Freque Factory

Freque Factory

Intro and Start

         I've been wanting to write this for a long time.  These are the stories about my coming of age.  Mostly they revolve around Monique.  She was the center of most of our lives.  I've changed the names to protect us.  The title?  It came from a joke of ours.  Back then, us "hippies" often called ourselves "freaks."  I remember one song that encouraged us to "let our freak flag fly."  We spelled it as a tribute to Monique.  Still pronounced the same.  And we really did feel that the time and place we lived produced freques.  Hence the factory title.

Chapter 1  Beginnings

   There was a group of us that clustered around Monique.  Her house was where so many of our adventures happened, or at least started from.  Her mom was "Ma" to so many of us.  We could count on Ma B to feed us, listen to our troubles, yell at us when when we needed it, and would even offer us a place to crash when some of us had no place else to go.

   But as much as we loved Ma, it was Monique we were really drawn to.

Some of the group had known Monique since grade school days.  Since we went to different schools then, I didn't meet her until 7th or 8th grade.  We've always disagreed which.  And there's no paper trail we could find to verify each others claim.  What we did agree is that we met via Girl Scouting.  Back then, if a young woman was interested in the out-of-doors or boating and her family wasn't, Scouting was one of the few options.  There, a young woman had a chance to be with like-minded girls in a non-judgmental community.  Monique and I met because both of our local school based troops had dissolved-a common occurrence in the middle school years.  That pattern holds true today.  The troop we were part of was a small one, comprised of 5 girls from 4 different schools.  The 5 of us stayed together until we graduated from high school.

   The meetings were at a home just around the corner from Monique's house.  I got into a habit of going there first and after.  Then hanging out at other times.

   Physically Monique was little-5'2" tall and slender.   She was shy, but had was full of energy.  She had a great deal of charisma.  It seemed odd to me that she had self esteem problems since she seemed so pretty to me.

   Our adventures were pretty tame.  Neither of us were able to drive, so we were limited to what we could do locally.  But the potential was there.

Chapter 2 Freshman Year

   High school changes things.  That was certainly true for Monique.  All of a sudden her straight, long, blonde hair was cool.  As was her unique sense of fashion.  She idolized Cher (or Sonny and), so that was the make up style she went for and it suited her.  Her figure had matured as well.  She was slender still, but she had noticeable curves.  The boys especially noticed the latter.  I wasn't so lucky.  Heavyset due to medical stuff, with brown hair just beginning to grow out.  I wasn't really interested in boys yet, but so far they weren't interested in me either.

   Monique found the concept of dating boys interesting.  She didn't have much experience, at first.  Her first experience came on the afternoon of a Girl Scout meeting.  We had met at lunch that day and Monique told me that a good looking guy that was a year older had asked her to join him after school.  Thrilled, she agreed.  Could I please cover for her at the meeting?

   As I had expected, she was late to the meeting.  I had cheerfully lied to the adults in charge, though I was more truthful to some of the girls.  I was concerned because I knew that bad things can happen to girls when alone with guys.  Finally Monique showed up and I had to wait patiently for the details.  With the other girls she passed it off as a mild adventure, but I could tell there was more to it.

   The young man, Scott, had walked with Monique to his home, which was near school.  Neither of his parents were home.  Somehow they had ended up in his bedroom with him kissing her.  This was a new experience and quite enjoyable.  But when his hands started to wander, she called a halt to the activities.  It is a testimony to Monique's charm that Scott did stop.  I think, deep down he was a good guy, despite his later reputation.  Scott even walked Monique to the place where our meeting was.  He became a loyal friend and admirer.  She did date Scott a few times when her schedule allowed, but nothing serious ever became of it and he never again tried to "take advantage of her."

  We don't know what Scott said to his friends, but after that there were always guys hanging around Monique.  None of them got beyond the kissing stage and almost all of them ended up friends.

   I had my first romance about that time too.  Well sort of.  My father was not ready to have me date yet, so there were such limits on our time together that the romance was doomed even as it started.  Eventually the young man moved on to others.  I think we kissed once.  I wasn't impressed.  Looking back, it was probably the first kiss for both of us.