WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL TWO RIVERS WI CLASS OF 1989

Thursday, January 12, 2006

JENNIFER ANDERSEN

Jennifer was with us at L.B. Clarke. I don't think she was with us at J.F. Magee grade school. But I could be wrong. I don't know if I had her in any classes prior to high school. I have no real memories of her until then.

In our freshman year, on the last day of school prior to Christmas Vacation, the school arranged for a viewing of the film "Fletch." This was totally cool! I found myself sitting with Toby Schwartz on one side, and Ron Gretz (formerly known as Ron Cuyler) on the other side. In front of us sat the trio of Jen Andersen, Julie Scott and Josie Scott.

The three of them carried themselves with an air of supreme superiority. At one point, one of them (I believe it was Jen) had a small white sticker in her hair. They blamed us for it. They got all snotty, saying things like "Grow up."

Truth be told, we were all innocent. The sticker was actually a label that was on the back of her seat. But noooooooooooooo, they wouldn't hear of it. They wanted to be bitches. Fine.

Two years later, Jennifer shared Ms. Sapa's creative writing class with me. And man, what a difference two years can make! Jen was the coolest chick around. She was laid back, happy-go-lucky, and fun to be with. I really dug her. When Richard and I staged a mock "bed-in" on the floor of the class, Jen joined us - as did Brad Strouf.

At one point, I questioned her about the incident from our freshman year. She didn't recall it. But she did say that she was a total bitch back then, and apologized for being one. I don't think she was hanging around with the Scott's at this point.

Jen had long hair and had a casual appearance - somewhat like a hippie chick. She was rather attractive too. I would have married her. She was that cool!

I think I ran into her a few times at the video store. She remained as nice and humble as ever. I haven't seen or thought about her in years. But if I'm not mistaken, she has relocated to Michigan.

Wherever you are Jen, I wish you well. I hope you're still as cool as ever.

UPDATE - 2/1/06 - I found a phone number for Jen. Of course I had to call it. She's living in the Detroit area, and is working for Schneider Trucking. She graduated from St. Norbert's. And the big news is that she's getting married in September. Congratulations Jen! I gave her the blog information. She said she'd stop by. Yes, she's just as cool as ever.

UPDATE - 2/20/06 Jen has sent me two photos. The first is presumably of her fiance and their pets. The second was taken on Mt. Olympus - which I believe is in the state of Washington. Still looks the same, not bad at all. Click them for the full-sized versions.





UPDATE - 4/11/06 - Thank you to Cindy Rohrer for providing this picture of Jen and B.J. Lutterman - circa Clarke years - probably 6th grade.

8 Comments:

At Mon Jan 30, 09:25:00 PM PST, Blogger SonnyKidd said...

Jen was one of the coolest chicks I knew. We obviously were stuck in homeroom together sharing a last name and all. She was one of those girls your mom would want you to marry. And she remains today one of the few people from that era I would mind meeting again.

 
At Thu Feb 02, 08:20:00 PM PST, Blogger karmadog said...

I don't think I ever new someone whose relationship with me oscillated between "trusted comrade" and "bitter enemy" as was the case with Jen.

We were both big into music, so we worked together often, but we also were competitive at times; that had something to do with it.

More relevant, though, was the fact that Jen & I were a lot alike -- we actually got each other's jokes -- but she knew that if she were to close to me, it would cripple her social status, which was important to her. So one minute we'd be making some clever esoteric reference to Brahms, and the next she'd be calling me "FAG" almost as fast as I could call her "SLUT."

But by the end of High School, we'd had a lot of fun together. One of the best times I ever had was when we emcee'd the Band Banquet our junior or senior year (I forget which). We were every bit as funny as Nichols and May. We made my dad laugh. We made my *DAD* laugh. My father did not enjoy laughing.

In 6th grade, Jen was the foremost authority on Valley Girl vocabulary, closely followed by Lisa King. Joe Stodola could hardly stand it.

 
At Sat Feb 04, 05:38:00 AM PST, Blogger Jen said...

so who's sonnykid? i can't figure out how this damn blog crap works, so i can't scope out a name.

i was interested to know how much crap i don't remember from hs and b4. then i was pleased to know i may have come off a touch sarcastic; that was back when i was prolly trying to be sarcastic on purpose. now it just flows. mostly i'm glad to hear from some of the only peeps i would want to see again. i don't go to reunions cuz i figure nobody i'm curious about would be there either.

i wish 12-14 wld never have happened. i stopped hanging w/so many chicks at 15 - what a diff.

meff - the guy i'm marrying has big eyebrows. 4give a girl for being young and dumb?

brad - u are the 1st i think of when i say there are only few peeps i'd want to talk to again. funny guy.

greg! holy crap man. i still have the emcee notes somewhere. our best performance ever, and nothing in our hands but mikes. i guess given our personalities, sep and 2gether, it makes sense. always trying to top the other, with note or word. didn't we do a bunch of Miss Z's little essay thing 2gether? i'll have to dig in my stuff to see...

i still talk to julie. we had some hs years where we weren't as close, but she was my best friend when i moved to Wisco at 6, and she's the most amazing, classy woman 2day. my best childhood friend. aw.

ps, i went to cc case.
tata all

 
At Sun Feb 05, 08:42:00 PM PST, Blogger SonnyKidd said...

Sonny Kidd is the moniker I picked up in Madison Jen. Hell, I even had some people that thought it was my real name. But it's me, Jason. The other AndersOn...

 
At Mon Feb 20, 09:57:00 AM PST, Blogger Jen said...

Yep - that's Jeff, Gauge and Pnut w/me. Our little fam this Xmas. Other pic is one of my faves. On Mt O in front of the peak (with a friend, Jeff, me, & my bro Marc). Was the coolest day; on the way down, we passed an 80-yr-old w/no toes (frostbite) who was plodding up to spread his best friend's ashes. Humbling. Here's to being 80 and climbing mountains....

Peace.

 
At Wed Mar 01, 07:25:00 AM PST, Blogger Jen said...

so meff - i can't tell u how pleased i was too hear that some1 remembered me busting joe's chops. guess i wasn't the only one who found him desperate. jr high sucked for me at first. carrie collard et al were always threatening to beat me up so i was petrified of going to school. (i "went with" her jr high boyfriend joey schnell...in 3rd grade, so she hated me i guess.)

my rents were pissed that my teacher & my school would just allow that shit to go on. my stepdad had it out with vogt a couple times on my behalf.

from an adult perspective, i bet he was just a plain old nice guy.

whatever... my real point is...i wish i had known that i shoulda been trying to get u and greg to let me hang out with you. and julie of course. you'd have liked her. she was always brilliant w/the music scene even then (knew who wld win a grammy 10 years before they did.)

but alas, a 13 yr old is too dumb to know what's good for her. i just hope u knew then how full of shit i was too.

 
At Sun Mar 05, 06:40:00 PM PST, Blogger karmadog said...

Jen I can't imagine you being afraid of anything. You scared the hell out of me in 6th grade. I thought you were as tough as anyone. You seemed like an army chick or something.

I wonder how many mountains Carrie Collard's climbed lately?

 
At Wed Aug 15, 07:36:00 PM PDT, Blogger troy greenwood said...

hi jen! its me, your almost brother in law! its reallt nice to see that youre doing well. you deserve it!

 

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