New Year’s Eve, Chapter Three

About a month or so after our first date and during our Christmas break, Jimmy, Frank, and I  went to a New Year”s Eve 1967 party in Houston, Texas, which was at my cousin and her husband’s house.

We left Van Vleck and went to my cousin’s home, together in my brother’s car. My cousin and her husband already knew Frank because they had met him at my Grandfather’s funeral in December so that Frank would not need introductions. After we arrived at the party, everyone was already in party mode and munching on snacks that my cousin had provided for everyone.  The room was full of music and laughter.

“New Year’s Eve Party”

Frank and I decided to go into the kitchen to get some food and fix us something to drink. There was a lot of food on some of the counters, but one countertop held nothing but different kinds of sodas, condiments like candied red cherries, lemon slices, lime slices, green olives, and many different types of bottles of liquor.

I was eighteen, but I had never drunk a mixed drink or beer. Drinking just was not something girls did back then that I knew in the town where I lived. Guys, on the other hand, seemed to drink beer, a lot of beer. So I told Frank that I was going to make myself a mixed drink. Frank asked me if I wanted him to make it for me, but I told him no, I would do it myself.

After all, how hard could it be? Frank laughed but told me to go ahead. So, after picking a large glass, I poured some of all of the liquors in the glass until the glass was about two-thirds full, then I poured some of each kind of soft drink and finished it off by adding at least one of each condiment. Wow, that drink looked awesome!

Frank asked, “Nancy Lou, are you going to drink that?”

I replied, “Of course, I am.  Frank, would you like me to fix you a drink just like mine?”

Frank told me he thought he would wait a while.  So, I took a big drink of my mixed beverage, which tasted wonderful.  I loved the taste of my mixed drink, so I took another big gulp. Frank was watching me, and then he told me that I might want to drink my beverage a little slower. Smiling at him, I told him that I knew what I was doing, and anyway, it tasted great.

Frank and I walked back into the living room, where everyone else was gathered, then sat down on the couch. Wow, I felt good, but it had gotten sweltering in there.  The music played loudly, and I just wanted to dance, so I got up off the couch, stepped up onto the coffee table, and danced! I was even singing! I felt so free and alive!

Frank got up off the couch, put his arms around my waist, and then lifted me off the table. After my feet back were on to the floor, Frank took my hand, led me through the kitchen then out the back door of the house to the backyard.

My cousin’s backyard sat next to a drive-in theatre.  The only thing that separated her backyard and the Drive-In Theatre was a fence. Wow! I could see the movie playing on the big screen, so I took off running for the wooden fence and proceeded to climb it! Frank was running behind me laughing, and then he pulled me off the fence before I could climb over it.

As he placed my feet back on the ground, I realized I was getting dizzy, and my legs felt wobbly.  Suddenly, Frank picked me up in his arms and carried me into the house but unfortunately, that was the last thing I remember.

I have heard stories of other things I might have done, but then again, I claim innocence of those stories because I do not remember. The next thing that I do remember was Frank holding my hair back from my face while my cousin held a cold rag on my forehead as I was hanging my head over the toilet while sitting on the floor gagging and feeling like the contents of my stomach would never stop emptying.

I remember my cousin telling Frank that she thought it would be best if he, Jimmy, and I just spent the night at their home, and she would call my parents. At the time, I did not know that Jimmy was also passed out on the couch, very drunk.

My cousin called my folks and told them that it was late, and she thought that because there would be many drunks on the road, we should spend the night at her house. But, of course, my folks did not fall for it and told her we should drive on home. But, of course, my cousin did not mention that the two of us were hopelessly drunk, and we would be the drunks driving on the road.

Frank loaded Jimmy into the car’s back seat, then he carried me to the car then put me into the passenger side of the front seat. I was literally in and out of consciousness. Frank, a person who did not know a lot about driving in Houston and was directionally challenged, climbed into the driver’s seat, started the car, and then we were on our way into the night.

Jimmy was passed out asleep in the back seat, but I kept tapping Frank on the shoulder so he would stop the car so that I could open my door to mainly dry heave. The trip home should have taken us only an hour and a half, but with Frank losing his direction and me making him stop the car, it took us three and a half hours.

I do not remember getting to my house, getting out of the car, getting undressed, or into my bed that night, but I do remember waking up in the morning with an awful headache.

For some strange reason, my folks were not upset with me the next morning but did seem to be enjoying my suffering a lot.

My basketball coach, who lived next door to my folks, came over to tell me that he had called a special practice for that afternoon, then he laughed as he looked at me while telling me about it.

Well, I went to that basketball practice that afternoon, and the coach ran my booty off, yo-yo after yo-yo!

Frank called earlier in the day and came over to my house to check on me that evening. He told me it might just be better if I did not drink, and I said to him that I agreed.

Just because I like this song!

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