We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. We weren’t homeless and starving or anything, but I wore clothes three seasons out of style, a little frayed, and usually didn’t fit right. Most of them came from the Goodwill, which was fine. It never occurred to me that there was anything wrong with this. My poodle-perm was way more embarrassing than my hand-me-down pink California Raisin sweatshirt. It helped that I went to school with kids in the same socio-economic bracket. We were all shopping at the same places.
Anyway, every Thursday was the night I spent at my dad’s and so every Thursday after he picked me up from my mom’s we would stop at the 30th Street Thrift Store so I could shop for books. I had about $5 to spend, but since the books were around .5, .10, .25, it wasn’t unusual for me to walk out with armloads of paperbacks. Every Thursday was like Christmas Redux.
It was here that I fed my R.L. Stine and Babysitter’s Club obsession (which really shouldn’t be read together, FYI. It’ll just mess you up.) It is also where I picked up my first research books where I learned about bizarre medical procedures and the persecution of Jews in WWII. Once I hit the jackpot when someone dropped off at least a dozen YA romance titles that taught me that the only interesting things in the world happened to au pairs. THANKS YA WRITERS FOR THAT LITTLE DELUSION.
MRS. SEAGUL MUST DIE
I still have a notebook from high school with this scribbled on the cover.
Up until my sophomore year of high school I worshipped the ground English teachers walked on. As far as I was concerned, they could do no wrong and they knew everything there was to know about everything in the whole world in the history of the universe.
Everything changed with the witch who was my sophomore year English teacher. While alone I will never forgive her for handing back a paper I’d written and whispering in my ear while gripping my arm that I would never become a published author, she also managed to singlehandedly squash my idol-worship by insisting that loving Charles Dickens was a universal absolute and anyone who didn’t was not smart enough to read and understand good books anyway. She threw me out of class when I insisted I thought his books were crap and though I would read them for my grade no one would force me to like them against my will.
(We also argued over Hemingway. She insisted you could only enjoy The Old Man and the Sea by investigating its multi-layered symbolism. I insisted I could enjoy it regardless. That was the second time she threw me out of class.)
(And for the record, I still hate reading Charles Dickens.)
STEPHEN KING AND V.C. ANDREWS WARPED MY YOUNG MIND
Not that I mind now, of course, but if my parents really knew what was in these books they probably would have been less over-the-moon about me reading above my age group.
V.C. Andrews taught me about sex. Not my friends. Not television or movies. V.C. Andrews. And to make matters worse, she taught me about creepy sex. I was in 7th grade when I read Flowers in the Attic, and that book is pretty tame compared to the others which I read like candy as I traded them with my other little 7th grade girlfriends because one of them had an older sister who was into V.C. Andrews and supplied our little book addled brains with what most certainly would be contraband if our parents took half a second to go from “OH THANK GOD OUR KIDS ARE SMART AND READING” to ask “WAIT DON’T THE BROTHER AND SISTER HAVE SEX IN THIS MOVIE????”
Stephen King taught me to be afraid of everything and everyone. I was in third grade when I read Misery. I picked it up in a gas station along with a juice box and cheap red rimmed plastic sunglasses. We stopped to fill up on the way to Okaboji, Iowa where my family had a summer cabin. In high school I read Rose Madder, Eye of the Dragon, Cujo, Carrie, IT, Pet Cemetery, and others.
He warped my mind and while I’d like to say I turned out just fine, I should point out that as an adult I write scary stories to mess with people’s minds and in any other profession my imagination would have me profiled as a potential serial killer.
WHERE I LEARNED THAT EVERY WEEKEND VACATION WITH A GROUP OF CLOSE FRIENDS WILL LEAD TO ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS TRYING TO KILL YOU OVER A PERCEIVED SLIGHT. CUE TEENAGE MURDER MYSTERY.
YA horror defined my entire high school experience. While I was reading Stephen King, I was also devouring every Fear Street book R.L. Stine put out. I stalked my mall’s Waldenbooks and B.Daltons for new releases. By the time I stopped collecting Fear Street books, I had something along the lines of 108 of them. I still have most of them in a box in my basement. I was also reading Christopher Pike, Lois Lowery, Caroline B. Cooney, and Richie Tankersley Cusick. My junior year I was introduced to The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith, who everyone has heard of now thanks to the television show which I have not seen. Of all L.J.’s series, the Vampire Diaries were my least favorite because I didn’t like the main character and I hated how I related more to her sidekick best friend who totally got screwed in pretty much everything and was treated pretty abysmally by all the cool-kid main characters. Still, it was the first time paranormal YA felt extraordinary and sexy. I was obsessed with The Secret Circle and Dark Powers, but my favorite of all of her series is still The Forbidden Game. Julian was one of the first villains I fell totally in love with and would have chosen over the heroes in a heartbeat.
This is also about the time in my history that I started writing YA, though I didn’t know it had an official classification at the time. I knew, somehow, that books for my age were more fun than books for other ages. They just felt like they had more limitless possibilities than my adult books.
*cue twilight zone music*
What were your defining book moments as a teenager? Got any good stories? Tell us about them for the SCHOOL’S OUT 4EVER Blogfest!
Sommer
My name is Sommer and I'm a writer from the Midwest. I am currently working on a YA novel about superheroes, reading as much as I can, blogging, and saving the world.
I used to devour RL Stine, too, until his formica countertops got a little too cliche. So I gave all the books I had away to a friend (I like to share) and started looking for other things to read.
I never had bad run ins with English teachers. I did have stupid run ins. I had to correct one on how to pronounce words, how to do certain things, and so on. It got so bad I had a 111% in the class and she would look to /me/ when she didn’t know what to do.
I couldn’t do the advanced class though, because it was mostly spelling and I’m not good with that.
Gah, I hate thinking about school, it makes me remember all the other people who used to do such terrible things, like say an assignment was due one day, only to say “no, it was due yesterday, sorry, no credit!” Because they were leader of the student coucil and only wanted those students to pass.
Stupid, rigged system.
But your Seagul sounds like one of my art teachers who actually took my picture of mountains over a lake, which was all in purple and black shades, and proceeded to paint white on it. “It needs this. It’s too dull.”
I thought art was a representation of one’s soul?
She also accused me of copying on an upside down drawing piece, when the picture we were drawing from was the size of my hand, and I drew it the size of my arm. Yeah. Okay. MORON.
And to think I wanted to be a teacher. O_O
heeheehee! you are a defiant little vixen, aren’t you!?!
i would have just squeaked a little squeak and tried to hide behind my book! eeeks! authority figures!!! AAAHHH!!!
i loved hearing about the books you loved… but now i’m getting worried about what books exactly my eli is reading… surely jacob wonderbar doesn’t have any incest in it….
i really tried to think of something for this blogfest, but i couldn’t come up with any silly stories! i think i took myself way too seriously in high school… and my memory is crap!
I LOVE YOUR HANGING ROBOT!!!!! and your header and profile pic and color scheme and i’ll explore more later! very awesome look!
I went through a phase of reading ghost stories during elementary school but it scared me so much I’ve avoided horror ever since.
Mrs. Seagul sounds a lot like some of the English teachers I had. One in particular used to tell my entire class we would all fail in life.
You reminded me of the first time mom caught me with a book that was erotica in hands. One known for its detailed descriptions of less savoury aspects of sexual relations. Yeah, I was in for “the speech”.
As for the Seagul, hum… O.o That is SO uncool. I am glad I never had a teacher like that. Although admittedly, there’s one in the Creative program I’m entering next semester, but I’ve been warned by friends (who had to deal with him) and I intend to avoid as much as possible. ^^
Ack, this is the first chance I’ve had to see the new blog look. There are too many cool images to comments on! The image with your bio is probably my favorite, though!
Glad you like it
I was nervous about it.
I agree with Margo here. I LOVE the new look, your profile picture and just everything.
Mrs. Seagul sounds like the English version of my old math teacher (*smacks a yardstick against the chalkboard* This is ALGEBRA! NOT MATH!). But hey, if your writing is anywhere near as good as your blog posts, you’re set.
I had an English teacher who was kind of like that, but more in a hippie-ish, eccentric kind of way. Thankfully he was predictable, so we could BS our way through that class. (“Has anyone else noticed Dr. Carroll uses the word ‘essence’ a whole crazy bunch?” “Yeah, maybe we should slip that into our papers sometime!” *Overuse that word in a way that should be punishable by death* *Instant A*)
Now I’m curious about this blogfest, though I think I have less crazy stories from high school with morals than I do just crazy stories from high school. How long is the blogfest going on? Is next Monday booked, or is it just a post-as-you-please sort of deal?
Will, I think it’s designed for everyone to post today.
And just crazy is fine. The morals are optional.
The blogfest is for today, but the thing about blogfests is that they play pretty loose with rules. You can post any time you want to really
The linky will be active for another week.
I just posted my entry. This was my first blogfest and my first time adding html to a post… So I hope I didn’t screw up too badly.
Looks perfect to me! Loved the stories!
Gah! Nothing worse than a teacher that stomps on your self esteem like that. Luckily I managed to worship all my English teachers the whole way through. Mainly, I think, because they were so grateful to have someone in the class who actually listened to them. Maths though…I hated all those guys.
Haha yeah, the maths just about did me in. I was dreadful.
Wow! Mrs. Seagul sounds like something real special! Sorry she tried to crush your dreams – glad you didn’t let her!
Oh she was special alright!