The Stupidest Thing I've Ever Done

Part 1

I stood in front of the theaters entrance sign. The sign was in the shape of a white arrow, and it pointed to the right towards the drive-in movie theater. It read: ROCKETS DRIVE-IN. Its letters were in a retro curvy font that reminded me of The Jetsons cartoon, and it was painted that Cocoa Cola red that was often associated with the early sixties. However; it's white and red paint was faded and chipped from years of Michigan weather, and from juvenile delinquents who dared each other to try and reach a fat curvy letter without getting caught by a drive-in employee.

My best friend Cass and I were among those delinquents.

I can usually divide my summers up into two categories: how long my hair was that year, and the stupidest thing I did.

One summer I cut my hair in the bathroom with a pair of orange scissors. I was thirteen and wanted something new, so I put a bowl on top of my head and started cutting. That experience speaks for itself. When I was fourteen my hair was returning to its previous length, but it was in an awkward mullet phase. That Fourth of July I climbed the elementary school playground structure to where my teachers always told me not to go. I was with Cass then, and I fell as soon the fireworks started going off. The summer I was fifteen my hair was down past my shoulders, and my sisters and I went on a trip to the lake. While my sisters went to get some ice cream I flirted with a few young boys who owned a boat. They took me out on it, and for half an hour nobody knew where I was.

The summer that tops them all though, was the summer after tenth grade.

I was sixteen, and it was one of the warmest summers we had in years. It was just good old fashioned crazy fun. We took camping trips to Lake Michigan and Mackinac where my little sister threw up fudge over the side of the ferry, my older sister went to California the first week in June, and my brother crushed his arm by flipping the four-wheeler in our backyard.

While I know that summer was one for the history books, the main memory I have from it is from a drive-in named Rockets.