RIOT GIRLS: Jumping on JS

Posted by Ethne~

This is another story re-told at GT every year.  I even dramatically reenact it sometimes (see below).

WHS Crew - Senior Year!

The summer after high school graduation, Lori, our friends and I spent every day and night together.  Seriously, there was a sleepover, pool day, beach day, ND State Fair adventure on tap every day of the summer.  Looking back, life was golden (along with our suntans).  Really, I would not trade growing up in Williston, ND, for anything in the whole world.  We were tremendously blessed.

This particular night must have been in August 1996, because we were nearing the time we would all part ways for our various colleges (Lori to Dickinson, ND, for Dickinson State College and I to St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN).  We were staying over at our good friend, CS’s house – we did not sleep too much, but we were downstairs in CS’s house, so her parents were none the wiser (or looked the other way).

Our covert ops were not to last.

Our friend, TS, snuck out to go visit her hot Canadian boyfriend.  She made it out of the house fine.  I ran interference up and down the stairs of CS’s to check for TS’s return so I could quietly let her back in.  I checked a couple of times, but she hadn’t returned yet.  (And remember, this is back in ancient times when there were no cell phones.)

The last fateful check had me feeling brazen.  I had been up and down and the house was perfectly dark and quiet.  The mood struck me to run across the living room and leap on the couch to look out the front window.  It was dark, but I knew the way.  I leapt….and landed….on CS’s sleeping dad, JS!

Dramatic reenactment from Girls Trip '09

Imagine being woken in the night by a full-grown adult jumping on your gut.  I’m laughing as I type this right now, but I was pretty well horrified at the time.  I said, ‘sorry!’ and ran back downstairs with no further ado.  And I hid my face around the S’s house for a while afterwards.

Thanks, TS – I took one for the team that night, but what a riot we’ve had with it ever since!