Fifteen

Hello and welcome to a sunny Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is March 27th.

The blog's WAKWIR (Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence) turned fifteen yesterday. This is the third child in our kid crew to turn fifteen and, I've got to be honest, with each kid who hits this milestone, I'm looking less and less forward to it.

Fifteen. 

Author Beverly Cleary passed away this week at the age of 104. While Cleary's most famous literary characters were Beezus and Ramona Quimby, my favorite Cleary book was Fifteen about a young girl falling in love. My young self considered Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume and Fifteen by Beverly Cleary to be the definitive sources on all things involving boys and love. I would often stare at that green cover and imagine it was me gazing up adoringly at a handsome young man as he clasped a bracelet around my wrist. Dirty Dancing (1987) and all the Molly Ringwald films did me no favors, fueling my fantasies far more than informing and preparing me for the realities of teen love.

Fifteen.

I must be missing The Oldest because I’ve been consuming large amounts of Taylor Swift tunes. So the day the WAKWIR turned fifteen, the first thing to pop into my head was Tay's "Fifteen" song. It is a sweet song about love and expectations. Only this time, instead of enjoying the woozy feel-goods that come with the anticipation of first love, my maternal sensibilities splashed cold water on those thoughts. You are too young to be thinking about love.

Fifteen.

And I thought so way back when Martina McBride released her song "This One’s for the Girls" only in those lyrics the girl is thirteen and that just about puts my mama-heart into cardiac arrest. Are thirteen-year-olds even in high school?

If there’s one thing I wish that I could have had more of in my childhood it is innocence. I wish I’d spent more time painting my toenails, braiding hair, and giggling for hours on the telephone with girlfriends instead of romantic prospects. I wish I’d used glitter more and dotted my I’s with hearts just a little bit longer. I wish my poems would have been more Ramona and Beezus and less Wakefield twins (Elizabeth, the nice one, and Jessica, the naughty one) from Sweet Valley High.

I often tell my children to “be a kid for as long as you can because you have the rest of your life to be a grown-up.” Falling in love falls into the grown-up category. Even young love, I encourage them to push out just a little farther. “Be friends with everybody,” I tell them, “because as soon as you add that extra layer of interest it gets complicated; and when it gets complicated, you risk losing the friendship altogether.”

I’ve already got two teenagers worth of experience on this. While they’ve sort of taken their mom’s advice, they also sort of haven’t which has led to a mixed bag of results. In the end, they’ve mostly come around to mom’s thinking, but not completely. I know that’s to be expected, but - still. 

I use to enjoy the thought of my kids getting older. My mothering fantasies (far removed from my own Fifteen days) are of my children blossoming into beautiful young adults ready to embrace their futures. They are mature and curious; articulate with a splash of daring.

And now that I am in it – my little birdies actually taking flight from the family nest – I'm less jazzed, far from the “cool mom” I always assumed I would be, and much more the worried mom.

I used to be in such a hurry to have them grow up. And now I fantasize about them staying innocent forever.

And don’t even get me started on driving.

Fifteen.

On This Day

Historic Highlights (credits)

1998 - Viagra is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Pfizer's pill was the first drug against male impotence to be approved in the United States. In 2012, the company made 2 billion U.S. Dollars from Viagra alone.

1994 - Silvio Berlusconi rises to power in Italy

In his 20 years in Italian politics, Berlusconi arguably made more headlines for his numerous affairs and scandals than for his policies. In 2013, he was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for tax fraud.

1980 - The oil rig Alexander L. Kjelland collapses in high winds in the North Sea

Only 89 of 212 crew survived the Norwegian platform's capsizing, which was caused by a fatigue crack in one of the legs.

1977 - The worst air crash in history occurs in Tenerife, Spain

583 people died when 2 Boeing 747 aircraft collided on the runway.

1871 - England and Scotland compete in the first international rugby match

Like association football, rugby is a British invention. Today, it is a popular sport mainly in large parts of the British Commonwealth.

Happy Birthday to You!🎶 

1971 - David Coulthard, Scottish race car driver

1970 - Mariah Carey, American singer-songwriter, producer, actress

1963 - Quentin Tarantino, American director, screenwriter, producer

1924 - Sarah Vaughan, American singer

1845 - Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

Remembering You

2006 - Rudolf Vrba, Czech/Canadian holocaust survivor, educator

2002 - Billy Wilder, Austrian/American director

1972 - M. C. Escher, Dutch illustrator

1968 - Yuri Gagarin, Russian pilot, astronaut

1898 - Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian educator, politician

Be sweet and make it a great Saturday.

Kim