The New Kids

It was just an another ordinary day, in that summer of 1966. I got up early to do my hair so that I wouldn't have to sleep on rollers. Back then rollers had bristles in them and they picked like heck. Also you had to position your head just so, and then keep it that way if you had any hope of getting a decent night's rest. I opted for the morning shampoo, set, and then an hour under the hairdryer. It meant an hour in my own little world without my younger siblings or my mother bothering me. A couple of teen magazines, and I was all set. Then I ironed my clothes to wear to work that afternoon.

I was only 15, but I had a summer job working at Morrison's Miracle Drug Store. My best friend was Jean Morrison and her Dad decided the best way to keep us out of mischief for the summer, was to put us to work in his store. I loved it. Dusting merchandise, stocking shelves, and waiting on customers, sure beat the heck out of being my mother's go to gal, and the extra spending money was nice too. The store was located in the Miracle Shopping Center in what is now called a strip mall. It probably got the name Miracle Shopping Center because it was a miracle it ever got built. Bored kids used to call us up and ask if we sold miracle drugs. Well, I had to give them credit for originality, it was better than the Prince Albert in a can joke that was common back then.

So there we were, standing behind the counter when this vision of cool walked into the store. He wasn't what you would call tall, only about 5' 9", but he made up for it in every other way. His tossled sandy blond hair was in a longish Beatle style haircut. He had these blue eyes that smiled when he did...a boyish grin, and rock musician good looks. And get this...he was wearing corduroy jeans and loafers...without socks! How cool was that! He obviously wasn't from around here. OH! And he drove a white Corvair convertible. Can you imagine! A convertible in the U.P. was probably the most impracticle vehicle you could own being that there were only about 10 days out of the entire year where you could drive with the top down. If it wasn't snowing or raining, it was just too darn cold!

He walked right up to us and without introducing himself, asked if Mr. Morrison was in. My friend Jean directed him to the back of the store where her father was filling prescriptions. I just stared...hopefully not with my mouth open. As far as we knew, that was the very first Brian Peterson siting. We found out later from Jean's dad that he was the son of the new mining executive that had just been transferred here from Toronto, Canada! How cool was that! A real live Canadian! I had been waving to the Canadians across Lake Superior ever since I was a little girl, but I never expected them to look like that!

We could hardly wait to spread the word. A new guy in town...and he was cute! More than just cute...he was cool! Brian Peterson was going to become to the local boys, what Margaret Kunos had been to the local girls last year. Margaret was the cute new girl last summer... the daughter of the new Methodist minister, only she wasn't like any preacher's kid we knew. Margaret was pretty in a grown up sort of way...not cute...sexy, only we didn't use words like sexy back then. She had long blond hair that was past her shoulders which she made blonder with a little help from Miss Clairol. Margaret's skirts were barely to her knee when the rule was that they had to be "mid-knee". She always claimed that she shouldn't be punished for having small kneecaps. Margaret Kunos could be summed up in one sentence. She rode on the back of Peter Wirtola's motorbike...in a skirt! That's all you needed to know about Margaret as far as we were concerned. Never mind that she was also smart, funny, and awfully adventerous for girl. She obviously wasn't from around here either. Yup...the boys were going to get every one of those wistful Margaret Kunos comments thrown back at them. If 1965 was the summer of Margaret Kunos, 1966 was going to be the summer of Brian Peterson. Paybacks! Who cared if Margaret Kunos rode on the back of a motorbike in a skirt....Brian Peterson drove a white convertible!

The following Monday, Jean could hardly wait for me to get in the car before she started telling me about the latest Brian Peterson siting. Guess who was at church with his parents and younger sister! Holy Mackeral! Brian Peterson was a Presbyterian! We didn't have many of those in town. This was good news as Jean and our friend Diane were the only teenage girls that were members! Jean said the whole family was introduced. We learned that Brian had just graduated and would be attending college in the fall to study pharmacy! That's why he wanted to talk to her father. His timing couldn't have been better because Jean's older brother Alan, had just announced to his family that he wanted to study engineering, and that pharmacy didn't appeal to him as a career choice. Mr. Morrison agreed to allow Brian to come and work at the pharmacy with him for the summer.

" Oh, by the way, his sister Janice is in our class.", Jean casually tossed out as an afterthought. It turns out that Janice was tall like Jean. This made Jean espeically happy because she had been the tallest girl in our class since kindergarten I think. She seemed nice, but was obviously shy. She hardly spoke.

"Well, it sounds to me, like she could use a couple of friends. We'll have to ask Brian about her. How's that for killing two birds with one stone, talking to Brian, and learning about the new girl." I said. I was more interested in meeting the new girl being that I already had a steady boyfriend. I would leave Brian Peterson to be pursued by the others.

So that's how Jan Peterson became our friend. We just kind of absorbed her into our group of friends. She was indeed on the shy side, and she felt a bit out of place being Canadian and all, but we tried our best to make her feel comfortable and welcome. She joined the group of girls going to the weekend dances, and then joined us all at the Congress for pizza afterwards. She also joined in our birthday parties. As a group, we would all plan an event or an outing for someone's birthday. We tried to make them different and individual... a slumber party, a dinner at a fancy restaurant, a boy/girl party with dancing, a concert outing, etc. It was Jan who came up with the magic formula for the frosting of Diane's cake...who knew burgundy and pink would be such a challenge!

The following June, it was Jan's birthday and we wanted to do something special for her. So we decided that we would all go over to Marquette and have a picnic at Presque Isle. Not that Jan was particularly fond of picnics mind you...we just thought that she might like to wave at the Canadians across Lake Superior! Well, that's what we told our parents anyway. Truth be told. We had just finished our Junior year and were Seniors now. Where else were we going to meet olders guys? Marquette was the home of Northern Michigan University which was within walking distance of Lake Superior. Jan's birthday party was a darn decent excuse to go there, and those didn't come along every day.

I, of course was only thinking of the others as I still had my steady boyfriend Rick. We had been going steady for well over a year now. He had just graduated, and it looked like we were settling in for the long haul. We had plans for the entire summer...well HE had plans for the entire summer anyway. His parents had given him their old car, a 1962 blue Ford Falcon as a graduation present, and his plan was to re-build the engine with me as his mechanic's helper. "It will be fun!", he promised. And it probably would have been too, if that hadn't been his ONLY plan for our entire summer.

So that's how it came to be that I was on Presque Isle in Marquette, Michigan with bunch of girlfriends looking to meet guys on that particular day in June in 1967.