Chapter 112: Welcomes

Thursday, April 21, 1983

Angie and I got up extra early so that we could say goodbye to Dad as well as Mom. We’d be leaving for Kentucky directly from school. The class schedule let us get a late-afternoon flight, ahead of rush hour, which was much better than a late-night flight.

We could have flown out Friday, since Friday only had registration, a meet-and-greet event, and a banquet. None of that was necessary. However, we could afford the extra night in the hotel, and it would be great to be there, settled and ready, and not worry about the vagaries of flight delays.

Angie and I put our bags into the back of my car and headed to Jasmine’s, collecting her and her bags, and then Paige. It was pretty awesome that all four of us got to go. The number of bags certainly justified my buying another land yacht, even if the number of people didn’t.

Instead of heading to Drama, we met in the parking lot and headed off to the airport. In 1983 you could just do that. No teacher or principal would be out there stopping you from leaving school. In 2020? You might get away with it, and you might not, but if they spotted you, sooner or later you’d be in trouble. Of course, we’d have had permission, but the contrast was still quite noticeable.

Traffic wasn’t bad, so we wound up at the airport by three-fifteen. Our flight was at five. By 1983 standards, this was plenty of time. After 9/11, of course, it would’ve been rushed. I was used to 1980s airport security by this time, but sometimes it still felt much too lax, even realizing that a lot of post-9/11 security was really just ‘security theater.’ The metal detectors and scanners still worked, after all, serving as a deterrent if nothing else.

Twelve of us were going, plus Meg and Steffie (of course). The school would no doubt get substitute teachers, but they could have just left well enough alone. Everyone would’ve behaved (or not been caught, either way).

As usual, we had far more girls than boys going. Amit and I were the only boys in the group, so we had a room to ourselves. In deference to Lizzie and Janet, our only seniors, they had a room to themselves, too. The other girls opted to sleep four to a room to save money. It might have helped that all eight of them were very close friends.

Angie and Paige were sharing a room with Jas and Carole, which seemed to make the most sense. Cammie and Sue were sharing with Lexi and Sheila. While Jas and Carole would’ve happily looked the other way, or just enjoyed themselves, I was certain nothing was actually going to happen. This time we’d fly back Monday evening, so there was no post-tournament night.

Admittedly, tonight was a night where things could have happened, but ... no. They’d never put Steffie and Meg in that position. It just wasn’t who they were.

As for Lizzie and Janet, and stealing a phrase from a decade later: ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ I figured they might get up to something. Might. It’d be far less awkward, for the same reasons as at State: they were over eighteen, and there were no other students around to ‘corrupt.’

We gathered at our gate and waited for our flight, laughing, joking, and relaxing. We got some looks from other travelers, but most of them were indulgent, not annoyed.

Our flights themselves were pretty good. We headed to Louisville first, then headed across the airport to board a smaller propeller plane that took us to the Lexington airport. It was the second-smallest airport I’d visited (the smallest was Santa Fe, New Mexico, which was smaller than many bus stations in the 1990s when I’d flown there), but nice enough.

Meg and Steffie had two taxi vans reserved. Wonder of wonders, they were there, and they held all of us and our luggage (not comfortably, but adequately). I’d had issues with both in the past.

We carefully arranged our luggage in the back of the vans and in the front rows, then got settled. It was about a twenty-minute drive from the airport to our hotel, a Holiday Inn immediately adjacent to the campus. From here we could walk to campus and back.

Angie and I phoned home, almost certainly waking Mom. She was happy to hear from us all the same and wished us the best of luck. Others phoned home, too, and then we got to bed. With the time change, plus two flights, it was getting late, and we all wanted the rest while we could get it.

Friday, April 22, 1983

We slept late and had more of a brunch than a lunch at the university’s Student Center. It was a nice old historic building, and I liked it immediately. We had time to kill, since there were no official events until four. Angie, Paige, Jas, and I all decided to call this a university trip and tour the campus. In the end, everyone but Lizzie and Janet, and Meg and Steffie, accompanied us.

Meg and Steffie decided they could trust us to stick together and not get in any trouble. On the one hand, we did that all the time at home, routinely driving all over town unsupervised at all hours of the night. On the other hand, having something bad happen to students (or having them do something bad) while unsupervised on an out-of-town trip would be a big problem. I was glad that they felt confident in taking the risk (or could, at least, fake confidence).

Needless to say, we didn’t get ourselves into any trouble. We also didn’t see any other obvious high-school kids here for ToC. Perhaps we were seeing them everywhere, though, but I doubted it.

The campus itself felt very traditional. Everyone thought it was pleasant enough, though I knew the odds of any of us going here were extremely low. Jas, Angie, Paige, and I would be in the same place, almost certainly. Cammie might well follow us. Carole was more uncertain, but this seemed an unlikely choice. Lexi seemed settled on going somewhere in Texas, and so did Sheila. Amit and Sue would very likely wind up going somewhere in the Northeast, very possibly either the Ivies or (for Sue) the Seven Sisters. With Gene in the picture, Sue might switch gears slightly, but only to the Ivies, I was pretty sure. After all, Gene had the grades to follow her there.

We headed back to our motel around three, then showered and changed for the meet-and-greet and dinner. This was even more optional than the similar events at State. Some students couldn’t afford the night or couldn’t get off school on a Friday, after all. This was a school-approved absence for us, but it might not be for others. It probably wouldn’t have been for Texas students in the 2000s.

Of course, I would hate to arrive on a red-eye and then have to compete on Saturday, but I reminded myself that I’d done exactly that (except it was a Thursday and Friday) on the Philadelphia trip my first go-round. One of the subtle differences (major, yet still subtle in its way) was that we had the freedom to do things that made us more competitive. We hadn’t had that before.

This time the whole group, including Meg and Steffie and Janet and Lizzie, headed to the Student Center, where we’d have the meet-and-greet and the welcome dinner. Jas and I had planned, of course, and decided the ao dai was too much for this trip. She’d gone with a green jasmine-print dress, and I’d gone with a matching green shirt and a white bow tie (with my usual navy blue suit).

Sue had opted for a lavender shirt with her skirt-suit, while Cammie was wearing pale green. Janet was, of course, in all pink. What else? Lizzie was in an outfit that almost matched most of the other Debate girls, if you discounted her pink tie.

Angie, Paige, Carole, Lexi, and Sheila were all in colorful outfits.

Amit had obviously embraced my view about standing out, while also managing to very nearly fit in. He’d found a navy blue pinstripe Nehru jacket that fit him perfectly.

I was surprised I’d never seen it before, and decided to ask him.

“That’s an awesome jacket. Why haven’t I seen it before?”

He grinned. “Jaya found it at a thrift shop two days ago. It’s perfect! I imagine some hippie kids wearing it back in the 1960s.”

“No doubt! I love it.”

“Of course! I knew you would. Sheila loves it, too, which is more of a plus.”

“Always.”

We chatted away as we walked, soon making it to the area set up for the meet-and-greet. As we came in, it was clear that debaters at this level were still basically debaters. There was a multitude of navy blue suits, white shirts, and red or blue ties. Most of the girls were wearing skirt-suits. The Drama contingent was clearly separate and wore much more colorful outfits.

We got a lot of looks from both groups. As far as I could tell, either there were no other mixed groups, or they’d simply separated as soon as they got here. Almost certainly the second — some schools are great at both. Bronx Sci was, I thought. Duschene certainly qualified, as did Grapevine, MacArthur, and Bellaire. The Glenbrook schools in Chicago would be on that list.

None of us were actually crossing over here, so we split up, with hugs aplenty (and some kisses for the dating couples — Amit and Sheila, me and Jasmine). The Drama group headed to their tribe, and we headed to ours. I was pretty sure theirs would be more fun, though staid clothing certainly does not necessarily make Debaters a staid group by comparison to most people.

As we approached, I got my first surprise of the evening. None other than Christopher Hamilton separated from a group and walked over.

“Hey! Steve!” he said, smiling, offering his hand.

“Hi, Christopher,” I said, shaking.

“Hello, Cammie!” he said.

“Hi!” she said.

I quickly introduced him to Sue, Amit, Janet, and Lizzie, who then went on into the throng, Cammie joining them.

“How’ve you been?” he said.

“Good, really. A few little things, but nothing bad. I’m here, after all.”

He chuckled. “So you are! Any luck with Nationals?”

I shrugged. “We lost in semis at State. The girl in all pink and the girl with the pink tie are the team we sent last year, and they’ll be back this year.”