LAVENDER, SENIOR PROM, AND GORDY

          There are different kinds of lavender and the one growing in my yard has been there for a very long time. I always wanted to grow it in the mounds you see on lavender farms, but I never was able to achieve that with mine. It’s sort of a shrub that has an interesting shape and I encourage that by how I prune.

          Last year I didn’t sit down on the deck and cut off all the dead blossom stalks, nor did I take the time to prune out the dead wood. I was amazed over winter to see the little birds going to the lavender stalks and eating the seeds. I believe I’ll save any pruning until the spring from now on. I like to watch the birds.

          In the process of going through those photos through 1963, I also found the photo from my senior prom. I went with my boyfriend of two years who had graduated from the same high school in 1961. I think that’s how we met, although I can’t remember exactly now. I do know that I went steady with him my junior and senior years. He broke up with me right after I graduated…imagine that!!!

          His name was Gordy and when his parents bought a new Studebaker, he was given the old one. It was gray and there are times I see a Prius that I’m reminded of that old car. Gordy attended what was then known as Everett Junior College while I was in high school. If he finished in time, he would wait in his car outside the south entry to the high school and give me a ride home. I felt very special and grown up to have a boyfriend that wasn’t in high school.

          My parents really liked Gordy and trusted him with me, and he never did anything to betray their trust, not even when he got me drunk. I was a junior then and some of the basketball and football players took to having lunch at my table. Looking back, I think it was probably because I was so innocent and naive…”What, you drink?” That comment by me was met with hysterical laughter on their part. I also wonder if some of the stories they told were fiction just to see how wide my eyes would get.

          Anyway, I decided I wanted to get drunk. Gordy wasn’t for that idea at all, but when I insisted I’d find someone to get drunk with, he caved. So, he picked me up and stopped by a little store on the way to his house…his parents were at their lake house that weekend. I was amazed he could buy beer at that little store. I often went there to buy candy and soda. When he came out with a six-pack, I scoffed to myself. I mean, really, only six beers.

          Well, I didn’t like the taste of beer, so drank two rather quickly. Imagine my surprise to find myself on the way to being drunk. I don’t remember if I had a third one or not. I do remember all the inhibitions I’d had in the past went by the wayside. I was determined to get into Gordy’s pants and he was just as determined that I wouldn’t. Yes, there was lots of heavy petting, but no matter what I said or what I did, there was no way I was going to end up out of my panties.

Eventually, I think he’d had enough of my attempts and told me to sit right there on the couch while he got me something to eat. It wasn’t even 10:00 pm and I was drunk and the evening was pretty much over. He drove to Dick’s Drive-in on 45^th and came back with cheeseburgers and French fries which he insisted I eat. There was no way he was going to take me home drunk.

          My curfew was 1:00 am. I woke up on Gordy’s couch at about 12:30 am. There was a blanket over me, the TV was on, but I couldn’t see Gordy anywhere. When I sat up, I found him. He was laying on the floor next to the couch sound asleep. I woke him up and he took me home. We never drank together again during our relationship. I still don’t much like beer.

          As I mentioned above, Gordy’s parents had a summer home on Lake Goodwin. We had some wonderful times up there during the two summers we were together. One year, Gordy took me on a hike through the woods to a house he and his childhood lake friends had found a number of years before. It was amazing and kinda scary. It had been trashed a bit, but not much. You could still see the table was set for a meal, the pots and pans on the stove had dried stuff in them, and absolutely nothing had been removed from the house, at least as far as you could tell. It was like the four occupants (four table settings) had simply walked out the door and never returned. Gordy said when he and his friends had found it, it really looked like the people who lived there would return any minute, but they never did.

          The World’s Fair was in Seattle in 1962, and Gordy and I went to every single exhibition. I had (and may still have in the attic in my trunk), the little book that had maps and explanations and lists of all the various exhibits. I remember marking each and every one off as we went through the Fair. I think we went either two or three times in order to get it all in. I also remember thinking that we’d live in one of those futuristic houses together once we married. And, just look at our clothes…Gordy in a tie and moi in nylons and a skirt. Amazing how public expectations have changed since then.

          After we went to my senior prom, we drove down to the ocean. I was allowed to stay out all night and didn’t return home until late the next day. I think I got horribly sunburned even though it wasn’t very sunny. The prom was okay, but Gordy was being kinda weird, especially through the night and next day. I guess it was his way of saying goodbye because he never called me after that. And girls didn't call boys way back then.

          I didn’t see him or hear from him again until after John and I separated and AJ was almost two years old. I don’t remember how he got hold of me, but I agreed to meet him for coffee after work one day. We met at some place in the University District, and he hadn’t changed one single bit. He still wore khakis, rolled his shirtsleeves up and had the same hairstyle. I was on my way to becoming a hippie and was attired in the latest fashion…platform shoes, wide-legged pants. We had a nice chat, and he told me the reason he broke up with me was because he thought I’d want to get married right away.  He also said he’d seen my brother and asked my brother to tell me he was sorry, that I should call him so we could get back together. This supposedly happened a couple of months after prom weekend, but my brother never said a word.

          From that point on, Gordy would call me every few years to see how I was doing. John didn’t like his calling and I always made the conversations short. The last time Gordy called I could tell he was drunk as he was sometimes when he called. He was being morose about how the biggest mistake of his life was breaking up with me, how he still loved me, etc. Many times, these were the topics of his conversations. I told him I’d have to call him back and asked for his number. He couldn’t believe I didn’t remember what it was because he was living in his parent’s house.

          I called Gordy back the next day. I explained I wanted to talk to him when he was sober. I told him I had a husband, sons and a grandchild and that I had no intention of changing my life. I told him I was sorry his life didn’t turn out as he wanted/expected, but that he should not ever call me again. I told him my husband didn’t appreciate the phone calls. I haven’t heard from him since and looking at these photos, I wonder if he’s still alive, still living in his parents’ house down by the zoo.