It wasn't just her green Vega seventies wagon that appealed to me so much. Sure it had style and pizazz, even a little kick. This was from a sixteen year old girl with neither a car or drivers license. It could have been a porsche or pinto - it was a ride and I was behind the wheel. I was not all that picky.
Bear and I were quite an interesting duo. She was not my typical crew at school. Bear was my secret guilty pleasure. Let's just start with the most important reason..... she worked at Winchells Donuts.
Okay, I don't know if I said that loud enough.... or you were not a food head in High School.
Free donuts. Bear got her name...... of course nick named by me, well let's just say she was not petite.
Bear was a big gal. The thing that used to make me laugh...... she always acted like she ate lettuce.
I was a food head..... I knew better. I would have been a Bear had I not learned how to become a bulimic with another crew a few years earlier. Yes.... I had many crews for many reasons. Bear would work nights and I lived right down the street. How very convenient for me. I don't even remember how we actually became friends. To this day she doesn't know that is her nick name! I would frequent the donut shop as she sweated it out frying those monstrous delights. Especially the apple fritters I took a liking to... yum.
Now, Bear had one weakness. She loved her some policemen! What a delightful fit. They sure did love themselves Bear's donuts. They loved hangin at Winchells. Bear would get very persnickety with me. She was the original Bear growlin with 'tude. I wanted what I wanted- she wanted what she wanted. She thought I probably was more normal than some of her friends. Only as I write this do I suspect she used me for bait, friendship- but maybe a little cop bait! I didn't care, I wanted my donuts and to drive her ride. We were a good match.
Somehow I finagled my way into letting her give me the car keys while she was frying up those
yummalicious donuts. I would just drive for hours and face the music of her wrath when I would return. I gladly paid the price for not having to be at home. She knew the game while she was at work.
Always the disapproving parent..... and I'd play dumb. It was perfect. On many occasions I would spend the night at her house. It was so great because there were very little rules going on and always lots of wild cats running around. Her dad was a crazy artist [that actually was my husbands hero, as a kid] I thought was very insane. He would offer us hot buttered toddies on many occasions - we were only sixteen.
Don't think we didn't drink them, we did. I am just saying who does that? We would tell Bear's mom we needed to run to Sav- on Drug Store at eleven pm. Then Bear would rev that Vega engine up like a bat out of hell, put in a cassette of "Queen,"and we'd hit the road. She had her radar on one thing and one thing only.......COPS. She was obsessed. She wanted to do cops so desperately. I am not entirely sure they were feelin' it for Bear.
Two days a week- not like we planned it, we wore overalls together. Come to think of it..... Bear may have worn overalls every day. I think I knew to start wearing the uniform - Go Team Bear. The other three days or when I actually attended school, I wore my normal rig.
In other words I looked female. I kind of liked the Bear method, I was a very lazy child.... so I just threw a red bandana over my hair that probably was greasy from waking up late, probably slept in my over alls- I was set. Easy days. I felt fairly swiney.... but I would get dolled up the other days to makeup for my sloppiness. It all evened out..... in my mind. Bear was very moody, I didn't like to annoy her. She had a neighbor named Roger..... he wasn't any Mr. Rogers. To think of all that was going on right next door to her parents house...... how clueless they were. I think they were probably so miserable and probably boozing it up.
Roger would be the host of many a Cop Party that included sixteen year old girls. Roger was thirty six years old. Good times. Bear's parents would act like it was perfectly normal when we would go to this bachelors house at night. Being a parent myself I just can't imagine this happening now.
Clueless in Seattle. We would be supplied with as much booze as we wanted. The more sixteen year old girls the better. Bear would be very unhappy at these parties and frequently would leave angry.
I will have to write another story about the details..... I didn't know I was going to talk about Roger
and the cop parties. This will have to be a couple stories. Lives destroyed, some rebuilt.... others well, it takes time.
So my Bear days came to an end when I left home later that year. She was so funny - so obsessed. I think she may have had a CB to listen to cop talk. I saw her years later in a Mexican Restaurant. She was pregnant and getting married. She told me she helped her groom- to- be escape Mexico by carrying her lover boy over the border illegally...... honestly. Her words, "She carried him."Wasn't she pregnant when she carried him? Funniest visual to me.
That fella never had a chance. Wonder if their favorite food she whipped up was donuts?
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