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Episode at the Mexican Border
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Episode at the Mexican Border |
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Jana Tovey Member
since 2000-05-30
Posts 257USA |
When I was a girl, I wanted to join one of those radical groups that changed the world...an underground movement, like the Weathermen...I wanted to dance naked at Woodstock, to live in a commune, do all those sixties-ish things that signified freedom to me at the time. So, what did I do? I eloped with a young man that I met in my last year of high school. Why? Well, there were various reasons... First, my family had moved again (for about the tenth time in my life) at the start of my senior year. We moved from Texas to Pig Farm, USA (representative of a tiny pig farming community in Illinois). Second, I had to take YET another state’s high school history class to graduate. Third, the other classes on offer there were so boring (no math, no science) that it was sheer hell to drag myself through the high school doors each day. Fourth, the first day there some guy ask me out and his girlfriend (a cheerleader) got really P.O.’ed, so I spent the entire year without any female friends, except one - who boxed me in the eye after she became pregnant (there’s more to this story, as I’m sure you can guess). Fifth, I was still a virgin and how was I ever going to lose my virginity in a place like this? Anyway, you know how one thing leads to another, in ways you can never imagine...but let me go back a bit. I don’t want to get ahead of myself here... Just imagine how different I must have appeared to the kids at Pig Farm High School! There I was, with my southern accent, dumped right smack in the middle of a town that hadn’t seen any new blood since the turn of the century. I never encouraged Mr. Popularity to ask me out, I hadn’t even noticed him...and in fact, I wasn’t even interested in him when I did notice him. He was just not my type. But did that matter one iota to Miss Popularity and her little clique? Of course not, and after several weeks of being shunned in the cafeteria and of being whacked repeatedly in my tender black and blue shins during field hockey games (their idea of P. E.), I decided to seek refuge with a young lady, who, for reasons not to be discussed here, was also at a loss for friends. She in turn introduced me to her boyfriend and they arranged a double date with one of his friend’s...well, the plot thickens from this point on. The friend was a nice young man, quiet and dark. He seemed to be very deep and thoughtful, which wasn’t really the case, but I was rather romantic back then and I thought I recognized a tragic character in this young man. And, my young girlfriend’s boyfriend was such a contrast...he was the world’s biggest a**hole. He drove like a lunatic. I routinely demanded that he stop and let me out of his car before he killed us all. One day he burned up the engine in his car ( a turquoise mustang - what a cliche), and while everyone else sympathized, all I could do was snicker. My friend was madly in love with this jerk and they were expressing their love in rather physical ways, so much so that I felt it my duty to tell my friend a thing or two about what I thought was going to happen IF she didn’t practice some sort of birth control! Would she listen? No...in fact she laughed, which prompted me to go that one step further. I told her she would end up pregnant, and mark my words, he would never marry her. Well, not too much time passed before my words became reality and, of course, she decided to punish the doomsayer, instead of the doom-doer, and that’s when she walked up to me in the hallway and blackened my eye. It was so bad that make-up wouldn’t cover it. And my own English teacher had observed the incident and at the end of it had shamefully looked the other way. Talk about feeling like an outsider (as if I didn’t already)! Besides this incident, the dreaded Illinois history exam was looming large, and I hadn’t even cracked open the book...my dad was being paranoid about me spending too much time with Mr. Dark and Deep, he was reneging on curfews, laying down the law about going steady (which had never even entered my mind)....until, WHAM!!...I’d had it and I was going to just show them all, boy you just wait and see! So, I did it! I lost my virginity one following night at the end of our country lane, and I’m not sure how, exactly...but my mom knew immediately after that it had happened. And did she ever give me heck...nagged me about it and all sorts of other unrelated things...until it all came to a head and she threatened to tell my dad all about it. The guilt trip!! And boy did I ever buy into it (yes, this is the girl who thought she wanted to dance naked at Woodstock) and I was so worried that my father would be disappointed in me for succumbing to this basest of all actions. My mom knew how to deliver the really low blows, although I don’t think she anticipated my reaction to her threat. That night, at the tender age of 17, I eloped to Mexico with Mr. Dark and Deep. It took us 4 days to get there. When we arrived, there was some sort of big festival going on over on the Mexican side...people were running around wildly in the streets...there were no vacancies at any of the hotels. So we decided to go back over to the Texas side of the border and try again, to get married, on the following day. When you look back on things you can see them from a completely different light, can’t you? Looking back now at then, I can understand why it looked so suspicious for two kids to drive over the border and return less than a half an hour later to the Texas side. And wouldn’t you know that the border patrol were really on the ball that day. They stopped us, took the car apart, searched us both (much to our discomfort) and came up with absolutely zilch. They weren’t happy. We weren’t happy. In fact, I was down right indignant, and I vocalized this to 6 or 7 of the border guys surrounding our car. That was a mistake, too, because the next question they asked was if we had any ID. And when they found out that I was a minor, they hauled my butt right on down to the city jail, asked me all sorts of questions regarding my background, and - when I wouldn’t answer - locked me up in one of the larger, empty cells. One policeman called out to me that he’d let me out when I gave him my dad’s name and phone number. Humph! Did I look like a fool...nothing would pry that information from my lips...or so I thought. Well, after they locked the door behind the 6th prostitute they’d picked up for the night (seems there was a big party going on on both sides of the border), I changed my mind. We (the nice policeman and myself) called my dad and arrangements were made for our safe return. I can’t begin to describe what happened from that point on. I somehow got myself backed into a corner of no return. My parents decided to sign for me to get married early, like I still wanted to...let’s face it - the adventure was over. Mr. Dark and Deep mightn’t have any depth, and I had plans, places to go, things to do. But I was proud, stubborn and not about to admit to defeat...so I ended up married at 17. And 2 weeks later, I was on the telephone trying to get the darned thing annulled. What do I remember most about this fiasco? I remember being bull-headed, selfish (it was all about me, me, me), confused, inexperienced, tempestuous, and foolish. I remember how it felt to jump from one flame to another, over and over again. I’ve changed, not all at once, but in small steps, for the better, I hope. It’s not easy to be objective about one’s self at 17. The things I remember from that time period are the variety of emotional highs and lows that I ran through in the course of less than 3 - 4 weeks. Those were the days when I knew exactly what the expression “cooked your goose” meant. Imagine how Mr. Dark and Deep must’ve felt? I feel enormously guilty about all the things I put this guy through. I just hope that he can finally look back and have a laugh at our Bonnie and Clyde dash across 4 states. [This message has been edited by Jana Tovey (edited 06-01-2000).] |
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Dusk Treader
Moderator
Senior Member
since 1999-06-18
Posts 1187St. Paul, MN |
Woowee, sounds like one heck of an adventure! I'm glad my sanity is kept within my school district.. I shouldn't subject people to my craziness, LOL. Things sure look different when you view them over your shoulder, eh? Abrahm Simons "In a moment lies eternity And in a kiss resides forever" - Krista Knutson my bestest friend! |
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JamesMichael Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336Kapolei, Hawaii, USA |
Jana I had one of these adventures also when I was 21 and she was 17...we drove from California to Mexico..stopped in to visit some of her relatives in San Diego first..and we were busted...when we arrived at the Mexican border all the authorities had been notified...seems as if her mom thought we were going into Mexico to get married..and apparantly she didn't approve. We called her mom and I was told that I better get her home within 4 hours or the police would be paying me a visit. James |
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Dawn Eclipse Senior Member
since 2000-01-31
Posts 637The Horsehead Nebula |
Seemed like you had quite an adventure, eh? Great story! Hope to see more in the future! "Even a fool knows you can't touch the stars, but it doesn't stop a wise man from trying." Harry Anderson, "Night Court" *Cassandra Roseen* |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
ROFL@jmlee Does sound like an adventure... get it out of your system???  |
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