It's Not Too Late: YSC, Day 35: Maeve

Prompt: "The song that you're always reminded of whenever you see a particularly memorable family photo"

Selected by Maeve

"Don't Stop Believin'"

Journey

Escape, 1981

Aren't you all glad that I'm late and this isn't on the playlist?

Growing up, we were close with relatives, but much like Joe discussed in his post, we had a "chosen family" called the Inner Circle. On the first day of kindergarten, I asked Deirdre if we could be friends, our parents became best friends, and it all unfolded into a very close-knit group of five families. You better believe that at our joint graduation bar crawl, we gave a speech to all of them ending with a resounding "YOU'RE WELCOME" because we're assholes.

That being said, the K***** have a family house up in Ludlow, Vermont. It's halfway up a mountain and remote... well not remote enough where there isn't a house next door that the G*****s and K***** went in on together. Let me tell you, structurally these houses are incredible. In actuality, they are so, so old and falling apart. There were so many times where we would freak out over seeing mice in the bedrooms. And it got to a point where a handful of us would get to stay at the inn at the bottom of the mountain because the dust—and let's be real, mold—was making allergies run wild. 

Every summer, we would go to Vermont, and it's where I made some of my favorite family memories. I can so clearly picture the nights that the adults would go out to dinner (which would somehow still include the oldest boy), which left me and D to watch all eleven kids. We'd play charades and card games for hours (a particular memory of Bridget doing a charade for 20 minutes where it turns out she didn't have a clue in mind still infuriates me). The boys would build a fire for all of us to enjoy when the adults got home. We'd have hooleys late into the night, which upon googling right now... I'd always thought was an Irish term for firepit, but it's in fact the Gaelic word for "a party." Wow, who knew?! We'd always just say, "Going over to the F******s' for a hooley tonight," and it meant drinks around the fire. 

This one particular night in late August, all of the adults went out to dinner, and after the kids all ate dinner, we got the fire ready and decided to have a dance party while we waited for them to get home. It was so silly, here we were, a group of six- to sixteen-year-olds just blasting pop and having fun. Then the adults came back absolutely bombed. Hindsight, it's funny that drinking didn't even cross my mind—I never would have snuck drinks, I was too scared. That being said, not one of the younger kids would ever be scared when they were in high school. Definitely one of those "oldest vs youngest" kid scenarios. Regardless, the adults literally danced out of the car and we just had a silly, goofy, great time all dancing at the end of this dirt road, illuminated by fire light. One song in particular stands out, the one I chose for this prompt. I have photos of my dad pointing his beer to Deirdre as if it's a mic, both of them belting it out. And then one of Bridget and Patrick standing like giant Xs, with their heads up to that Vermont sky as they scream out that Steve Perry "aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

Well, this has made me nostalgic. Please enjoy the photo of the group on top of Killington mountain, a few summers before. It's definitely a poorly timed digital camera pic, but it made us all laugh. Although it's missing the F******s, it's definitely a core Inner Circle photo. My parents have it framed at their house, and whenever I walk by and think of Vermont, I think of that perfect hooley where "Don't Stop Believin'" was blasting.