This is almost recent history, so I’m somewhat surprised that I don’t remember the details of this month better than I do.
This was my second year of college. I remember in ’97 it was my first time home and my family and friends made a big deal about my return. By ’98, though, it was old hat. Also, this was an odd year when the U of C took two weeks off instead of three.
I do remember that I reconnected with Sarah Crawford via Josh Aldred; I’d met her the summer before, but lost track of her when she went to summer camp. The three of us spent a lot of time driving around Flint, getting into various degrees of trouble that I won’t detail here.
I remember a couple odd absences; for example, this was the first time in ages that the DeVoes didn’t throw a Christmas party. So instead, we invited them over for pizza. Unless I’m remembering wrong, and we went over there instead.
For Christmas, my parents got me a Romanian-English dictionary, because I was talking about spending a summer abroad; but these plans didn’t come to fruition until later. On New Years Eve I went to a collossal party at the Crawfords… the first of three I’d attend, and this was where I met Marcy, who I wooed off-and-on for the next year. And this was when Demetrius taught me a dance he’d invented to Madonna’s Ray of Light. I bought the album and it was my favorite for the next two months.
In the last days of the year, a massive blizzard descended on the midwest, hitting the western side of Michigan particularly hard and burying Chicago in more snow that it had seen in 35 years. So to flirt with 2009, a little, I remember my dad creeping along at 40 mph along I-94 all the way around the lake. The trip probably took us six or seven hours, but he kept us out of the ditches on the side of the expressway. Many cars and trucks had spun out, and we could see them when the snow let up from time to time.
Where were you in December 1998?