Purple & White

By: Lolo Anderson

Thought I would try this short story format to evaluate a chapter in a book I wrote a couple years ago. I’m getting so many reads on my first date short story, I thought I would post a single chapter out of my book about the year I was a cheerleader. I sent a copy to my cheerleader girlfriends and one said she liked it, maybe you will to. You will notice a different feeling about my writing a couple of years ago, compare to my First Date story.

My Class of 64: Draft #10

Chapter 03: Cheerleaders

Still don’t know how or why but 3 of the pretties and friendliest girls in all of the 9th grade talked me into going out for cheerleader trials. Here I will break from my resistance to put names to my story. Vivian, Vicki and Patsy. We were elected senior high Timberwolf cheerleaders for our sophomore year over 2 of the sexiest last year’s cheerleaders.

It wasn’t just their school spirit or the awkward ugly pimple faced boy they had talked into being a cheerleader that got them elected. They were not only the prettiest but the friendliest girls in the whole class. Everyone liked them so much, especially me. Just to put it in perspective both Vicki and Vivian were our class home coming queen candidates. Pam won that year only because she was so damn cute.

I was dumb and clumsy and hard to remember routines even back then. We were having so much fun practicing our routines for the tryouts that the summer practices were like daydreams for me. Every practice was more like a private party with the 3 prettiest girls in class. Vivian’s mom would make us drinks and snacks and we would laugh and dance while we ate hot dogs and drank RC cola. The 4-mile bike ride to and from town was fueled by my excitement and adrenalin.

Vivian’s dad was some kind of big shot at the Union Lumber Company and she had a great house with a redwood deck that overlooked the Cleone canyon. Laughing and coming up with ideas for cheer routines, it was like such fun getting closer and becoming such good friends with all of them.

Not to get too side tracked here, but Vivian’s mother was a very beautiful lady with dark hair and olive complexion. She looked like a movie star to me. She was so sweet and nice to all of us and I was having a boy crush on her.

I’m sure most guys thought I was sleeping with all three of my cheerleader girlfriends. That was an act I gladly went along with. It was their idea to tease their real boyfriends and make them jealous. They were willing partners to the charade and they went out of their way to sit on my lap whenever possible with arms around my neck between cheers on the sidelines.

Lots of the guys kept pressuring me to tell them which one was the best kisser. What they did not know was that my relationship to the girls was far better and has lasted much longer than just physical. I fell in love with being their big brother.

What else was everyone to think? All those long rides to away games. Rides with a car packed in with so many beautiful girls there was hardly enough room to sleep. Then there were the over-night games in Eureka and Willows. The football team was staying at the same motel as me and the cheerleaders. Someone got some beer someplace and coach Babcock was having trouble keeping them in control.

I think it was one of the sexy song leaders that some of the football players were asking for a little more than she was willing to show them. The details don’t matter. I found myself in the dark parking lot standing between my girls and a bunch of drunk boys that night. I think there may have been another boy or two step up with me.

Coach Babcock broke up the fight before it got too out of hand. Let me tell you, I will never forget the attention I was getting back in the girl’s motel room after that stand-off. Remember I was staying in the same motel room with the girls.

I remember now, Patsy had a girlfriend that came with us often and she was there in the motel room with us. I forget her name now but I wish she was more than just one of my sisters for me to protect. If she knew what I was thinking about her, she needed protection from me. I think this might be all in my mind but can’t explain why I still see her sitting on the motel room bed with all the other girls.

I’m sure the girls must have thought I was gay. All that time together in such close proximity and all that physical contact. I never even copped a feel or kissed any of them. Patsy was so wild and crazy; she wasn’t as boy crazy as most. Beside she had been like a sister since kindergarten. Vicki had way too much energy to ever be held down by any one guy. Vicki was the squad energizer bunny. Vivian was always so mature and focused on being the best cheerleader squad the school ever had. She was always too smart for a dummy like me.

Time with them was so carefree and almost a complete lack of drama. They all had just the right amount of self-esteem and love of life to always be happy. I say that because I do not remember very many tears except for laughter with these young ladies. You’re not supposed to be able to put 3 women that close together without drama. They set a gold standard never met with all the young girls I have loved like my own daughters ever since. More than just brother and sisters, we were friends.

Loretta, Patsy’s mother would drive us to most of all the away football and basketball games in her big Buick road-master. They seemed to enjoy teasing me in that giant back seat as they took turns sleeping on my chest.

Being their safe big brother was giving me a window to how teenage girls really were thinking about boys. Having pillow fights in their night clothes and fighting for a turn in the bathroom at the motels was all part of being their big brother. Besides both of their mothers would know the instant I crossed the line, if I ever had the courage.

Now let me go back to any basketball game in the home town gym. I remember the whole town would be packed into that gym. You had to get there early to the JV game just to get a seat for the Varsity game. There I would be with Patsy, Vivian and Vicki in front of hundreds of fans screaming out the Timberwolf fight cheers at the top of their voices. The noise was so loud the windows would shake. The stomping of a thousand feet on the wooden bleachers sounded like thunder. I was always so excited and pumped up after each cheer, surrounded with 3 screaming beautiful girls that were just as excited. No wonder why we got the looks from the guys on the bench.

After our squad would give our cheer, the music would come on and the song leaders would take the floor. Sitting on the floor at court-side in front of the most beautiful girls in the whole school. Wearing those short little purple and white cheer skirts. All of those beautiful sexy legs dancing right in front of me. I may not remember any of their names now and maybe not any of their faces but I remember those dancing legs. I also remember the school spirit feelings, as I watched them sing and dance. The school band played and we all sang songs like, “we sing to purple banners” at the top of our voices.

One night we were playing our key rival, Ukiah in Ukiah. They had a much larger gym with twice as many bleachers. Unlike the Fort Bragg gym they had bleachers on both sides of the court. Our song leaders had put up a Timberwolf poster on the wall behind the Ukiah bleachers and behind our visitor’s bleachers.

Someone from Ukiah had pulled down our poster on their wall. Nobody was doing anything about it. The next game time out I walked right across the basketball court, through the opposing team and up the stands and ripped their poster down from behind their bleachers. They had to bring in the cops to stop the fight that broke out between both sides.

My memory is very fuzzy but I can still see the giant rally fires at Pudding Creek beach. I can remember 2 different fires just before playing home coming football games. Two of our classmate’s daddies owned big trucking companies and one owned the only sand and gravel company around. They had access to hundreds of old used truck tires and dump trucks and back hoes for cleanup. The pyramid pile of tires was at least 60 ft high and 60 ft feet wide. When lit the fire was hundreds of feet high up in the air. It would burn for days before cleanup could begin each year.

What crazy high school rally’s they were. I can still see the hundreds of kids all yelling and screaming in front of that giant fire. The cheers were so loud I’m sure they were heard way down town. The crowd was so big there was hardly enough room for cheerleaders on the sand in front of that giant fire.

I can’t think about my high school without so many wonderful and sweet memories of being my cheerleader’s safe big brother. I learned you do not need to make love to be in love with girls. My relationship with them has been a major reason I have enjoyed so many wonderful lady friends in my life, especially at work.

Our Timberwolf fight song and the Purple and white pom poms and three beautiful girls all up in my face. That is what I remember about being a cheerleader.

End of Chapter 3 [Class of 64]

I wrote that book about my fabulous high school experience to help me remember after my memory of it is gone. It was the sixties and there were lots of beautiful sexy girls on the beach, in the darkroom and in the classroom. Not to mention in our hot rod muscle cars. Hell, I had to marry my senior year steady girlfriend just days after graduation. Not because of that, I was so in love with her.

Please scroll down and leave a comment. They mean a lot to me.