With my birthday coming up in the month of December I have been reminiscing over some of my past birthday parties. One in particular came to mind:
My grandparents live on a huge farm. Their farm is the reason that I tell everyone I’m half city, half country. I know what it’s like to drive a tractor 2 miles down a gravel road because I’ve gotten my car stuck somewhere in the mud in the middle of freakin’ woods & the tractor is the only way to get it out. I grew up climbing trees, swinging on tire swings, eating vegetables straight from a garden, running from lots of cows, feeding alligators raw meat in a river, attempting the mysterious cow tipping, and all kinds of other things I’ve never told my parents that I did in the fields (there are things I’m pretty sure I’d still get grounded for if they found out about them 🙂
When I was turning 13, my mom and dad told me that I could have a huge birthday party inviting my ENTIRE 7th grade class and some of the 8th grade and the best part was it was going to be at my grandparents’ house about 45 minutes outside of town. It was the coolest party ever!
We met at the school, got in the caravan, & down to the grents’ place for a huge hayride & bonfire. My dad drove the tractor with the trailer behind it with tons of hay bales & then after that was over we went to the bonfire and roasted marshmallows.
I think one of my favorite parts of the party was when the “popular” 8th grade girl, Emily*, asked me to take her and some other people through the woods. Who knows why she wanted to go in there, but I did it, because trust me when the brat, who was the world’s meanest girl in the 8th grade Emily asked you to do something, you usually did it.
So, I took her out there with other people in tow, I was the only one with a flashlight, and being the nerd that I was I was telling all these scary stories about “dangerous animals” that lived back there. I kept telling her to make sure that we didn’t go too far back there because she would get seriously, seriously hurt. And right when I finished the story, I shined my flashlight straight ahead and there were two spots reflected back that looked just like two, very scary, very hungry eyes. Emily screamed and ran as fast as she could back towards the house, got lost, and I saw no point in helping her find her way back. She could deal.
The “eyes” were just two little reflectors that had been stuck to the tree to mark it so that it could be cut down for timber later on. I knew exactly what I was shining my light on.
Revenge on the mean, popular girl. Check. Having a cool birthday party that got me a few new frienemies who were nicer to me when we went back to school on Monday. Check. A very good memory and a very good birthday party thrown for me by the people who loved me unconditionally. Check. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday party!
That party started a tradition too. Every one of my siblings had a birthday party when they turned 13. And every single one of them was a LOT of fun!
*Name changed for her sake. 🙂
that sounds absolutely awesome!! How fun! And I LOVE that Emily freaked out. Love!
If I coinummcated I could thank you enough for this, I’d be lying.
Good memories!! I think I was at a couple of those birthday parties!
That's such a great story! And I can just imagine a snotty girl in the grade ahead of me…and how much fun it would have been to scare her. Bwahaha!!!
I just saw a comment on Facebook a couple of days ago, someone referring to a grade school party at the skating rink in my home town. Fun times!