This week's freebie is . . .

Every year my sister and I went to spend the summer in New Orleans with our paternal grandparents. We loved going there. We had good friends we grew up with waiting for us. When my sister and her friends were the teenage cool chicks my friend and I were still at the stage where we thought boys were something that you wiped off of your shoes before going indoors. Anyway, my sister and her friends were very interested in a group of young boys who all had brand new Honda motorscooters. The boys zoomed back and forth past my grandparents house day after day. But, this was in the days when girls did not make the first move. Enter the two kid sisters. We really did not understand why they would even want to talk to those boys, but we told them that we could make those boys stop and talk to them. The teen queens laughed at us, and told us to get lost. But, being the two goofy girls we were, my friend and I hurriedly put on our swim suits and proceeded to run around the front lawn with the water hose (New Orleans, in July, PRE-A/C days - is the definition of H - O - T!) The queens were seated upon their thrones (three metal patio chairs on the front porch) doing their best imitation of 'cool teens'. Then, off in the distance, the hum, hummmhummm, hum of the scooters began to get louder, closer. The queens, up on the porch, strived for the nonchalant, disinterested look, the two of us down on the grass began to run about frantically, hysterically, with the hose, having a blast. The scooters neared, and just as they passed the house, we turned the hose on th boys and their bikes. The queens screamed. The guys stopped their bikes and turned around to come back to do, who knows what? Because the two of us did not stick around to find out, the only evidence of us having been there was the hose gushing water flopping around in the grass.

BUT!!! The boys came and the Queens apologized for their horrible little sisters behavior. They were mortified. They were going to kill us when the got ahold of us. We were so annoying. Did the boys want to sit down and let the scooters dry off a little. And, did they want a Coke (you know, real Coke, in those little tiny green glass bottles that needed a bottle opener to get the cap off).

And, so....guess what? That begin a long friendship between those boys and girls that lasted for years. Meanwhile, the goofy ones (that would be me and my friend) really didn't see what the big deal was. The queens wanted to meet those boys. So, we arranged for that to happen. And, given that we continued to breathe air and run through the woods, and swim and build bonn-fires and walk to the sno-ball stand for many years after that, I guess the Queens had decided to stay our executions.

This is what I thought of when I saw this photo. The girls in this pic have gathered for this photo-op and those 3 boys seem to have been allowed to stay. The blonde haired boy seems to be enjoying every moment of the event. The two dark haired boys are taking a more serious attitude. (Maybe they know, that any minute one of those girls is going to notice them again and tell them to get lost? The oldest girl doesn't know if she wants to be in the photo or not, hence the downward tilt to her head. Does she really want to be in a photo with this bunch of juveniles?)

Hope the photo elicits some fond fun memories from the younger days for you!