Bethanyisms (Stranger From the Past... continued)

Let me rewind this story to its true beginning: high school.

But before I begin, I must preface this story, as I do with many of my stories, with the fact that IT WAS NOT MY FAULT.

It was completely the fault of my big brother, Jared. He and his cool friends had a tradition of “freezing out” on the way home from Stake dances. If you are not familiar with the term, freezing out is when one rolls down all the car windows, blasts the AC, and removes all insulating clothing from the upper portion of one’s body. All this is done in the middle of winter and, for a reason that only a teenager can understand, is considered, like, totally fun.

One day, the boys made the mistake of freezing out while I was in the car with them. I, fourteen at the time, was bundled up in the backseat with my coat and a blanket, screaming at the boys to roll up the windows and put their shirts back on over their “pukish bodies.” Inside, however, I was thrilled that the boys would let me witness something so magical, so sacred.

Naturally, as my girlfriends and I came of age, we decided to carry on the tradition. It was done in innocence, I assure you. The freeze outs occurred on the highway in the middle of the night when no passing car could possibly see in. And while we did remove most of our insulating clothing, we did NOT remove our under things; that would be indecent.

So obviously, with so many safeguards in place, my friends and I were blameless for what happened on that cold winter night. Not to blame at all…

(to be continued…)