BECKY MONKA

Here she comes again. When she's dancing 'neath the starry sky...

Becky Monka is a girl that shared a close mutual friend with me in Dave Svatek. The relationships were quite different for obvious reasons. But despite the close proximity to one another, we really never engaged in much conversation.

I'm pretty sure Becky was with us at Clarke. I don't think she was at Magee however.

As stated earlier, my first memory of Becky was in freshman year, in Ms. Sapa's literature class. Two things stand out. For one, I think she kind of had the hots for Chip Pelnar. The second thing is that I once heard her comment "There's a lot of strange people in here." I think that comment was at least partially directed towards me.

I believe in Febraury of our senior year, my friend Dave went out with her. And they hit it off, quickly becoming a couple. Dave even mentioned to me at one point that he was "her first." I really wasn't interested to know such details. But now, 17 years later, it makes for an interesting anecdote.

Becky was friends with fellow graduate Brenda Gordon.

In our senior year, Becky had some sort of beefcake poster in her locker.

Near the end of the year, after some dance (prom?) Becky and Dave spent the night in a hotel near the end of Calumet Ave. in Manitowoc. They ate breakfast at the former Raodhouse Inn next door.

At some point in the summer of 1989, Dave told me point blank that Becky was "the one" and that he was planning on marrying her.

After high school, I believe she planned to go onto school in Minnesota, possibly to become an airline stewardess. Despite a recent comment by Brenda Gordon, I do believe that Becky DID in fact go onto college. But I don't think she was there long at all - perhaps days, perhaps a week or two. From what Dave told me, the two of them were miserable being apart from one another. She wanted to come home. And Dave did not discourage her. He made no apologies about it. He simply said that that was the way he felt. You can't blame him for that. But I often wondered how Becky's parents felt about the situation, as she did in fact come home.

I don't know how long their relationship lasted. But it may have been less than a year. They broke up at some point. And Dave took to whoring around a bit. Dave said that shortly after the breakup, Becky still came over from time to time to hang out with his parents. I did it myself on occasion. His parents were cool. So I can understand that. But Dave said he was uncomfortable with her visits.

In 1992, Dave and Becky hooked up once again. By this time, Becky was living just off of Washington Street in Manitowoc. She had an upper apartement with one of those ancient bathtubs that was up on four legs. You could fit a family of four in it - or perhaps one Miss Hynek. (The teacher) But I digress.

Dave had hinted that he might be moving in with Becky. But it was not to be. The reunion didn't last all that long. If I'm not mistaken, Dave broke up with her and started seeing his future wife immediately - perhaps on the same day.

I ran into Becky a few times at the video store. Eventually she got married and became Becky Thompson. I ran into her again at the 1995 wedding of Dave's sister Kelly. Dave introduced Becky to his then-fiance Jessica - who looked a bit uncomfortable, but was friendly nonetheless.

The last I knew, Becky was living in Manitowoc, working as a stay at home mom. I think she has two kids.

UPDATE - 6/18/07 - Thanks to Shannon Koch for providing me these pictures of Becky from graduation day, June 4th, 1989. Lisa Moore is in one of the photos as well.