Boy Was My Face Red

When I was a kid (Hey! It wasn't that long ago. All right maybe it was longer than I'd like to think about.) anyway, a regular column in a teen magazine was "Boy was my face red" . Girls wrote in with their embarrassing experiences. It was always one of our favorite columns. We'd read the entries and have a good laugh but be relieved nothing terrible had happened to us. Yeah right, it was only a matter of time.

In the town where I grew up there is a park on the edge of the downtown shopping district. It has a bandstand, playground, and a picturesque bridge over the little stream that leads to the pond.

A number of wild and domestic ducks called this pond home. People would come with their little kids to feed the ducks or fish in the pond. This was before they found out feeding the ducks in the pond caused a fatal bacteria growth in the stagnate water which killed most of the ducks and necessitated dredging the pond and attempting to improve the water flow. Anyway before all this happened the park could be a very busy place. Especially on one of the first days of spring.

I walked to the park with a friend. We were strolling around, checking out the guys and trying to look cool.

A group of boys was hanging out by the pond tormenting the ducks so we casually strolled to the vicinity and stood on the rocks around the pond's edge eyeing them. Remember I said we were trying to look cool. That ended with a splash as I lost my balance and fell into the pond. To make it even worse (How could it possibly be worse?), I expected the pond to be deeper than it was so when my feet hit the bottom I further stumbled and fell full length into the scummy water making a second, even larger splash.

Laughter erupted from the boys and "Boy was my face red".

I sqooshed home, my teeth chattering because although it was spring it was still nippy, especially if you were wet. To add insult to injury my friend refused to lend me her sweater even though I promised to wash it before returning it. I will never forget that day.