highline56 Vignettes

Speaking of memories, some of my favorites, dredged from the midnight wakefulness:
1) Sigrid Arntsen singing "I'm Jest a Gal Who Can't Say No," in particular, and all of Punky's musical spectaculars.

2) Attempting to water-ski in my father's ante-deluvian fiberglass boat on south beach of Three Tree Point; I was driving and Dick Nord was attempting to ski, always chancy with the small outboard motor and weight of the boat. The nose of the boat was at almost 180 degrees in the air, and I could see, looking back (the only way I could look, with the bow straight up), that Dick's face was troubled. I swung the boat 90 degrees to port - for no good reason; it just seemed like a good idea - and missed the sailboat I was about to broadside by inches. We called the whole thing off after that.

3) Shouting all the way through the tunnel on the way to the floating bridge, on the ski bus up to Snoqualmie. The deal was to stop all at once.

4) The short-lived drill team (makes me amused now to see the high school dance teams such a big deal, but I think their costuming is different). We had little stiff round hats like hat boxes in purple satin with purple and gold satin outfits. We must have brought organ-grinder monkeys to mind, because at our first appearance, people threw pennies. I don't remember any appearances after that.

5) Sigrid Arntsen's lightning class sailboat, which she was afraid to sail. So we rowed with canoe paddles down to DesMoines. We failed to take into account that going TO DesMoines was with the tide, and coming home was against it. A group of us, maybe including Babs Hendry, sailed to Vashon - audacious, considering Sigrid didn't want to put the sails up - and I was sent to the Three Tree Point store for soup. When we got to Vashon and had built a pitiable fire, I discovered I had bought one can of beef bouillon and one of chicken rice. Vile.
and finally, 6) When the Delta Delta Delta girls came to interview me, during the summer before starting college, my brother was on the roof pelting cars with water balloons. The police came to the door. That's ok. I wasn't much drawn to the peaches-and-cream pink and baby blue angora, anyway.