Today, 21 June, is the My So-Called Teenage Life Blog Hop, hosted by Amy Sonnichsen and Christa Desir. Participants will post excerpts from old teen journals or poetry from their teen years.
I began journalling in 1987 and began regularly journaling on 8 September 1989, the first day of fourth grade. I continued pretty much continuously till early March of 2009, and journalled every single day for much of that time. I’m rather embarrassed I fell off the wagon, but I’m trying to get back into the habit now, with the journal I’d only recently started when I abruptly stopped.
Starting with my second journal, I named my journals. From the third one on, they were all named for classic rock songs (e.g., Zelda, Emily, Cecilia, Prudence, Rael, Athena, Eloise). I think I’ll name the current ignored journal Suzanne, after The Hollies’ song “Sorry Suzanne” (1969). I already had a journal named Eloise, after The Hollies’ song “Dear Eloise” (1967), and I like to use two names from each group I pick a namesake song from. Anyway.
My journals are in storage with most of the rest of my stuff in my so-called fiancé’s parents’ basement, and unfortunately, I could only find the ones from my twenties and my very first journal, which went from September 1989-February 1993. I wasn’t up to going through all my crates to find my midway journals, so I have Helena (second journal) and Cecilia (number three) to pick from.
I picked a classic entry from Cecilia, 23 June 1994, describing my junior high graduation the night before. I later somewhat based a few graduations in some of my books on certain of the events at this ceremony. “Mortimor,” later shorted to “Timmy” and “Tim,” was a boy I had a huge puppy love crush on for years. Now I thank God I didn’t end up with him, because his looks REALLY deteriorated after junior high!
***
June 23, 1994, 20., Thursday,
….Graduation was a total rip-off. The first speaker was a nut. Mortimor kept gettin’ angrier and angrier at him! The speaker was bringin’ up violence and the O.J. Simpson case at a graduation! And then he was all like: “The person next to you might not be there in a few years, because they’ll be lazy and uneducated.” Mortimor was furious. He was yellin’: “What the f— is this? What the hell is this s—? How dare he tell us about our families and call us lazy? What is this, a pep talk? This guy’s a nut!” He kept makin’ me laugh durin’ that nutty speaker. Scary part is that he’s a judge!
….This one girl won 5 awards. Mortimor and his pal were amazed. Mortimor was goin’ like: “How smart can this girl get? Her walls’ll be covered with all that s—!” Then some guy won 2 awards. Mortimor went like: “His pants are mad tight! Lookit that fag tag on his pants!”
Then they finally let the homerooms start goin’ up. Mortimor kept glancin’ at his watch and shoutin’: “This’ll take all evening!” Mortimor’s pal was laughin’ at the kids who kept messin’ up. He said: “It’s shake with the right, take with the left!” Then he pretended ta be onea the kids and twisted his arms around. They were both shocked when more’n 8 kids in a row finally got it right. When we went up, Mortimor’s pal went over the correct way. Then he said, when we went back: “I think I messed up.” Mortimor gloated: “I got it right!”
His pal was ticked off when we unrolled the papers. He yelled: “What’s this? Some damn note! The real diplomas come in July! This was a total rip-off!” Really, it was! And the last time [so I thought] that I’ll see Mortimor for quite awhile was as I was leavin’ the gym, after that rip-off ceremony. I turned around and saw him. I hope that I’ll see him around a few times this year. Well, when I see him again, we can laugh our heads off about that nutty first speaker. I know that I’ll really miss seein’ him.
….Mortimor ain’t like my 5th grade crush, whom I quickly recovered from. I know so much more about Mortimor’s life. I hope that he’s happy ta be a person in you and Helena. He actually stood up for me a few times in his own way. He’s a nice guy whom the world should know about. Really, I woulda been dyin’ during the speeches and awards had it not been for Mortimor and his pal sittin’ next to me. I just know that he’ll become a success!
Later.
And [my father] was tellin’ some guys at his work about the nut speaker, and it turns out that the judge was ranked near the bottom of a recent survey of best judges, plus he’s not known for racial or gender sensitivity! Not too popular at all!
I love that you have named your journals.. I am seriously thinking of doing that now too
I wish I had kept more journals when I was younger, but I have kept them religiously for the last 5 years now. This was a great excerpt, it was like reading a first person book. The name Mortimer is so unique too. I love that you included all of the things he said, \”fag tag\” made me giggle. I remember that. I also remembered the OJ case, too bad it was talked about during graduation. You entry makes me wonder what happened to Mortimer.. did you ever try to look him up later?
He’s got a pretty cake job now, and had a baby awhile ago. I stumbled across his wedding blog some years back and showed it to my dearest, oldest friend, who also got a crush on him when she met him in high school. She told me she’d run into him and his girlfriend/wife a couple of times, and thought both of us were a lot better-looking than his wife. For years, my friend had no idea I’d been in love with this guy, and when she finally found out, she told me she never would’ve asked him out had she known I liked him first, and a lot more than she did. (He turned her down anyway.)
Mortimer does seem like a character.
Naming the journals… that’s pretty cool. I’m so glad I never tossed mine.
I actually left out some other things he did and said, in the interest of length, when I was transcribing the entry! He came in a bit late when we were getting ready and lining up in our homeroom, complaining and saying he didn’t see why we had to do this, Then he complained about how they had to do the Pledge of Alliance in the auditorium, when it was the last time we’d be at that school and had more important things to do with our time.
This is great. It’s so classic teenager that you were so focused on these boys and their reaction and remembered their every word. And I LOVE how you referred to your diary as “You.” I wrote to my diary as the audience as well. I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one! This is classic. Thanks so much for participating.
Yeah, “Mortimor” and his friends and I had a lot of fun times together that year, particularly when we were at the same table in social-studies. I was always recording conversations word for word, which doesn’t really surprise me, given how I love writing and reading dialogue more than descriptive passages.
So many italics! And Mortimor is everywhere – your total recall ability is amazing.
Did he become something??
The italicized words were underlined in the handwritten original. I’m embarrassed to say that my love of random, unnecessary underlining (sometimes even double underlining) and exclamation points was probably the influence of Beatrice Sparks, who I didn’t know was a fraud yet, and Albert Goldman, a trashy celebrity biographer.
“Mortimor” now has a pretty nice job, and his looks finally seem to be back to normal, after a horrifying slide in high school when he was wearing awful clothes, not shaving or cutting his hair, and generally looking like a bum.
It’s funny how people change, or our perspective of them changes, when we are adults. That has happened to me too on more than one occasion.
Very nice names for your journals
Part of the fun of reading back through old journals is seeing how I viewed certain people back then, and how I think of them now, or at least how I interpret their behavior in hindsight.
I really wish I had journaled instead of or at least along with the occasional angst riddled poem! So funny to read your actual thoughts at the actual graduation time! Mortimor kept you very busy!
He was quite the class cut-up. I loved that our names came in alphabetical order in most classes, so I was usually sitting next to him or behind him.
I’m on Team Mortimor… This guy is hilarious! Thanks for sharing!
Ivan, the male protagonist of my Russian novels, was actually originally based on him (during the original versions of the first seven chapters, anyway). Granted, I’ve since done so much editing, rewriting, and revising that he’s now much different, but there are still glimmers here and there of his origins. I think they’ll have more in common again when I eventually write the prequel, which covers my characters’ childhoods and teen years.
Very funny, so much drama! I do love the named journals. Such a great idea.