My Life in 1986 (Part 3)

More excerpts from my teenage diary....




I got Marni's present for her Bat Mitzvah. I got her 2 pencils, stationary, and a kit that comes with staples, glue, etc. I hope I don't fall asleep during the service. (8/22/86). The gift seems kind of blah to me, but maybe it's because I'm living in the Internet age. Back then, paper craft stuff was more useful.

Then again, I think there are still stores that sell stationery, pens, etc.  

I went to Marni's Bat Mitzvah. I prayed for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis while I was in the temple. Marni dances so bad, better than me, though. (8/23/86).

I hated dancing in those days.

I hate Kelly. She is still mad at Missy for writing mega in her yearbook. Then I said she has Cystic Fibrosis and Kelly said good. I said no it's not. It's fatal and she says that's even better. (8/26/86).

Wow. Real drama there.  I'm not sure what I meant by mega. Did Missy use really big handwriting? OR am I misreading my handwriting. Maybe Missy had written MAGA. Maybe she was channeling the future Trump campaign. In that case, she totally would deserve Kelly's wrath. These days I would not be in support of using someone's illness or disability as a defense against their bad behavior. Though if Missy simply used large letters and wasn't channeling the Trump Cult, I'm totally on her side and not Kelly's.  

Ms. Smith is such a good teacher (8/28/86). Good enough that we should have given her a gun? Or good enough that we should give her a raise? I'm intrigued by my liking of Ms. Smith. It seems that usually I'd bitch about my teachers.  

Melissa and I are having a Cystic Fibrosis book and toy sale to raise money for it. (9/1/86). From what I remember, it was a failure. But we'd get better at this later when we'd have basement sales and bake sales. I think the problem with our first sale was our prices were too high.

Being obsessed with Cystic Fibrosis instead of Poltergeist might make me a better person but it sure makes me cry a lot. Now I almost cry every day. (9/20/86). In a few years, my Poltergeist obsession would return, and THAT would end up making me cry a lot too. 

I called the C.F.F today. They are very nice. I'm going to do a bowl-a-thon.  (9/24/86). I was very dedicated...obsessed.  Seriously, I think about 80% of what I'm reading in this diary is Cystic Fibrosis related. Though I'm not sure why I said I'm no longer obsessed with Poltergeist. Each diary entry ends with a quote from Poltergeist II. I'm wondering how long I kept that up.  

I got my braces tightened. They kill.(10/1/86) This was something I must have blocked from my memory. When Jack got braces, I told him I didn't remember it ever hurting me much. Oops. 

Alf was so funny today. Amazing Stories was stupid. (10/6/86) I think I usually liked Amazing Stories. I wonder why I didn't like that particular episode.

Marni slept over. I got Frank Deford's address. Alex (his daughter who died of CF) is the person I really want to write but oh well. I told Marni and Melissa about Alex being with me sometimes. They think of it as a joke. 10/10/86 Well, if Mike Pence can believe God talks to him, I guess I could believe I was being visited by a deceased child.  I still have weird spiritual beliefs like this sometimes, but I've learned to not blurt it out to my friends, sisters, etc.

I love Alex. She is my very best friend. (10/12/86). I find all of this disturbing. I'm trying to be tolerant of my younger self, but I'm finding it hard.  But...to her credit, she at least didn't do anything dangerously crazy. 

I'm going to be a Chinese person for Halloween. (10/16/86). I was delusional AND racist. Nice. Worse yet, is I remember those costumes. We wore kimonos, yet called ourselves Chinese. Holy Fucking shit.

In P.E, we watched Return of the Jedi and right when Darth Vader took of his mask, the bell rang. (11/1/86). Did we exercise while watching the movie?

I went to the back doctor today. It was so boring. (11/17/86). I find this interesting. My niece had back surgery in December for Kyphosis. I have kyphosis too and was asking my parents if that had been looked at, what did the doctors say, etc.  I couldn't remember. They didn't seem to remember much either but said it was the postural type and not the disease/syndrome type. I wasn't sure how seriously it was taken. Was I looked at briefly by our family doctor or did it go further than that?  Well, thanks to my diary, I now know more.  

Kim is so prejudice. I don't like her much. (11/25/86). Yeah, but wearing a Kimono for Halloween and calling yourself Chinese is totally fine? 

I saw Ms. Fitzgerald, Tammy L, and Celeste G. and Lizzy R. at the mall (11/29/86). Celeste is the one I wrote about obsessively the year before. This is the first time I've seen her mentioned in many months.

I was depressed today because people kept calling me weird. (12/5/86). Now I'm proud to be weird, though I find my level of weirdness at age 14 to be a bit disturbing.  It's sad. How much more depressed would this teenager be if she knew her future self was also judging her?  

Mrs. Polk is adopting a baby boy from Korea. Jason W. was saying these ignorant things like his eyes will be ugly.  (12/12/86). Ignorant, cruel, AND wrong.  I guess this is one of the things about racism. There ARE different levels. My Halloween costume? That was ignorant. But my intentions were innocent. I had a thing for Asian culture. In my own silly way, I felt I was celebrating Asian culture rather than causing offense. 

There's ignorant prejudice, and then there's nasty, cruel prejudice.  

We saw The Diary of Ann Frank today. It was boring. (12/19/86)  In a few years, my obsession with Cystic Fibrosis would be replaced by other interests, including the Holocaust. 

We went from Palm Springs to San Diego. We went to McDonalds to eat. When we got to the hotel their was a cute oriental girl who came in a limousine. She kept on playing with the door. (12/26/86) Yeah. And I guess I didn't have politically correct terminology back then? Or was "oriental" more socially acceptable back in the 1980's. I'm kind of doubting it.  

We went to the San Diego Zoo! It was okay. Then we went to this stupid place. We left right away. Then we went too Seaport Plaza. We saw the clown used in Poltergeist at the clown shop. (12/30/86). I remember seeing the clown. I think it was one of the most exciting events of my life. I'm wondering why I wasn't more enthusiastic about the zoo. That kind of surprises me. Maybe it was too crowded? I'm also wondering about the stupid place? What was that? Would I still think it's stupid? Is it still around?  I've been wanting to go to my parent's house to look at my dad's massive collection of albums. Maybe when I do that, I'll look at the California trip albums and see if there are any photos of this mysterious place.  




How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   


The Dead are Online  a novel by Dina Roberts