Reminiscing about our teenage years

This past Friday, Lester and I met up with Stacey and Hugo to go to the St. Pius X festival, a small community fair held by a local school/church community.

It was a beautiful Friday evening, and there were a ton of families out, enjoying the fried food and ice cream, fair games and spring weather. There were rides and cupcakes, a book sale and a flea market. It was just perfect!

Hugo and Cary, firefighters on duty.

This one wanted no parts of the rides.

Dean and Hugo loved this helicopter ride.

But Cary was happy just to do the train, safe, on the ground.

They had so much fun!

 

There were also a zillion teenagers strolling around the grounds and hanging out on the steps of St. Pius X high school. They gathered in groups or meandered in pairs, couples all immersed in starry-eyed young love. Seriously, there was so much lust and hormones in the air, it was almost palpable. I felt like I needed to shower after all the heat generated by those kids.

Lester and I found ourselves staring at these kids -- most of whom were taller than I am (that's not hard, but still) -- and we were hit by so many of the same thoughts.

Look how old these kids look. Can you believe our kids will be this big one day?
Look how young they are!
The pheromones in the air are off the chain!
They think they're so cool -- remember when you cared about being cool?
They look so cool!

At one point, Lester said to me, "I can remember being these exact kids, walking around a festival just like this. I remember having thought about what I was going to wear for days and days. And when I was there, with my fresh new sneakers on, I thought I was the flyest thing at the festival. I distinctly remember feeling that all eyes were on me -- and that every move I made was for someone else's benefit."

I so totally remember that feeling! Being at a carnival with my friends and thinking half of every second, "There are BOYS here! Are they looking at us? Is [insert cute boy's name] here? I hope he comes!" Or being at an amusement park with my boyfriend and thinking, "How should I stand so I look my most adorable and cool and like I like him but I'm not, like, OVERLY liking him?"

Boy am I glad I'm past those days! Just thinking back on that time period makes me exhausted! But also, so, so weirded out to imagine that one day, our boys will be walking through the St. Pius X fair, checking out the girls and looking like mini-men.  One day, our daughter will be one of a gaggle of adorable girls, tossing her hair and trying to look disinterested in the "immature" boys who are walking through the fair, checking them out.

One day, our kids won't want us to walk around the festival with them, snapping photos and waving as they ride the kiddie rides. We'll be an after-thought, an ATM, an enforcer of the curfew.

As much as I complain about my kids being crazy and defiant and tantrum-y and irrational, Lester and I looked at those teenagers at that fair and saw our pasts -- and our future.

And it made us oh-so-grateful to have a few years more in our present.