I recently found out that my very best friend from high school just died, heard it was cancer but no specifics. Her name was Helen and she was my first friend that I made when we moved to this new school district, starting high school. I don’t remember what brought us together but we were inseparable and had lots of fun times.
I was always hanging out at her house. My mother wasn’t welcoming to any friends and it wasn’t a friendly atmosphere at all. You could walk to her house from our high school, so that is what we would do. We both loved The Beatles and couldn’t wait for their new albums to come out, (individual ones). She got “McCartney” and I got “Living in the Material World.” We would devour them from cover to cover.
When I went to Helen’s house, you went through the living room. Her father was always there sitting on the couch in the dark with the TV on and a beer in his hand. He couldn’t speak, only kind f grunt. I knew he was sick but didn’t ask and was never told what was wrong with him. Her mother worked in the local deli/butcher shop. This was the first time I had seen someone my age do laundry and prepare dinner. My mother wouldn’t let me do anything. If I wanted to make cupcakes or a cake, she would say she is too busy.
She had a twin brother, a real geek, and a younger sister and a really cool big brother who let her take his camaro and ride around, which we did, a lot. Even more important, her mother got a brand new beautiful cobalt blue 73/74 chevy Nova. We took that car and went down to Peekskill riverfront, (all dirt) and did donuts for hours. We’d go down to 6th St., Steamboat Dock, dead ends and do more donuts. She let me drive it and do donuts too! If her mother only knew!
Helen also had an outside door in her room. Needless to say I spent the night at her house a lot. We had friends, (guys) that lived 3 houses away and never seemed to have any supervision. There were 2 older sisters that were never around and 3 brothers. I went out with the older one, (another story in the “men pages) Anyway they always had parties and we went to all of them and drank till we puked, Does anyone remember Tango, a screwdriver in a bottle. I know that I barfed drinking that many times! We also smoked cigarettes and got high.
Helen was also my skipping partner. We skipped many classes. In my junior year during lunch, I worked in the asst. principle’s office while the secretary went to lunch. The asst. principal is where you were sent if you got in trouble. My handwriting was the same as the secretary’s, I didn’t even have to try. I used to take late passes and write them for myself and Helen. I never did get caught.
Helen’s mother would take them every year to Seaside Heights, NJ and invited me to go. We were up on the boardwalk, under the boardwalk, getting high, meeting boys. I went with them twice, always a good time.
During a class trip to Playland we thought we were doing THC and it ended up being PCP. Wow! I’ll never forget getting off the bus and not feeling myself walking. Ended up on the benches by the water most of the time hallucinating. I saw God come out of the water and some other things. After awhile we were able to walk around and I remember going on the merry go round, thinking it was the baby one, but it was the race horses and hanging on for life! We had other friends that stayed with us during our trip. You can see in my yearbook, they’re signed as our baby sitters!
In the 11th grade Helen quit school, left home and went to live with her boyfriend, (he had his own apartment). I too left home and stayed there. I ran away a lot during high school, always to a friends house. She was quitting school for good and I didn’t want to, so I went home and went back to school.
We did stay close after she quit school but I did move on with other friends that were in school. I was pregnant at 18 and married and Helen was in my wedding. She also got married and I was in her wedding. Her husband drove a diaper delivery truck and gave me free diaper service. There were disposable diapers, but since the service was free I used it. We lived in the same apartment building.
Her marriage broke up first. One night she called me and said she had to stop by. I said sure and she came with my ex-brother-in-law!! This was my sisters ex husband. My sister is nine years older than me and so was he. I lost respect for her that night and also him, who I really looked up to. She thought I would be happy. I acted cool and never said anything to either of them.
We went separate ways, I moved to Florida. I heard she gave her daughter to her in-laws to raise. She came over my house a few times in my 30’s, but we never connected. When I was diagnosed with MS, I got a phone call one day and it was her. She had heard that I had MS and proceeded to tell me that is what her father had all those years ago. It was obvious that she felt sorry for me. At the time, I couldn’t see past that, and didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. In looking back, of course she would, watching her father deteriorate all those years. It’s very sad. In his time there were no new medications that held off the disease.