SR'S 92- WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN!

Daniel Webster High was not wheelchair accessible during this time. It was built in 1938 so it was not expected. That is until July 26, 1990 when the bill was passed for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In a nutshell, this bill gave persons with disabilities equal access to public accommodations and employment. So all public buildings had to be wheelchair accessible, accessible to the blind, and other disabilities. Being a teenager I was not aware that this bill existed, nor even passed. But I am thankful!! All buildings that did not meet ADA standards were given a deadline as to when the accessibility had to be done. Webster decided to take there time, and started work on an elevator in the spring of 1992. Because I did not know about the ADA I thought they built the elevator because of me. They wanted to give others with physical disabilities the same opportunities to go there as I had! What a crazy thought I had! As they began the construction process of putting in the elevator we could hear from class the drilling, hammering, and all that stuff that went on. At the end of April I was in my accounting class when our teacher (Coach H) who had an office at the front of the classroom, and in there he had a phone. When it would ring he would let one of the students get up and answer it. Students were always yelling out "I got it" as the phone would ring. One day the phone rang and I yelled out "I got it"! Coach just kept looking down and said “OK”. He then recognized the voice, and looked up laughing. A few days later as the workers were making all kinds of noise with the elevator one of my classmates asked the Coach “Why the elevator was not built before now so that Stephanie could use it?” Coach had told him “That I did not need it, that one day I told him that if he gave me an A that I would answer his phone. And I'll be damned if she didn't hurdled over those desks to answer that phone!" Everyone including myself was laughing. In the fall of that year the elevator was done, and there was a student going there who used a wheelchair! I was so happy. I went to school that October to see my friend Mike get crowned for the Homecoming King (Warrior Chief the 48th), and was able to ride that elevator to the reception. It made me a little vaklempt! I was glad that barriers were let down so that all different kinds of people could experience the great times at Daniel Webster High!

Photo from http://www.bestoftulsa.com/

Thanks for taking the time to read, Miss S

SR'S 92- PROM, "Pretty in Pink"

From the beginning days of high school when I was just a little freshman I thought about my senior prom. What would it be like, what would I wear, would I have a date? Up until my senior prom I had seen some of my friends, and my brother go to prom and wonder what it was like for them. I did not have high expectations of even going in the beginning. I pictured myself falling on a decoration piece, spilling some thing on myself, or being asked by a policeman to walk a straight line! The summer before my senior year ever began a friend of mine named Steve tells me that when time rolls around for the prom if I need a date that he would love to take me. Steve was a counselor at summer camp, and had known him for several years. He was a great friend, and someone I felt comfortable with. He was a 24-year-old law student at the time, owned a fitted tux, and had a convertible! He always told me that he was just my backup in case I got no other offers. I was thrilled that he offered. So that was always on my mind, and was a weight off of my shoulders. As time got closer my friend Waco asked to me if I would go to the Prom with Alex if he asked me? I was completely shocked. Alex was a cool guy, and I enjoyed being around him. He always had me laughing. But I immediately got nervous, because I did not know what kind of expectations as my date he would have for the prom. It seems very stupid, but you hear stories about after prom parties??? He never led me to believe he wouldn’t be a gentleman, but other than at school or school functions I had never been around him. I did not know much about him personally. So my answer to Waco was, "Have him ask me, and I will tell him." Waco knew about Steve being a backup date. So I do not know if or what he said to Alex, but he never did come and ask me. He probably couldn't except a rejection from the little disabled girl! This was my thought, although I do not know what I would have even said to him if he did ask. That is one of them what if questions I have in my life, but I have absolutely no regrets in what did occur. But get this, a couple of weeks after prom a whole bunch of us were at our local hangout (Mazzio’s) celebrating the victory of a basketball game. Someone raised a question about how this one guy was treating his date like a piece of meat at the game asking if anyone else saw it? Alex said, " I did, and I would never treat a girl like that ever!" From that point on I had a crush on Alex! Go figure! Okay, back to the prom. My best friend from ninth-grade, Kari, let me borrow one of her formals. She had like five of them to choose from. They were all really nice dresses, but which one do I choose? The oldest one from a prom she went to in 1986! Hello, it was 1992 Stephanie!!! Leave it to me. It was pink with ruffles and lace. I was big into pink at the time so cut me some slack! It was not horrible. But anyway, I went to Nine West to get crazy pink shoes, and accessories. I had called Steve, and told him that if the offer was still good I would love for him to be my date to the prom. So it was all set. I went to my hairdressers (Keeta’s) to get my updo for the evening, and my nails manicured and painted pink. When Steve came in to get me he looked very handsome in his tux, and was grinning from ear to ear! I never saw Steve without a smile. He bought me a pink corsage, and helped me to put it on my wrist. I felt "Pretty in Pink!" (One of my fave movies!) I would have made Molly Ringwald jealous! My aunt had came over with her video camera to record us as we were driving off in his convertible w/ the top down. I brought my wheelchair for I knew it would be a whole lot easier for Steve to push me rather than trying to help me walk in my pink dress and crazy pink shoes. I knew the main problem for that evening was going to be my crazy pink shoes! They were a ballet type of shoe with no heel but they were harder than all get out to keep on. I just knew that those crazy pink shoes were going to cause me so much trouble. We headed off to a really nice restaurant where we had reservations. It just happened that there were also some friends of mine there for dinner before the prom so we got a big table and all sat together. Steve had ordered a beer, and I do not blame him at all. I would have bought him one if he didn't get one already! The dude was 24, had just taken the bar exam, and was sacrificing his Saturday evening with a bunch of teenagers (all for me, God love him)! That would have been enough to drive me to drink as well!! So we get to prom. It was at the Petroleum Club in downtown Tulsa, Okla. The theme was Treasure Islands, and the tables were neatly decorated with treasure boxes, pearls, and costume jewels. We ended up dancing to two different slow songs, "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton and "The Dance" by Garth Brooks. On both of these songs Steve helped to me to stand. I never did fall. Shown below, is the picture that we took together while there. It is a really good picture of me standing. The crazy pink shoes behaved themselves quite nicely which surprised me even though they still managed to fall off a few times. God was definitely watching over me and my crazy pink shoes that night! As we were leaving we were given champagne flute's with the date and title of the prom theme on it as souvenirs. In the attempt to abolish drinking and driving Sonic Drive-In gave out coupons for free large soft drinks to every person at the prom. Do you think it worked??? That was our first stop after we left the prom! I probably got my fave which is DP, and Steve got a vanilla DP. I remember him getting that because the server guy over the intercom made a big deal of the fact that his DP would cost 10 cents because of the vanilla in it. We were laughing! My friend Bubba was having an after prom party at his church. The church had a big theater room were they rented movies and had tons of snack food. That is where we headed. About six other couples joined us there. They rented three movies We stayed for the first movie (Uncle Buck, it was ok), and half of the 2nd one (Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was good and have seen the whole thing tons of times now). Steve had a long drive home so we did not stay, but we were there till 2 in the morning. As we got to my house he walked me inside. I gave him a BIG hug, and he kissed me on my cheek!! He made the prom a wonderful memory for me. I would love for you to share your story about your prom, formal, or similar event.

After prom, for several years we did keep in contact with one another. He was a very busy and successful lawyer with his own law firm in Bartlesville Okla. After moving to Texas when I was almost 20 we lost contact with each other. In February of this year after about 12 years of no contact I found myself thinking a lot about him so I gave him a call. I spoke to his mother who informed me that he was no longer with us as of late August 06. He had a long hard battle with leukemia. I still cannot believe it. It makes me so sad that I did not make myself stay in contact with him. Life can be taken away so easily. So cherish those who are in your life. It doesn't take much to let somebody know that you are in their thoughts.

Thank you for taking the time to read, Miss S

SR'S 92-EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN! [edit*]

Not only did I live with a challenge every day, but it was also a challenge when helping me sometimes! As I have mentioned before one of my classes my senior year I was a main office helper. My duties consisted of answering the switchboard, and being courteous to those who came in to the main office. There was one other student who was a main office helper as well. His name was Waco (no lie), and he was the errand runner! Waco and I became really good friends. He was also a senior. He could make me laugh, and even though we were the only two students in the class he was the class clown for sure! Going from that class to my next class (Spanish) was my longest travel for the day. I knew this before the school year began, but nothing was about to take me away from taking Spanish. For I had to go up some steps to get to the outside of the building, then down some more steps and across to another building...BREATH…up three more flights of steps, and down the hall to get to my destination. Man, that wears me out just talking about it! Because I was allowed to have two people help me to class across the hall was the attendance office. There were two students who could help in there. One of them just happened to be best friends with Waco and his name was Alex (was a Senior too). So he would go with us and be the book holder while Waco would give me piggyback ride's to Spanish class every day in the beginning. All was well, until Waco and Alex found out that I thought the other guy in the attendance office was cute! He was on the football team, and every girl wanted to date him (but SHUCKS cause he always had girlfriends), and his name was Mike (he was a Junior).

So then Waco and Alex began scheming with one another figuring out how to get Mike to help me. Alex would so conveniently be gone so that when Waco would come in to get him he would be gone, and Mike would help. At first I was embarrassed thinking that Mike would probably get on to Alex for being gone. Surprisingly, it did not take long for Mike and I to become friends. I would have to say Mike was somebody I completely adored, and felt so comfortable being around almost from the start. He was such a gentleman, and yes he was very nice on the eyes! He took over and started giving me the piggy back rides to class! It did not take long before Alex started coming along with us. Normally Waco would carry my books and Mike would give me the piggy back rides. Well, Waco and Alex were always scheming as you know, and they thought it would be fun to poke Mike and I in the butt with these thorns on this bush that was outside. DON’T FORGET I AM STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL! So here they go sneaking off to the thorn bush. They did this a lot to us so we got to know what they were doing, and Mike would start running with me on his back. He sacrificed a lot of times by running w/slick loafers on to spare us the pain!! From that moment on I knew he cared about me, LOL!!! I give the man credit because we never did fall! So you must be thinking that there has got to be more to this story? You are right. Leave it up to me! One day Mike was giving me a piggy back ride to class as normal. Waco and Alex went off to get some thorns as normal. Mike took off with me on his back, and we thought we were going to beat them. They ended up catching up to us as we began the second flight of steps. Showing us the thorns and laughing! At that point Waco tried to poke me. I reached over and tried to slap the thorn away. With my coordination I came nowhere close to the thorn, and slapped nothing but air! As my hand came around it landed right in Mike's ear… but it gets worse... I was wearing fake nails at the time… it gets much worse… my nail broke in two right in his ear!! Who would have thunk that such force would have come from a little slap? How embarrassing!! His ear was bleeding a little, and I felt so bad:( He claimed it didn’t hurt, but it sure left a mark! That was the only tragedy that came out of the thorns, thank God! It is something to definitely look back on and laugh! Mike and I knew that neither one of those guys were doing what they did to be mean.

The plot thickens though, as I was at my 10 year high school reunion talking to Alex as we were reminiscing about the good old days! He told me that him and Waco used to pick those thorns a couple of days in advance, and leave them on the sidewalk so they would get harder! Now that is mean, LOL! We laughed and laughed about it.

Thanks for taking the time to read, Miss S