Thursday, July 31, 2008

Slumber Parties at Margaret's House

SLUMBER PARTIES AT MARGARET’S HOUSE


I wonder how many slumber parties we had at Margaret Robinson’s house during our high school days. It would start like this: on Thursday or Friday one of the senior girls would say to another “I wish we were having a slumber party Friday night.” This word would spread and we would either hint or just out right ask Margaret if we could have this party at her house, which was undoubtedly the best slumber party house ever! Many times Margaret volunteered her house which saved us from having to be so rude.

Our parties often followed a ball game, so our arrival was just whenever we could get there. Sometimes it provided a quick end to a date and other times we arrived in cars, either driving or getting dropped off.

We would have the run of the downstairs of this large, 14 room house full of interesting art and antiques plus books in every room. Our focus, however, was on the latest 45 rpm records, movie magazines, snacks and the latest gossip, and it was the perfect place to show off a new pair of baby doll pajamas. We packed our favorite snacks and always took too much. One favorite was ring bologna and crackers.

The ultimate goal was to stay awake all night, but the reality was in the wee hours when eating, dancing, singing and telling off color jokes got tiresome, most of us got cozy somewhere and fell soundly asleep. Naturally, at a sensible time, probably around midnight, Barbara (Woodruff) and Patsy (Kelly) would have gone to bed in the downstairs bedroom in order to get up on Saturday morning and drive to Winfield for their respective piano lessons. Such good girls!

The slumber parties of the girls of ’59 provided some lasting memories and a deep appreciation of Lincoln and May Robinson, who always made each of us feel welcome. Margaret was one of us but I wondered if she was ready for a slumber party each time. We were self-promoters, way ahead of our time.

Do any of the slumber party gals have a memory to add to this? I would love to hear how your story goes.

5 comments:

Phil Foust said...

...always wondered what was a slumber party? Now I know ... thanks, Diane.

Anonymous said...

Another thing I didn't know was happening.---- Jim Robinson

Anonymous said...

Jim, just think of all you were missing!!

Unknown said...

Another example of the profound influence the Lincoln Robinson family had upon the lives and times of CV. I did not know the family well, (although Elizabeth was a good friend in HS,) but I remember my sister and Margaret and a couple other of their cronies(Diane) spent a lot of time at the big old house down close to where Don Cox lives now, probably causing trouble, or at least thinking about causing trouble. And Lincoln was the first man I ever saw wearing shorts. Now, every man wears shorts so I guess he was a major trend-setter.
Well, to get to the point of this rambling essay, I would really like to hear more from Jim and Margaret, and I am sure many others would also.
Everyone who contributes something brings up thoughts and memories in others that, then they share with the rest of us. Like a snowball grows.

Gary Metcalf said...

Reading Diane's comments about the Robinson home, Nancy (Hankins) and Elizabeth were best friends through grade and high school. She says some of her fondest memories were the time spent with Liz at her house, which apparenty was about as much time as she spent at her home. The highlight was the evening meals, somewhat formal, with Lincoln serving the main course. A couple of years ago, Nancy had a 90th birthday celebration for her mother in CV and with not enough bedrooms available for guests, Margret was kind enough to let Nancy and I stay in the Robinson house one night. Nancy slowly walked through the house and spent some time in Elizabeth's room were she and Nancy spent many hours. It brought back many memories and tears.