40 responses

  1. Jan Priddy
    January 14, 2019

    I remember those years, my own version. This is vividly different. Made me suck my breath.

    Reply

  2. Nicole
    January 16, 2019

    I adore this. It’s like a list poem of my own young-adulthood. Every single day was easy and normal but also dangerously capable of ruining my the rest of my life.

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Every day but Sunday right? Thanks Nicole.

      Reply

  3. Anna
    January 16, 2019

    Yes! This is/was so many rural towns. Lovely details and made me want more.

    Reply

  4. Patrick O’Connor
    January 16, 2019

    Captivating essay! Two thumbs up!!

    Reply

  5. catherine
    January 16, 2019

    so vivid! brought the ’80s back and some of the worst/best dichotomies of being a teenage girl… well done!

    Reply

  6. Kelly Westhoff
    January 16, 2019

    singing “Here I go again on my own”

    Me too…?

    Reply

  7. Liz Sjaastad
    January 16, 2019

    This piece explodes with sensory details transporting me there and then, taking risks, laying on the hood, watching fireflies. I hope the memoir comes out soon.

    Reply

  8. Pamm Smith
    January 16, 2019

    This piece is rich in detail. I am there with you walking the gravel road with a gaggle of singing friends, Pepsi Cola in glass bottles in our hands. Or Tab, my 1980s favorite.

    Reply

  9. Rhonda
    January 17, 2019

    Remarkable imagery in 444 words that capture a young girl’s view of a time and place—a slice of American apple pie, frozen.

    Reply

  10. Marcia
    January 17, 2019

    So evocative. A wonderful read.

    Reply

  11. Nancy Henrikson Sommers
    January 17, 2019

    “We were Laura Ingalls, but wilder.” Love this line… as well as the whole piece. Beautifully written. I grew up in Minneapolis in the 50’s/60’s. My husband and I raised three children on a third-generation family farm outside a town of 30,000, from 1984 through 2006. I can only guess the similarities and differences of our experiential memories.

    Reply

  12. Nancy Henrikson Sommers
    January 17, 2019

    “We were Laura Ingalls, but wilder.” Love this line… as well as the whole piece. Beautifully written. I grew up in Minneapolis in the 50’s/60’s. My husband and I raised three children on a third-generation family farm outside a town of 30,000 from 1984 through 2006. I can only guess the similarities and differences of our experiential memories.

    Reply

  13. Cherste
    January 17, 2019

    “Princess of road rock and roll. Laura Ingals, but wilder.”

    OMG you are such a master of words! Love it!!!!

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thanks Cherste 🙂

      Reply

  14. Madelon Sprengnether
    January 18, 2019

    I love this–and your writing overall, which is so fresh, vivid, poignant, and accurate!

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Madelon!

      Reply

  15. Paul
    January 20, 2019

    There is so much in so few words. This author bears watching!

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Paul!

      Reply

  16. Barbara Rudnicki
    January 21, 2019

    The sparse language, grounding in time references, and vivid sensory detail tell a riveting personal story while leaving room for every reader’s memory of similar teen age experiences, whether in rural America or in the cities.

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Barbara!

      Reply

  17. Emily
    January 22, 2019

    The details in this piece are at once familiar and surprising, unique and universal.

    Reply

  18. Jenifer
    January 23, 2019

    “We were always daring the sperm to stick. Erika was due in December, Dana had a miscarriage and Bridget got an abortion. Bethany just did anal. I was blow jobs and wine coolers only.” Teenage girls and their sexuality–love this! No sentimentality here, no apologies. And the boss who wants to know what you did with your boyfriend and your take no prisoners rejoinder–“wouldn’t you like to know.” Love the voice, love the girls who won’t be cowed and how in so few words you bring the time and place to life.

    Reply

  19. Liam McgRAT
    February 6, 2019

    I was assigned to read this for my high school English class, and I was pleasantly surprised. I found myself relating to the story, even 30 years later. This story has stood the test of time.

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Liam, very exciting to see that my piece was assigned for your class. Glad you enjoyed.

      Reply

  20. Talia
    February 6, 2019

    As a high school student, this story is relevant even after 30 years. Many of these experiences are shared by American teens regardless of their uprbringing, from drinking to sex to staying out late.

    Reply

    • The Stonestroms
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Talia, I am honored that high school students today are relating to this piece.

      Reply

  21. Geico
    February 6, 2019

    What an absolutely brilliant piece Amy, the things you wrote about really do describe high school, in my opinion, from the sex, to all of the drugs, that many high school students do.

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Geico. Love your comment. Makes me wonder what the ancient cavemen teenagers were up to. Was Homer a hellion? We know Joan of Arc was using her time wisely. But what about Genghis Khan?

      Reply

  22. Ryan
    February 6, 2019

    I found this story very interesting and relatable to myself even though it was written in 1989. I feel that this story will continue to apply to teens in the future.

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Ryan. I actually just wrote this last August but those teenage memories are the ones that cling the tightest to neocortex I think.

      Reply

  23. Dan
    February 6, 2019

    I am a high school student and I feel like this story relates to most if not all teenagers. In this piece it highlights the fact that teenagers tend to feel invincible. Especially at the end where she says she can do whatever she wants at night and everything will be okay as long as they are in church the next morning.

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Can I get an Amen! Thanks Dan 🙂

      Reply

  24. Hannah
    February 6, 2019

    This is relatable across the board. As a high school student reading this in an english class filled with other teenagers it was amusing to see people reactions to the various descriptions of teen life. Some uncomfortable laughs, some assimilating smiles, and overall appreciation. And at the end of the piece it wraps up with returning the various teens to their innocence, allowing the whole cycle to begin again.

    Reply

    • Amy Stonestrom
      February 16, 2019

      Thank you Hannah for your thoughtful comments, I sure would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that room 🙂

      Reply

  25. J. Turbes-Shaw
    March 11, 2019

    Ah, Sauk Centre on the St. Croix, eh? As a “Clumsy Heights” ’50’s kid whose step-parents banished him to a River Falls farm every summer, I can empathize. It didn’t improve when in my senior year we pulled up stakes to pitch a tent in MN’s answer to the Gobi Desert, Fridley. We tethered our camels just in time for the ’65 tornados that rolled up the neighbors’ newly sodded lawns like throw rugs and deposited them in our living room. Yet I almost miss the blood-sucking “state bird” flying in V formations of three, searchin for the next meal.

    Almost.

    Reply

  26. Kara
    August 19, 2019

    Wow, I recognized a few people, was I in there?

    Reply

    • Amy
      August 23, 2019

      Just in spirit 🙂

      Reply

  27. Cole
    August 29, 2019

    You “nail it” classmate! Great read.

    Reply

  28. Karin
    May 2, 2020

    Having grown up closer to “the big city,” my life was a bit different, and family circumstances different, but the language in this work makes me feel like I was there. My favorite line “My father trailered bellowing cattle from the farms to the stockyards.”

    Reply

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