April Showers...Not many May Flowers

I can remember exactly when I ceased to be popular in high school. It was November 9, 1995. The night my dad went over to see my boyfriend. With his Bible in hand. But, before I tell you about that cozy conference, I should tell you why my dad went over there in the first place.

When you're in high school, you don't think of very good cover stories. In fact, they suck. But somehow, you still think they're good enough to fool your parents. The same people who tried the same trick 20 years before. My boyfriend and I got to go to a fair board meeting together, something that almost never happened--I got to go somewhere alone with him. So we went parking after the meeting--nothing terrible, just making out, right? For 2 hours. We didn't return home until 11 p.m. Now obviously, our parents were frantic. This was a stupid plan. But, to get out of trouble, we said the meeting ran late. Very Late. Two hours late. Since cell phones weren't readily available at the time, we couldn't phone home.

The story worked. For about 4 weeks, until the next meeting rolled around. The truth came out when my mother phoned the director to tell him she didn't want the meeting to end that late again. The meeting ended at 8:30 before and Mrs. Beery, is that an OK time? Oops.

So back to the conference. Did I mention there was a Bible involved? My dad sat down with my boyfriend and his mom for over an hour to explain his thoughts on our behavior and then prayed with them. The bad part? I didn't even know my dad was going over there. The next day? Suffice to say that I no longer had a boyfriend and no one from my high school was going to go near me because of my "preacher" dad.
My dad's not a minister. Just a concerned father.

I never dated anyone from my high school again.

Moral of the story? Try a better cover story than a late meeting. Well, either that, or hide the family Bible.