO, now that I shared my most memorable high school date disaster I want to hear yours!

10 comments:

Amy said...

HA!

Those really were some good times. :)

Jillene said...

MHS?! I went to MHS--I wonder if it's the same one?!

Caroline C. Bingham said...

Oh there's so many. However will I narrow it down?

Heidi said...

Oh me, oh my, oh dear! Hey, I tagged you!

Krissa said...

Oh my! Wow...that sounds like a pretty horrible date...haha...thanks for sharing :)

Jessica said...

LOL.. I did it... I shared it, its on my blog.

LoraBelieves said...

Me too! I shared my most disastrous! Check it out if you want.

LoraBelieves said...

Me too! I shared my most disastrous! Check it out if you want.

Laurie said...

No comment.

Hahaha... :)

Debi (Dubs2007) said...

I guess I've missed some fun stories while I've been "takin care of sick kids..." that is amazing that you survived! my dad would have totally grounded me for life if I'd been that late,..