I am at home today with my children for inclement weather from Hurricane Ida. I’ve seen a lot of posts of pictures of kids crouching in the halls during bad weather with captions referring to how we handled weather then vs. now. Seeing the kids in the hallways got me thinking about my view of school as a young teenager in the late 90’s. So, I thought I’d share some things that would have made you want to sing, It was a Good Day by Ice Cube, or if it was a bad day maybe turn to Alanis Morrisette’s famous album Jagged Little Pill or Green Day’s Nimrod to help with your teen angst.

I can always remember these weather drills because it never failed, I was sure to be wearing a dress or a skirt. With my bottom in the air, I always feared my underwear would be showing. It felt like the longest 10 minutes of my life. I’m not sure any of us enjoyed being in this position for periods of time except if you happened to be by a friend and could sneak in some conversation but teachers would constantly yell “Keep your head down; no talking!” Safety first, right?

Some days’ success could be measured by what the lunchroom was serving. If it was 1996 and you found yourself at U.S. Jones Elementary School, you had two options “Meat 1” and “Meat 2”. These options were laminated for you to present to the lunchroom worker (not having the option to view before making your careful selection). Sometimes to your detriment, what you thought sounded good did not look good but once you were line there was no turning back. For a lot of kids, Crispitos or affectionately called “Crispy Toes” were a favorite. Crispitos could turn around a bad morning. Sadly, Tyson is cancelling this old fan favorite leaving some of us who still work in education singing Say it ain’t so!

Becoming a woman is something that is to be embraced as you enter middle and high school. However, each of us enters this joyous (yeah right!) occasion at different times. If you believed what Judy Blume had written in her classic Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret, all you had to do was pump your arms and chant “I must. I must. I must increase my bust.” A tell- tale sign that a girl was on this journey was her purse. As if out of nowhere in middle school, girls everywhere started carrying Sak purses. Some of it for fashion and some of it for, well you know. I can remember one such occasion leaving my lime green Sak purse on the tennis van while we wondered in University Mall after a tennis match. Its contents were something I did not want anyone knowing but low and behold, the 8th grade tennis team boys stumbled upon it and its contents, confronting me when we returned back to the bus. Not only were you dealing with your time of the month but now for an entire 60 minutes between Tuscaloosa and Demopolis, you are grilled by older guys, snickering and making fun of your plight. Thanks Eve!

Discovering your crush may have some of the same feelings for you was both exciting and embarrassing in middle school. It would start with the selected representatives (usually their best friends) of both the boy and girl to approach for negotiations. For example, Ashley’s best friend Beth would approach Ashley’s crush and her crush’s friend, let’s say his name is Tom approaches Ashley. If they both confirm that the feelings are mutual between Ashley and aforementioned crush, affirmation of feelings are made from the new couple by sitting beside each other in gym or in the lunchroom. Furthermore, if this new couple was seen that weekend at Marengo Theatre or at one of our dance parties, it was expected that they at least hold hands and slow dance to Push by Matchbox 20 or Crash by Dave Matthews.

On the other side of “hooking up” (as we called it but don’t think we knew what that really meant), was a break up. Again, selected representatives would let the respective parties know if their relationship was over. I can remember a representative of a guy I was dating in middle school, approach me to let me know that the guy I was dating did not like me anymore. The representative the guy I was seeing called in to announce the news was a guy I had broken up with earlier that year. I think the representative enjoyed delivering the message as I had obviously hurt his feelings. As we got older, break ups were handled more on the phone. However, when it happened, Alanis Morrisette was the go-to. She had so eloquently written about heartbreak over the guy (what’s his name) from Full House. Break ups then sure beat being ghosted.

Waking up to discover a zit had developed over night could turn your 14-year-old world on its head. The stridex pads you were using and Biore strips hadn’t kept away the inevitable. And guess what, it’s picture day. Sorry Mrs. Ann, but I don’t feel like smiling and saying “I love boys or peanut butter.” They were the culprit in this travesty.

As I look back and think back about my “good” and “bad days” in middle school, I am thankful we did not have social media to remind us of what happened earlier in the day. We could go home and move on with our life. Thankfully, real problems, such as, school shootings and suicide were not as prevalent then (I do remember Columbine). Sadly, our kids are faced with more “adult” things than we were in middle school. Maybe it’s time to introduce them to some of the music that helped our bad days (minus the ones with not such good language maybe). Get them off their phones and share how we (gasp!) can relate. We were in middle school once (hard to believe!). Our clothes were not near as pricey but I still think they were a lot cooler (missing my bell bottom jeans, shirt from David’s Gallery, hemp necklace, and my knee socks!). Let’s help remind our kids that it’s okay to be a kid and to enjoy it for just a little bit longer (adulthood is the rest of your life!). There’s always tomorrow but despite everything, I can’t believe, today was a good day.

Good Day in 7th Grade rocking my Limited shirt and braces