by Sheri White
The summer of 1981 was the best summer of my teen years; I’ve mentioned that before. Kevin and I were wildly in love, school was out and life was good. Except for the fact that my mom had recently forbidden me to see Kevin! I was crushed. But supposedly he was a bad influence (may or may not have been true) and I was to stay away from him.
Have I mentioned I have a bit of a rebellious streak? My mom worked full-time and I had the entire summer to myself; I wasn’t working yet. I was on my own from early morning until early evening – sometimes longer because my mom was now dating the man who would become my step dad. Plus I went to the pool everyday, and so did Kevin. I’m still not sure how my mom thought I wouldn’t see him.
But in addition to seeing him at the pool, we snuck around, still dating. The woods behind the pool were a great place for hanging out and partying, and Kevin and I and our friends were in them almost every night. We all drank a little beer, laughed, talked, and just enjoyed the summer. Kevin and I would slink off and make out on a fallen log. It was glorious.
Have you heard the Kid Rock song “All Summer Long?” That was my summer in 1981.
One day we headed up to the mall to see the new Brooke Shields movie Endless Love. I fell so hard for that movie. Two teenagers deeply in love who got to party and spend the night with each other with the blessing of her parents? Talk about a fantasy movie! Of course, it ended in tragedy, but I could overlook that, as could Brooke Shields as Jade.
Her boyfriend burns her house down in the hopes he could save her and look like a hero? Yes, please – what devotion! Teenage girls are so messed up. I should know, I have two and one who is now in her 20s.
One night while we were hanging out in the woods, Kevin decided he really didn’t like sneaking around, and asked if I’d mind if he talked to my mom. I was skeptical about how that would go, but agreed. It would be nice to see each other without lying about where I was and who I was with.
Somehow, it worked. He may have been somewhat of a bad influence at times, but he was certainly a charmer. He told my mom he had no bad intentions towards me, and wouldn’t drink around me anymore (LOL). But she bought it, and we were free to see each other, just in time for the big party down on the Mall in DC on the 4th of July.
The rest of the summer was great. We went to DC again to participate in a giant tug-of-war sponsored by Howard Stern – who was funny back in 1981, we saw the debut of MTV together and hung out at the pool and in the woods a lot. We also saw Endless Love a couple more times, and I couldn’t listen to the theme song often enough, probably to the irritation of my mom.
Unfortunately, summer ends all too soon and so did Kevin and I – again. Once school started we didn’t see each other as much. Then there was a Halloween party I couldn’t go to because I was grounded, and I found out later that he had made out with another girl at the party – and someone showed me a picture to prove it.
I was crushed. I guess I wasn’t going to get my house burned down by an obsessive love anytime soon.
But Christmas was coming, and it was Kevin I’d be going with to the formal school dance.
