The Daring Book for Girls

My Mom and Dad gave Justin and I this funny book for Christmas. They wrote on the inside cover "Sarah & Justin, here's to many grand adventures with your 'Daring Girls'!" It made me laugh out loud when I unwrapped it, because on the back cover it says "For every girl with an independent spirit and a nose for trouble, here is the no-boys-allowed guide to adventure." Hmm, I think the authors may know my daughters! It's basically a field guide to being a really fun girl. There are chapters on everything from making the ultimate snowball to making friendship bracelets to famous female explorers and so much more! It really has gotten a chuckle out of me!

It also has taken me down memory lane to the days of my own girlhood! I had such a fun childhood with so many great, comical memories. In large part to my best childhood friend ever, Tina Stephanos! Tina and I together, were very 'Daring Girls'! When my family moved to Georgia from Illinois when I was six years old, the house next to us on Autumn Ridge Parkway was empty. But luckily for me, not for long! Shortly after we got there the Stephanos family moved in with their seven year old daughter, Tina. Little did we know when we ventured across the lawn separating our houses to say hello, that it was to be the start of the best of childhood friendships!

There are way too many funny memories to even write down. Each one makes me chuckle at the thought of it. Like the time we invited the entire neighborhood to come watch our impromptu dance extravaganza at my house. I totally chickened out at the last minute though and refused to come out! So poor Tina was left to somersault and twirl for everyone by herself! She kept coming back and saying "Are you gonna come out?!" But I just couldn't, I was paralyzed with fear! Luckily for me she didn't hate me forever for bailing on her!

We just about wore the wheels of our roller skates out racing down the hill we lived on top of, again and again. I was sure each time I would biff it and end up a mangled, bloodied mess at the bottom of the hill. But somehow Tina got me to defy death anyhow and race to the bottom with her. We played carhops, Barbie dolls, dress up, we dodged blowing leaves walking home from the bus stop, we made goofy tape recordings and had silly names for each other like Neener and Syrup. We played endless games of freeze tag on our lawn with the neighborhood boys. We had friendship earrings, friendship t-shirts, you name it, we were totally B.F.F. (Best Friends Forever!)

We also fought over the stupidest stuff. I remember fighting over who got to be "Ariel" from the Little Mermaid when we were playing pretend. Tina said her brown hair was closer to Ariel's red hair so she should be Ariel and I should be Flounder. That was the most absurd thing I'd ever heard, I said my blonde hair was closer to red and I should be Ariel! I can't remember how it was resolved. I think we just gave up and played something else. We also had a fight when we ended up with the same bedspread! (We both had lavender walls, white daybeds, and matching bedspreads!) Now I just see it as a testament to our mutually fabulous taste in room decor! But at the time I was miffed! I had to write a note on my bedroom door to remind myself "You are mad at Tina! Don't go play with her today!" It didn't work, we couldn't stay mad at each other for more than a day.

In fact my loyalty to Tina got me into the most shameful pickle of my entire childhood. There was a girl in Tina's class that was being mean to her. I didn't even know her, all I knew was she was messin' with my friend and we couldn't be having that. My psychotic third grade teacher, Ms. Embry, had given me a brilliant solution to our problem! She had told us during circle time that her sister really hated her boss. Luckily for her and her sister, there were lots of dead rats at her sister's work. So they gathered some dead rats and mailed them to her meany boss. She said it was a great way to get even with people you don't like! (Note my now, very low-expectations of the public school system.) So I told Tina, I had just the way to get back at that meany girl in her class! Unfortunately, at eight and nine years old we were fresh out of access to dead rats. Hmmm, what else could work? We decided dog poop would be an appropriate substitute. So we got a big manila envelope and wrote the meany girl's address on it and then went around the neighborhood collecting crusty, old dog poops out of people's yards. This was going to be great! We didn't want the mail lady to suspect foul play, so after stamping the envelope, we doused it in our favorite, cheap, drugstore perfume 'Verve' and stuffed it in the mailbox and put the flag up and ran! About this time, my dear, intuitive mom noticed the flag was up on our mailbox. Knowing she had not mailed anything that day, she went to investigate. What she found shattered her perception of her sweet, nerdy, four-eyed daughter. Whoops. Tina's mom was called, we were separated, and given a talking to that basically entailed 'Shame, shame, shame on you!' I remember my mom saying "Sarah, imagine how excited that girl would have been to get a package. Then when she opened it to find what you girls put in there, imagine how horrible she would have felt." At that moment, I felt about as big as one of those crusty, old poops. Tina and I learned our lesson and no longer took advice from crazy Ms. Embry, but our adventures continued. Here are just a few old pictures I dug up....
This was Tina's and my first and only dance recital together. Aren't we precious? I got it in my head that Ms. Penny, our instructor, had it out for me and my flat feet. Thus refusing, much to my mother's chagrin, to continue to dance. Tina stuck with it and went on to become a very talented dancer. I went on to become a very talented.... hmmm, I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one!
This is us with another little friend of mine playing dress-up. Tina had the BEST dress up trunk! Old costumes and dresses that belonged to her aunts and stuff. We were so very glamorous dahling!
This picture was taken the year before my family moved to Washington. We were at a birthday party for her brother at McDonald's. By the way, if you're thinking about making fun of me and my glasses, I'll tell you the same thing my mother tells me every time I give her grief about letting me leave the house like this, "Sweetie, that was the style. You were adorable." Truly a face only a mother could love.
After I moved to Washington, Tina, like a good friend came out to visit me. This is us in a park in Vancouver doing our 'Old Lady Act'. At least that's what the caption said in the B.F.F. notebook we made up. However, I don't know any old ladies that appear to be quite so nimble and quick.
The next summer, for eighth grade graduation my parents flew me out to Georgia to spend some much needed time with Tina. The Stephanos family, being the fabulous people they are, took us to Disney World! I can tell some things never change. Instead of matching bedrooms, Tina and I are now rocking similar short shorts and converse. Nice.
We also went to Universal Studios, where I was tragically eaten by Jaws. Thus ending this happy tale. Just kidding! Tina and I continued to stay in touch pretty regularly until our last couple years of high school. Understandably we were living separate lives on separate coasts. So I was touched when she, being the good friend she always had been, invited me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. We lost touch for a few years after we both got married as we were busy starting our new lives with our husbands. But we have happily reunited since then and love keeping up on each others adventures! Tina and I are actually both now mothers to a new generation of 'Daring Girls'. Tina and her family, including her daring daughter Hailey, live a very adventurous life in exotic Morocco! They work tirelessly serving the people there with their sense of fun, compassion, and spirituality. I ironically found my way back to the land of my youth, Georgia. Where I have the privilege of raising my own two, daring Georgia Peaches, Maryn and Brynna, in the place that brought me so many happy memories as a young girl. I hope someday our daughters too, can look back and remember a very adventurous girlhood, just like their Mommas!