Fan Memories - Near-TWY Experiences



"Powee!" by Kyle, 11/27/00

For the full impact of this story, it should be pointed out that I was small for my age and pretty shy...

When I took French in high school, there were about twice as many girls as guys in the first two years. Toward the end of four years, it boiled down to about 5 girls, and me. One of those girls, Cindy, arrived back from vacation a day or two late, and was accordingly marked "tardy" on the big attendance sheet by Miss Knudsen. Miss Knudsen was then called out of the room by another teacher or principal or someone. I don't think I ever spoke directly to Cindy before, but for some reason, I suggested to her that she erase the "tardy" mark on the attendance record. She said she couldn't do that. I said I would do it, and did. She said "oooh, I have to kiss you" (I'm pretty sure those are the exact words). Of course, at the time I knew nothing about women, and started to back-pedal away from her. She caught me and kissed me on the cheek. Powee! Cindy smiled and the girls giggled.

I don't remember anything else about French class that day, except...we were going to have a math test the next day, and in the hallway after French class I asked Cindy if she wanted some help with the math she had missed. This was like the first time I ever asked a girl anything :-) She said OK, and we agreed to meet in the library the next morning. The full weight of it all had not quite settled in...

We met in the library and sat down side-by-side. Because she sat on my left side, and I write as a lefty, she couldn't see what I was writing very well. It was a bit awkward, so we switched seats. I dared not move my leg, for fear of touching hers, so I didn't know if she was pressing her leg against mine, or I was just getting a cramp. The rest of that morning is sort of blurry, and I think it was pretty much "thanks, bye" when the bell rang.

So much for Cindy, except...I'm not certain of the timing, but it was much later, as in months, if not more, that I saw a copy of the school newspaper, something that I'd never bothered to look at before. I picked it up and looked at a large picture on the front page. It was a picture of the homecoming queen, who looked somewhat like "Madeline" with brown hair, riding in a convertible in a parade. Her name? It was Cindy, Cindy Lloyd...



"CraigHobson" wrote on 11/28/00...
In grade 10 I moved to a new area of the city and therefore I had to go to a district High School. I was forced to leave all of my old school friends behind since they went to High school in my old district. Anyways, I knew nobody when I first started there. I didn't talk to anyone for about 3 days in a row and then on Thursday of that first week, a new girl and 2 new boys had come into my first period class. I remember that day perfectly, well actually I remember the girl perfectly. Tall, dark blond hair, dark brown eyes blocked only by crystal clear glasses. I thought that this would be the perfect chance to make some friends, so I started talking to this girl and one thing led to another and we became pretty good friends; it was different for me because I'd never actually been just friends with a girl, we did a lot of stuff together, she eventually became probably my best friend. I could tell her anything.

Anyways grade 12 hit and that means two words...senior prom. Sure, I'd been to dances before but you never have to (at least where I come from) ask someone to go to a dance with you. However a prom was different. I learned you have to get dressed up, rent a car, pay for this, pay for that - and get a date! I thought someone would ask me for sure, but up until 5 days before Prom I was still without a date and then my friend told me that she knows someone who she thought I should ask, she wouldn' tell me who. But she told me to come to her house that night and I could meet this girl and she told me to wear the suit I was going to wear on prom night and get ready as if it were the prom night and everything. That whole day I wondered who she was, what she looked like, did I know her?, how did she know her? Anyways I drove to her house that night in my suit. There was a note on the door that said to come in, so I did and she was standing on the top of her stairs wearing what I could only guess was her prom dress. It was perfect...I'd never seen quite a sight like that. I remember when I saw her when I opened the door, I looked at her in a completly different way than what I had looked at her for the past 3 years of my life. About 1 minute of silence passed and then I asked her to the prom and she said as your friend or as your date and I responded "both." (Great line eh?) Until this day, there hasn't been a day that I haven't spoken with her. Her name is...believe it or not...Gwen. (I called her Winnie for a little while but then she told me to stop because she found it annoying).



Russtopher wrote on 11/29/00...
My junior year of high school I dated a girl for about 3 months. She was very cool, a freshman who I had known for some time. When we first started dated I was "kinda" seeing someone else, but I totally pledged my heart to this girl and said goodbye to the other one.

Anyways, we dated for a while, and her best friend dated my best friend (Kevin & Winnie/Paul & Carla). It was very cool, we always hung out together. Long story short, my best bud's girl started calling me because they were having issues. We started to get closer, and that friendship came between me and my girlfriend. So, we ended up breaking up, her fearing that I was going to leave her for her friend, me just not wanting to deal with that "crap" anymore. (BTW my really bad temper and stupid mood swings had NOTHING to do with this either. I swear!)

OK, December rolls around and I miss my g/f. I mean, EX g/f. Trying to come up with a way to win her back, I decided a nice fancy formal Christmas party was the answer. It would show her how sophisticated, mature, and debonair I was. Except, me throwing it would look too desperate, so I convinced my friend to throw it. It was great, we had a buffet with Swedish meatballs, salad, pasta, veggies, it ruled. I went out and bought a sappy romantic "I'm so sorry I royally screwed everything up, and I've changed for the better" cards (that's actually a new section in Hallmark stores, you can find it right near the Anniversary and Condolence sections). I asked her to step away from the party, and we went upstairs to talk. I presented her the card, told her how much she meant to me, and how sorry I was. She looked at me, smiled, and basically said there was no way she would ever go back out with me again.

I spent the rest of the party moping around, and I cried my poor little eyes out when I got home. I'm sensitive :-) The End.



Requesting anonymity, someone wrote on 11/29/00...
With a show like Wonder Years, almost everyone who ever grew up will identify with some part. In a big country, there is likely to be the odd individual on whom the whole thing fits like a glove. I am probably not that guy. Thank God I never had a moronic sadist for a brother; I was never kissed and/or slugged by the likes of Becky Slater; much older-looking girls were not perpetually throwing themselves at me, and so on.

But when I started watching the original broadcasts, especially when they got to ep. 11, I had an almost jaw-dropping sense of "This Is Your Life" and it got more uncanny as the series went on. As I said, I'm not sure I want to do this, but I'll try to explain it all in the most accurate words I can find, and if you choose to disbelieve, feel free.

You see, "the thing is...."
"Once upon a time there was a girl I knew who lived across the street. Brown hair, brown eyes [not to mention gorgeous, bright and wise, precocious, supremely female, and the ultimate "nice person"]. When she smiled, I smiled; when she cried [which I saw only twice], I cried. [of course she was way out of my league. I was a bit more like Paul than Kevin, and there were a LOT of "lifeguards named Chip." But she saw something, or some things, in me that probably weren't there until she saw them.] Every single thing that ever happened to me that mattered, in some way involved her."
"And, no matter what, for as long as we lived, I knew I could never let her go."

I'm not going to subject you to a hundred stories, but if you want a few in astoundingly accurate replica, check out the end of episode 2, most of #11, the beginning and very end of #22, much of #23, a little of #36, some of #37, the last and least believable part of #40, all of #46 [Yes, she eventually moved away. We sat on her porch steps and watched the moving van depart. Not to go four miles, but 90 miles. It was the end of the world, but for us also, it turned out that many of our best days were still ahead.] see also the first half or so of ep. 66, a few parts of #85, a little of eps 100, 103, 104, 105, and 115, plus, among many other things, two words from the end of ep. 1: "I know". How did it end? How else: We each found good and stable marriages, and reasonably happy families, and . . . except in Wonder Years . . . never saw each other again.



James wrote on 12/31/00...
Episode 86, "Hero," was about the varsity basketball team's advancement far into the playoffs thanks to a guy named Bobby Riddle.

In my sophomore and junior years of high school our varsity basketball team always was defeated in the first round. Then in my senior year something magical happened. We won 17 out of 20 regular-season games and took the conference championship. Then came the playoffs. Now we had an excellent chance to win that all-important first game! Needless to say, we did. We won the second game, and then the third, and then the fourth, and then the fifth. However, we met our Waterloo in the regional finals. Our version of Bobby was double-teamed constantly.



On 2/11/01, Rich D. wrote...
Perhaps my best "Wonder Years" related memory occurred last May --- I live in New Jersey and had won tickets (through a local oldies station) to see Ringo Starr in concert in New Brunswick at a small venue called the State Theater. Keep in mind that at this same time, Fred Savage and Dan Lauria were starring in a play IN NEW BRUNSWICK at another theater --- of course I was totally unaware of this.

Well anyway -- I'm sure you can see what was coming. In the theater lobby (while waiting to get in to see Ringo), I spot someone who I think looks like Dan Lauria. I mention this to my assistant from work (who came with me - we won the tickets together) and she says "What would HE be doing here ?". Curiosity gets the better of me and I approach him with a puzzled look on my face. Stupidly I say he looks like the actor who played the dad on The Wonder Years -- he grins and taps a guy on the shoulder who is turned around talking to someone else -----> guess who the guy is ??

Well, this guy turns around and my eyes almost pop out of my head as it turns out to be Fred Savage !!!! By now I'm totally in shock --- I blubber through a short conversation (which I of course totally can't remember) and they go off. I later found out that they must've at that point gone backstage to meet Ringo, as the local paper mentioned in an article (about the play Fred was in) a few days later that Fred was "floored" in meeting Ringo and that Ringo was a fan of his.

I did at least get to tell both of them how much that show meant to me --- I'll never forget that.

(More of Rich's contribution is in the "miscellaneous" section...)



Al wrote in August, 2001:
When Kevin went out for the wrestling team, it reminded me of PE class in junior high. We had to do a week or so of wrestling. I took one look at my opponent and knew he would beat my shorts off. But while laying on my back being pinned by this guy, I saw a poster board on the ceiling. It said: If you can read this, you're losing!



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11/29/14 17:40