____________________________ A meeting place for the FRIAMILY of Joanne Daquano _____________________________
Someone asked me today how long Joanne and I had been together. I told them ever since Feb 18, 1981 - you do the math.
Joanne and I met in grade 9 in Mrs. Kewley's math class. I sat in front of her - Mrs. Kewley insisted on alphabetizing the seating arrangements - and as far as I was concerned, she was one of those snotty people from the "Catholic" school ..... eeeewww ..... why don't you just go to Bishop Mac, or Cardinal Leger?? No, you have to come here to GDHS. But as the semester progressed, and Joanne had to come and give me the lesson plans for Mrs. Kewley's math class because I was either kicked out of it for hiding her stapler on the window sill beside me, or outside in the smoking area being the totally coolest ass-wipe hockey player that ever existed.
I guess you could say, I came to depend on Joanne to provide me with that homework, and we did spark up a friendship - yeah, okay, I
tolerated her.
Grade 9 turned to grade 10 and we ended up in a Theatre Arts class. That's when the friendship really started to bloom. I can't remember who really called who first, but I do remember talking for hours on the phone with her. I never even talked to my girlfriends for that long for the love of God. There was something about Joanne's honesty that just kept me coming back for more.
It was 2 days after my 15th birthday ... (celebrated at Frank Vetere's - hoh! Yes, I do recall having a beer, but remember that it didn't go to well with the cake. I think Joanne was there, but I wasn't there
with her. I was with some other people - whom I can't recall.) ... Anyway, we were into one of our marathon conversations - now I know why the kids can spend so much time on MSN, they're having MULTI marathon "chats" - and the conversation turned into a teen angst rant about how much I hate my life, school, friends, and all the regular goings-on for a 14-just-turned-15-year-old. I said to Joanne that we should run away to my summer camp for the winter. We could survive on peanut butter sandwiches (a staple in the diet of the Daquano's to this day - just add your favourite condiment to go with it:, raspberry jam (strawberry sucks) or Miracle Whip ..... NO, not gross. Very good.
Then I said, I realized we couldn't run away but we could spend time together until such a time as we could run away. Then came the "awkward" moment of silence ..... "what do you mean", she said. I sat up straight in my father's desk chair, turned the light off, and closed my eyes .....
"Will you go with me?"Yes, "Will you GO with me?" Do kids even say that anymore? I don't remember Joanne's response, but I do remember going to school the next day and telling Stacey Balson, ...
"I'm sorry," and that I had to move my stuff out of her locker,
"because I'm moving it into Joanne d'Entremont's locker."It was in the Tech hall of GDHS ... down the stairs, with the smell of wood shop, machine shop and auto shop in the air. I was putting my stuff in Joanne's locker and telling her I was serious about what I said last night ... and would she Go with me ... she said yes. I kissed her ... and Mr. McPhail told us to get the hell to class right now!
February 18, 1981.
Blog on you bloggers.
Mike