PAST NOTES

analog instant messages


you have found my collection of passed notes from the 90s, welcome.

spanning from the beginning of 1995 to junior year of high school in 1998, a note, reproduced verbatim from the original with the exception of all names, is posted to this blog in the order I'd received it. each post contains one note, and a brief narration of the back story as best I can remember it.

there will also be, from time to time, relevant photos, songs, videos, links, objects, quotes, diaries, poems, and other ephemera (all admittedly completely self-indulgent and wince-inducing).
Oct 06
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY

Eve,
Whats up you foolish girly you. Hey I don’t know about you but that rough sex + a lot of whip cream sounded good to me. Alrighty. I’m sorry I couldn’t come over yesterday I couldn’t call you until that time that I did call you.
Well gotta go,
I love ya!!
Jim
W/B
gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross fourteen year old poorly executed innuendo gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross gross awkward gross gross gross

Comments (View)
Oct 11
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY ONE

Eve,
Hey! Stoopid Suzy told me Cara told her I called her a slut. Why would I tell her you said it if I said the same thing? I told Cara to her face 4th period that she’d been acting like a slut and she had nothing to say. I never told her anything. She’s lying. And we were just kidding w/ Jim. Marcella Costa said it all anyway.
I JUST LAUGHED. 
Don’t be pissed at me.
Valerie
The good old She said/She said. Seems to me that in ninth grade: Slut was an insult. By tenth grade: Slut was a term of endearment. Somewhere in the time between, all of us figured out that we wanted to be as slutty as possible, and we no longer really held that against anybody. Also, tenth grade was when I discovered Bikini Kill, if that makes any sense. My girlfriends and I became very interested in reclaiming that word for ourselves.

Comments (View)
Oct 12
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY TWO

Hey Evie,
Did you find anything else about that Valerie bit? That really suxs. I wanted to call you real bad last nite, but…….. I do no longer reserve the privelege of telecommunication with you. Anyways * Evie you gotta promise me you’re not gonna hurt yourself okay?
 you man, and if something happened to you I don’t know what I’d do.
I hate this whole fuckin skol and everyone in it. Everyone has skrewed me over at least once this year one way or another. And last night I realized I only have about 4 real friends.
Shit gotta go.
 ya,
Jacqueline
FTW for real - when it was a reference to Pantera, before the internet brought us FAIL or LOL-speak. Fuck, before the internet, really.

Comments (View)
Oct 13
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY THREE

YO PUNK
“Are you gonna let him let him 
U to death
You move away
But not to far” [1]

Eve,
Oh dear friend you frighten me with those threats to break my knee cap [2]
So I’m writing you back
Too bad our plans got knocked up. We would have had fun. I thought for a while that Joe Perezutti was skipping too, but he’s in school now.
Cause I would be pissed if I didn’t skip. So when are you gonna change your last name to Jims? ha ha ha.
“White trash get down on your knees time for cake and sodomy -
 - too much oral defecation” [3]
Well I hope your happy
You’ve gotten me to write you.
Well anyways, (I wish I was a human ashtray) [4]
Tres chic bitches [5] are in the house! I’m only in 4th period and already need a stogie.
So maby we can skip Friday cause then we wouldn’t have to get on the bus in the afternoon, we could just stay after unless youre still grounded. That would suck majorly.
So in conclusion – mommy dearest – I want some lovin – just kidding
This letter’s getting a little long so write or talk later
 Francis Bean [6]
Hurling the aerosol cans [7]
Sweet cheeks

This note is laced with in-jokes.

1) Lyrics from the 7 Year Bitch song Icy Blue, featured in the movie Mad Love, which was our absolute favorite movie and model for life at the time.

2) I told Cadence I would break her knee caps if she didn’t write me a note already (her presence was starting to get missed on this blog, too)

3) Lyrics from Marilyn Manson song Cake & Sodomy that Cadence used to recite all the time, which was actually kind of amazing considering the lyrics went like this, “Red-neck-burn-out-mid-west-mind, who said date rape isnt kind?” But pretty soon this rude sophomore girl started a rumor going around that Cadence thought of herself as “the god of fuck”, and people started to come up to her and ask, “So, are you really the god of fuck?”. We decided right then and there that we hated that girl.

4) Some guy said this once while we were all on acid and it immediately became something we would always say to each other, in exactly the inflection he had used, which I don’t know how to translate here. I totally just texted it to her now.

5) Tres chic bitches was how we referred to ourselves, obviously.

6) Since we were banned by our parents from hanging out the year before, Francis Bean - her code name  / Courtney - mine.

7) Also the year before, after our semester of metal shop class was over, we broke into the shop building, which was located apart from the main building in the parking lot behind the school and stole all the spray paint (with ambitions to do up the town with our amateur attempts at vandalism). However, that all happened on the same day that I got suspended from school for having a minuscule bag of weed located inside of a Satanic troll mascot so when they finally let me out of the interrogation principal’s office for a bathroom break after the bust, the first thing I did was run to my locker, remove all the cans of spray paint and huuuuuurrrrrled them into a trash can in the girls room as I ran back to the bench I might as well have been handcuffed to, in the office. With the “severity” of what I had just been caught with, six or seven cans of stolen spray paint was the last thing I needed to have discovered in my locker, in case it was searched, which it never actually was. But at least by that point I’d started using my brain… even just that little bit was something.

Comments (View)
Oct 16
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY FOUR

Eve,
Whatup Not much hear baby doll. So you want to dump me right. Anyway I’m in study hall thinking of you. Well I couldn’t go to the bonfire yesterday because my mom wanted to get something to eat so we went to that resturaunt the motzerellas or something well anyway it took 45 minutes for the food to cum and another 45 minutes to eat it. Then my mom wanted to go finish shopping so I go mom can we go + she said no let me finish shopping, so I bitched and complained so then we ended up stayin there until 9:30. Well I gota go I love you.
I LOVE YOU LOTS!
PS. Don’t Dump Me Please
Jim

He had pretty strict (and ultra religious) parents. He was the youngest of four, with three fuck-up older siblings. I don’t know if his mom or dad had any hope for him, but if they did, it would have been squashed fairly soon after he met me (spoiler alert). Even though his father lived *in town* (his parents were divorced and each re-married), he was never able to hang out there with all of us after school. Our school bused kids in from several other surrounding towns, and he lived with his mom and step-dad in one that was much farther away. I wasn’t in walking distance of town myself, but I still managed to find myself there as much as I could - as well as Cadence & Cailean, who also lived farther away but could always finagle transportation (keep in mind, we are all still 14 years old at this point). Jackie and Valerie lived in town, Valerie right behind the Rite Aid parking lot that was our main stomping ground. We loved to hang out in parking lots and other places where you could get arrested for loitering but never did (okay once - eleven of us all in one sweep but that happens in tenth grade so keep reading). Valerie also lived next door to the Perezutti brothers house, which was debauch central for us. Other than that, we would hang out @ the Getty gas station and one of the two pizzerias, which were across the street from each other. This was a one stoplight kind of town. Literally. One stoplight in the entire town. 

Some nights, there were school related events like bonfires, or football games. So my friends and I would tell our parents that we were going to “the game” or whatever, to coordinate a parent-approved ride there and back. Then we would walk from school into town, and get in to absolutely no fucking good whatsoever. It was a pretty big deal. And that is probably why I wanted to dump Jim for missing out on all the fun that would have been had at the bonfire that night. But I didn’t. I think I liked the new importance of having a boyfriend too much.

Comments (View)
Oct 28
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY FIVE

EVE,
Whats up you foolish little girly. Hey so I’m in the library thinking of you. Is that alright, I’m pretty stupid HUH! I’m Reading a crack + cocain book now + all I’m thinking of is you. Cool right. What you need to know is I love you a lot.
Lots of whipped cream is cool & stuff.
What are you goin as for halloweeny.
I’m goin as a big walking butt.
P.S. I love you
P.P.S. I love you more than you love me
Well I love ya
Gotta go
JIM
W/B

Comments (View)
Oct 30
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY SIX

Hey Eve,
Its Oct 30th, Halloween Eve! Devil’s night shall be here soon!!
Anyways – its 8:01 in the morning and I’m still not in school. Let’s see I haven’t been in school since Friday the 20th! This is great! Being expelled aint so bad. Especially when I hardly got in trouble. I cant believe it. My dad was pissed, but he only yelled for a few minutes! I’m not even grounded! But I did get my phone taken away. But that’s okay. I’m used to it by now.
Well here’s the storeee - …
… I don’t belong to any school. I’m not at Crapel Field anymore. But my mom hasn’t enrolled me in any other school. She looked up info on this convent for me but the tuition was WAY too high for her. So she said she’s sending me to Pine Box Central high school!
YES! YES! YES! Holy shit, I’m so happy! Damn it! Those schmucks on the Rock Revolution played “Aeroplane” instead of “My Friends”! Figures… they finally say “Some Chilli Peppers for Eve from Jackie” and they play the wrong fuckin song.
Today my moms takin me to get my haircut. I cant wait! It’s all comin off baby. Balds the word! No just jokin, I’m getting it shorter than I’ve ever had it though. Not as short as Cadence.’s but kinda close.
Oh yeah, the reason my dad didn’t get too mad is cause the reason I got expelled was stupid, and he went to the school to argue with that asshole coach guy!! Weird, huh?
So here I am… 1 week and a day since I last went to school. I could live like this… Well I’ll be in school soon enough. All good things must come to an end. Anyways…
How’ve you been? I haven’t talked to you in so long. It really sucks. I miss you. How is Jim doing? Cailean? Any problems with her flirtatios cranium?
Well I have to go wash the breakfast dishes I used. I’ll write back ASAP.

Jackie 
P.S. We gotta get together 4 halloween! I’m gonna have my bro call ya so we can make arrangements.

Comments (View)
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY SEVEN

dear eve,
yo homie whats up chuck? so
anyway are you dressing up tomorrow?
please do chic. i am. cece’s wearing that shiny
dress again and i think she’s trying to be different
but nobody even notices her if you know what i mean.
i got a wig yesterday. it’s blonde so my mom bought
me some red dye so I can make it the right color
for my pippi costume tomorrow. oh yeah geoffrey 
the giraffe says hello my darling. so I’ll 
check you later. with all of my love 
 cadence 
I don’t know if this is the saddest thing I’ll write on here but I can’t remember what I dressed as for Halloween that year. I really can’t. I can remember the year before, I was in a bridal party of the dead with about ten girlfriends, and the year after I was a fairy. But not this particular year… I even checked my old planner, but there was nothing, not a clue. Cadence was Pippi Longstocking. I have absolutely no recollection of Halloween in 1995. I am kind of stunned. I do know that me and my friends participated in a ceremonious final door-to-door trick-or-treating for candy that October (we were way too old at that point, even). Also: The night may have involved hallucinogens. And alcohol. Fuck. What the hell did I dress up as that year? Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls: Don’t do drugs.

Comments (View)
Nov 07
Permalink

1995 — THIRTY EIGHT

Eve,
I’m finally writing you back!
Can you believe it? I know I cant.
Well hows it going? Everything is going well here, I guess.
I asked Marcella and she said:
“I hate Eve because she is a skank. I will never like her, ever.”
I think, since she hates Jim, that she only says that stuff to make him mad. Don’t feel bad though. Marcella Costa is a wigger anyway. Plus she hates everyone. She’s a ho.
She’s a fool anyway. Don’t listen to her shit. Oh well, I better go.
C-YA
W/B
-Valerie

A year later, I was friends with Marcella. But then she dropped out and I never saw her again.

Comments (View)