A Hope Chest Full of Laughter

This week, J was cleaning out her hope chest. I honestly don't know why she has saved half the stuff, but I am so glad she has!

"Heb!" she called over to the garage-loft, "Get over here!"

In front of her was a pile of notes that we had written to one another, probably in study hall or math class. We started going through the pile, standing up to read and act out the notes:

"Hey dude! S'up? (remember 's'up?' It was so much cooler than 'whazzup') So, did you ask your mom yet? Shell said she can come and my mom said we can sleep in the basement room. Plus, we just got a cable box down there so we can totally see the World Premiere of the new Billy Idol video on MTV. Its gonna be so cool!"

"Hey bud! S'up? My sister is such a jerk! She told on us that we were playing capture the flag in the woods with John and Paul last night after we were s'posed to be in for the night. I am grounded and my mom is prob'ly gonna call your mom so be on the lookout. I'm gonna spend the whole time thinking up ways to get her back for this. So you start thinking, too. We're gonna get her back so bad and there's nothing she can do about it."

"Hey guys! I got in a big fight with my dad because he always lets John do whatever he wants and I never get to do anything. So he said why don't you go find some other family to adopt you and maybe they will treat you better. Wait, my mom just got home. I have to go. Ok, I'm back. She just made me fold the laundry. I left a note under my dad's pillow that said I found a family to adopt me and I'll be packing tomorrow so goodbye. Now I'm in even more trouble! My family stinks!"

She had birthday cards and get well cards (I don't remember anyone ever being really sick, with mono or anything. We were probably sick for 2 days "Oh no! We don't get to hang out for 2 whole days!") Her husband was reading notes and cards and watching the two of us rolling on the floor laughing until we cried. He just looked at us and said "You two haven't changed at all since you were 13. This letter could have been written yesterday." That just made us laugh even harder.

Then came the hight point of the night: J pulled out a bag of saved clothing. Of course there were the old concert shirts and graduation caps. But she also had saved her Jams! Oh, lord, I had forgotten all about Jams. They were those really ugly drawstring Hawaiian print shorts. Everybody had a pair. Just one pair. Because they were really expensive and you blew your entire birthday budget on that one pair. Mine were teal blue with palm trees and surf boards. Hers were purple with big hibuscus flowers.

Of course, we had to try them on. We took turns wearing the Jams with the Ocean Pacific half shirt, the Vans and the Oakley Razor sunglasses. Oh what fun to prance around as if we were on the catwalk and casually peer over the top of the sunglasses. "Hey dude, s'up?" (They were really small steps down the catwalk so we wouldn't rip the shorts right down the center seam. Ya gotta be careful with shorts you wore when you were 14) Plus, if a big fit of laugter was about to come on, the Jams were definitely in harms way.

On Friday, I went to a comedy club with some other friends. In my head, the real test was to see if any comedian could make me laugh as much as the hope chest had. They were pretty funny. But I think the hope chest still won. By a banana hair clip!