Story Weekend: Sleepovers (and a giveaway)
The little girl across from me in Starbucks is excited about going to her first slumber party tonight (she seems way too young to me, but whatever!) so I thought sleepovers would make a good Story Weekend topic. What does that word conjure up for you?
I just received the audio book version of The Escape Artist, so at 10pm EST Sunday night I’ll randomly pick a winner from all commenters to win a copy!
If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve been contributing. As always, there are a few “rules”:
▪ The story must be true
▪ Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge. Happy writing!
Sleepovers…it conjures up wonderful times for me especially one in particular. It was at Janice’s house. To make it more of a special story, I found out she passed away of cancer in her first or second year of college. When I think back to the years, early 60’s to the year 1967 when I graduated.. they were magical years. At the slumber party as we called it, we went out in the neighborhood and had a scavenger hunt things we would not think of having our children do. We had a great time that night and I don’t think any of us would of dared. During those years they did the cold water trick on your arm when you feel asleep. The next day we went to see West Side Story. Love you Janice and thanks for the memories.
Bittersweet, Mary.
5 years ago, I had a sleepover for 4 of my Nursing school suite mates from 30 years ago
We had a blast! Of course we weren’t quite as crazy as back in the days past.
However, we made sangria and had lots of chocolate and spent the night ,giggling and talking of old times in front of the fireplace.
About 4 AM, we started calling all of our old class mates to say “Hi”. They weren’t quite as happy as we were at that hour!
Funny- We haven’t heard from them much anymore. 🙂
What a great time !
I love reconnecting that way. Makes me want to plan a slumber party.
FUN! My friends and I had sleepovers all the time. One time we had just watched a couple of scary movies and we decided to pull out an Ouija board. We wanted any ghosts present to give us a sign. About the same time there was a lot of banging on the windows. The neighborhood boys new we were having a sleepover and wanted to scare us. It worked!
My boys liked having their friends stay over just as much as we girls did when we were kids. One night long after lights out we heard a bump in the night and went to investigate. There were the 5 guys “sleeping” on their stomachs, some with their dirty feet sticking out from the covers. Hmmm, how did they get such sandy feet when they were in the pool right after dinner??? Then I saw the screen was out of the window and there were the mini-bikes out of the garage! The pretend sleepers had to confess, and that was the end of sleepovers for that group.
I loved sleep overs! My 13th birthday I had a slumber party with 7 girlfriends at my home. I had just got a new cassette player and a 24″ long black light tube with 2 of those cool pictures with lots of colors against a black velvet-like background that glow in the blacklight. So we set it all up in my bedroom and told ghost stories and sang songs together all recorded on the cassette player. I love replaying that cassette now and hearing the giggles, songs and stories.
Robyn, how smart you were to save that cassette.
Sleepover’s not the best for me. Never got invited to many. I had a sleepover with just one friend on my birthday one year. I let her pick the movie, (George Of The Jungle). There were many nights that I would sleepover at my grandma’s house. Us 3 girl cousins. I always ruined there plan of trying to stay awake the whole night. Once I’m a sleep, I’m asleep. Back in those days my aunt and cousins lived at my grandmas so there were always sleepovers. When we were suppose to be asleep we were talking and my grandma would come in the room and tell us to go to sleep. I only slept over so that my mom could go to work without having to drop me off at my grandmas then get back on the bus for work.
I never had sleepovers as a child but I traveled to any ordination with an acquaintance who I frankly didn’t know well. We got along famously, laughing ourselves to sleep…until I woke up with a start 10 minutes later. Susan’s snoring sounded like a rutting bull elephant! I called out to her to stop. She did…for 10 seconds. I put the pillow over my head. No luck. I put my ear buds in. Loud. I turned the AC on full (dead of winter). THAT finally worked. In the morning she asked me why I was “tossing and turning so much in the bed last night.” Sigh.
Does it count if the sleepover is with your mom on Christmas Eve and you are an awkward 13 year old going on 23 whose dad is in the hospital ICU lingering in the light of life under a drug induced sleep with a glass bottle of IV fluid hanging over his head? That would be me. The brothers and sisters headed for higher and happier ground at my uncles 300 miles away but I couldn’t leave her alone, at Christmas, to face the first light of dawn, to fight the good fight and to pray alone for God’s will to be done whatever that might be. So we snuggled together under a bed laden with hand made quilts and heavier hearts. Morning found us both as it always does and we cried together in the cold hard face of that day. I wonder if she still remembers that?
Oh this suggestion just made me think back of all the goodtimes I had as a teenager. One not so great I’m afraid. We lived in Napa Calif at the time , Mom was in hospital, Dad was a pilot out of Travis AFB. We were kept by governess while he was away . I was the oldest of 5 , needless to say on Fri nite it was slumberparty time at Christine Hannas at her Dads tankhouse . They were all smoking , ,I had yet to smoke at the age of16 . I tried that nite,,, oh how awful it was is all i can say .Coughed, choked couldnt breathe. I had to leave , We lived on one side of Silverado Countryclub, and Christiens home was up on the other side of the club. I walked/”Ran”from her home across the golfcourse , couldnt get home fast enough to wash out my mouth/shower . Never ever even thought about smoking again !! ( Diane I’m 70 and still vividly remember this ?slumberparty !!
I was never allowed sleepovers when I was kid. One time my parents did give it though. My friends name was Karen and I still remember this like it was yesterday. Her Mom sliced her finger on a can opener and she had to be taken to the hospital. She was cooking something at the time and even now the smell of certain foods take me back to that weekend. It was a big deal for me because I got to ride someone else’s school bus and it made me feel important. Lol
I remember going to a sleepover, and all us girls were new to wearing bras and someone decided once everyone was asleep to take everyone’s bras and freeze them! It made for an interesting morning!
I may have to use that in a book one of these days, Amy!
Just remembering this slumber party makes my teeth hurt but here goes. There was a fad going around during my junior high school days. You got together with your friends and boiled eggs. The yolk was taken out and the half boiled egg was filled with salt. You had to eat it without anything to drink afterwards and then go to sleep. During the night you would dream of the boy that you were going to marry! Of course we all lied the next morning and told the name of our current crushes! I really believed that the other girls had dreams about their future husbands! I was disappointed, thinking I would never marry!
Okay seriously, young adolescent girls are crazy.
Lol! My teeth are still hurting after my story!
I have always had sleepovers with all my grandkids at one time or another. Now there are two sets of twins ages 9 and 16 and we have sleepovers often . They play the wii. they sing and dance and watch movies along with the junk food they can find. Staying up late for sleepy sillies before drifting off to sleep..
I have so many sleepover memories from when I was a young girl. If I had to pick just one it would be my 13th birthday. We baked my birthday cake, watched movies and stayed up as late as we could. Of course there always had to be one person that fell asleep to early. That person was my friend Kristen, so we decided to play a joke on her. We took her bra, wet it down and propped it standing straight up in the freezer. What we did not account for was that my poor father would be the one to find it in the morning. We all still laugh about it to this day.
Sleepovers in the 7th grade. Making homemade cupcakes and milkshakes and discussing whether Love Story was a good movie. Carrying my floral sleeping bag across town to my friend’s house and waking up the next day totally refreshed even though I slept on a hard floor. Trying on each other’s clothes. Switch to 30 years later and hosting my own daughter’s sleepover. Four girls watching a video of Mary Kate & Ashley in Billboard Dad, playing with Barbies and munching on pistachios, and singing Mmmbop by the Hansons. All four girls asleep on a double bed sized futon. In the morning, they ate microwave bacon and pancakes.
Thank you for your comments everyone! Funny and touching. My random number generator picked Sheree’s post to win the audio book. I’ll be in touch, Sheree!
I have always been a night owl – even from being a young girl. I also got homesick. Without fail, every “sleepover” resulted in me staying up until everyone else had fallen asleep and I ended the night walking home in the wee hours of the morning and slipping into my bed as dawn began to break. My parents stopped locking the door knowing that I’d come crawling home at some ungodly hour. Even the local police would stop and ask if I was on my way home again. LOL. I don’t think I successfully stayed overnight at any of my friends houses outside of a handful of times. The rare occasion when I did (may be seriously three times) resulted in surprised looks in the morning as people saw I was still there. This continued all the way through high school. I would probably still do it but lucky for me, we purchased the house I grew up in 😉
Frozen bras and hands in warm water! Whoever fell asleep first was the victim of both of these things. Luckily, I have always been a night owl! I do remember getting into all sorts of trouble at these things though. I saw Dirty Dancing, Terminator 2 and The Bodyguard much earlier than my parents would have liked!