Fair's Fair

It's not been all rosy, folks.  Some people write and are encouraging--it means the world to me, keep it up!  Others who I thought would appreciate the blog haven't really tuned in to the medium.  And some I thought might take the blog wrong way have and are hurt.  What can I say, dynamics are a bitch.  I took a little break, loaded up some Strawberry Fridays to carry me into the spring, then got back to the work at hand. 

And there it was.

My mother writes in her draft prompting a friend to write her chapter, and I quote my mom here: "A story that probably won't make it into the book unless my gutsy daughter Sarah, a lot like you in fact, is even gutsier than I imagine."

Oh, it's there people.  In my most playful font I imagine you say, "The bitch didn't!"  Oh yes, she did.  What follows?  The story of me and my first menses.  How does this fit in with her book?  It maybe doesn't.  But it entirely fits in with this blog.  I've aired her honest laundry, and fair's fair.

I meet your challenge Janet Trever, and will raise you!  Knowing, trusting that the two of us can go there together.

So here is her version, uncensored and unabridged.  Not the way I'd tell it, but again, fair's fair.

When she left for her summer visitation with her Dad's family just before her 12th birthday, she asked me what would happen if her period began during the 3 months; many of her friends' menses had already begun.  At the airport we planned a code system so that no nosey folks at the other end would know what she was telling me.  The code we came up with: "Molly Brown's Living room."

The story could end there, but doesn't.  On her birthday, June 21st, we talked on the phone a while, I went to be early for exams the next day.  She called late at night, woke me out of a sound sleep, and all I could hear was this person babbling about some living room.  I finally woke up enough to understand.  There were no supplies in the house* for her, she needed me to talk to her Dad and take her out to a store to stock up.  I talked to him (his wife, Sarah's step-mother, was out of town at the time) and they got through the experience as best the could.  That phrase is permanently embedded in our brains to this day.

*My one correction.  WE WERE CAMPING!!!  I WAS IN THE WOODS WITH BOYS AND MEN AND MORE BOYS!!!  I made my dad drive to a phone in the middle of nowhere (in North Dakota already, keep in mind) in the middle of the night to pass the code phrase on to my mom so she could explain to my confused father.  I couldn't tell him what was happening, just that I needed a phone. 

In the end you would not believe my luck.  Hours from home, my dad drove to the nearest convenient store.  Ready for the miracle?  My beloved sister just HAPPENED to be at the same store in the middle of the woods and saved me from a death by humiliation in sparing my dad from the purchase and explanation of the bags contents.  Thanks Charlotte, I still owe you!

The walls people, check out the walls.  Also, check definition of TMI.