Quietly procrastinating from my editorial duties I began musing on the end of summer and past summers I've had. I started reflecting on what was arguably my most interesting summer. It was the summer of '99. I had just finished my freshman year of college and decided to live with my dear old dad for the summer. In Abilene. I cannot recall at this time why I thought this sounded like a good idea. I mean, of course I wanted to spend time with my family... But a whole summer in Abilene Texas?
For my non-Texas friends let me briefly describe to you the existence of a small West-Texas town. Ever heard of the Bible Belt? Abilene, Texas is smack dab in the middle of it. There is literally a church on every street corner. So, say you're at a 4-way intersection, there would be four churches immediately available for your praying pleasure. Catholics, Protestants and Mormons all living in harmony worshipping a way. My step brothers attended Wiley High School. One of the two high schools for Abilene and all communities surrounding for about a 50-mile radius. What, one may ask, does a young person do there? Well, I took some summer courses from a community college to kill the summer and avoid a couple of the notorious UT weed-out courses. While studying for a test one day (yes, its hot in Abilene. 117 degrees hot. And there is a "breeze". It feels like the blast of heat you get hit in the face with when you open the over door) I begin seeing huge shadows swooping over the skylights. My dad had a ranch in Abilene so we were 15 miles from town. (This is an important fact to keep in mind for the following portion of my anecdote.) So, there I was studying with huge shadows swooping over the house. Then I begin hearing shotguns. I decide to go outside and see what all the fun was about. Now, this is a small town and we're out on a ranch. Swimming and horse-back riding get boring after a while. So my step-brothers had made up a game. See, driving up the gravel road to the house they had encountered a rattle snake. They killed the snake, skinned him, and then threw him in a tree. And waited. When the buzzards began swooping for the snake thy began shooting. Needless to say my step mom whipped their hides when she got home. Besides killing for sport with no regard for life, its illegal to kill buzzards. Who knew?
Anyway, back to school. For our first paper for government 301 we had to write a paper on a philosophical principle that we supported. Not considering that I wanted to make friends over the summer I chose to write a paper on existentialism in a town overrun with seriously god-fearing Christians. Well, my professor loved my paper and made me read it aloud to the class. (Yes I've always been the dorky teachers pet. Do ya'll know me at all??) There were literally gasps of horror and no one spoke to me for the rest of the summer. Couldn't even borrow a pencil from these kids. Seriously. It was weird. But interesting. For example, we would begin every class with a topic that was meant to stir a debate. Because every kid had the same mentality obviously this worked like a charm. So I would play devil's advocate even if I didn't support my own position. I figured if I had no friends at least I'd get the teacher to adore me and give me an 'A'. One topic the teacher introduced was a bill that was in legislation at the time that would make it legal for a 16-year-ikd girl to get an abortion without parental consent. Now, looked at logically this would make for a good debate. On one hand an abortion is surgery and parents should be aware of what medical risks their teenager is taking. On the other hand there are so many teenagers that cannot talk to their parents and would get kicked out or abused for telling. Or worse, would commit suicide rather than tell their parents. Its a tricky question. However, the kids in the class could not even get to the issues. They honestly couldn't fathom why in the world a 16-year-old would need an abortion. Because they shouldn't even bee having sex. Until they're married.
Needless to say, I drove home to Austin every weekend for two months. That's a 3-hour drive in my old volvo that had no air condition. In 115 degree heat. Now if you don't think that that summer sounds like hell then I'm afraid you've missed the irony of my tale.
No comments:
Post a Comment