Thursday Thirteen

My oldest daughter's birthday is next week - she is turning 13 - a teenager! Besides feeling old, and wanting my tiny blue-eyed baby back, I've been thinking about my own teenage years, and praying that she never follows in my footsteps. (Although admittedly, some of it was a lot of fun!) So since she is never going to see this list, here are......

Thirteen stupid things I did as a teenager:


1. Went tubing down a swollen river with a bunch of friends - none of us wore life jackets.

2. When my friend's parents went away, we took the old station wagon out for a joyride. The car wasn't insured, and not one of us had a drivers license. It broke down about 3 miles from her house - we left it there and laughed the whole walk home.

3. We lived in the country, and all us girls rode our dirt bikes everywhere - and never wore helmets.

4. I frequently had my mother drop me off at double features at the drive-in (remember those?), which I never had any intention of seeing. As soon as her tail lights rounded the corner, I was long gone and would get back just in time to be picked up. (Well, except on that one occasion when I didn't make it back in time and she called the police. That was fun.)

5. We would hang around the 7-11 on weekends until we found someone (usually some older, creepy guy) to get us beer.

6. We would then drink the beer behind the Catholic Church.

7. I walked into the liquor store when I was 14 and bought my first bottle of peach cooler. At 16, I could make it into the bar.

8. A continuation of #2 - while that same friend's parents were away, we had the biggest party our little town had ever seen, and made enough money from empties to buy a flat of beer for the next night.

9. I went to my first house party in Grade 8 - most of the people there were 16 and up. I hid my beer when I saw my Science teacher, but realized he wasn't exactly in a position to rat me out.

10. I got engaged when I was 16 to a guy who was 23. I later married him at 18, and divorced him at 20.

11. My Mom went away one weekend with a friend and forgot to take the spare keys to her Camero. I was 15 and put 300 kms on it in two days. We thought driving it backwards up and down the driveway would make things right again. Nope.

12. Rode in the back of trucks more times than I can count - usually on my way to a bush party.

13. Almost didn't make it back into Canada once after getting caught drinking at a little roadside tavern in Idaho (where the legal age was 21).

So what about you guys? Do any stupid things as a teenager? Are you like me and could probably do a 'Thursday 30' for this subject? :-)