Memory Lane Friday - A Favorite Subject

This week's Memory Lane Friday topic is "A Favorite Subject."

Well, since I'm working toward an M.A. in English, I'm sure you could pretty much guess that one of my favorite subjects in high school and college was . . . well, English!

And your guess would be correct.

But I had a couple other favorites, too.

For example, in high school (Culver Girls Academy), I not only really enjoyed my English classes, I also LOVED my equitation (horsemanship) classes. We always had a blast in class. Sometimes we'd jump. Sometimes we'd play polo.

But sometimes, when the weather was nice, we'd go on trail rides. We'd occasionally go to this riding area called "the hippodrome" with its cross country jumps. I remember a time when we were there (though maybe it was the varsity jumping team), and we played tag, yes, on horseback. It was too much fun.

Other times, we'd ride to this local apple orchard (obviously in the autumn), and we'd pick apples, eating them, and also offering some to our mounts.

And then, once again depending on the weather, we'd occasionally ride down to the local Dairy Queen. Half the class would dismount and go in to get treats for everyone, while the other half would stay outside and hold the horses. The first half would come out with ice cream, and we'd relax and eat our ice cream outside.

I remember a particular trip to DQ once with my class (my junior year, I'm assuming). I was one of the people outside waiting, sitting on my horse (Black Lightning, I think?) and holding my classmate Drew's horse, Top Star, as Drew went in with a few other people to get ice cream for everyone.

After they'd come out and we'd been eating our ice cream for a few minutes, Drew decided he was finished. Now, let me tell you a little about Top Star. Top Star was pretty much all black (or actually very dark brown), and he had a star on the middle of his forehead. Well, Drew had a "brilliant" yet funny idea. As the rest of us were finishing our ice cream, Drew suddenly exclaimed, "Look! It's a unicorn!" We all looked over, only to find that he'd stuck his cone (with a little bit of ice cream still in it) right on the middle of poor Top Star's forehead, right on his star!!

I immediately rolled my eyes, thinking dumb boy, but then burst out laughing. It was kinda funny. Too bad I didn't have my camera, which is surprising, because I almost always had my camera.

Okay, so equitation was a favorite subject. But in college at Lake Forest College, so were foreign languages - Spanish and Portuguese to be specific. Now, since I was majoring in Philosophy and Spanish, I took a lot of Spanish classes, including a "Portuguese for Spanish Speakers" class.

And because of these classes, I was involved with the Circulo Hispano, the Spanish Club, during my undergraduate years.

Now, a fun thing that we got to do on occasion was watch movies in Spanish or Portuguese, such as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, starring a very young Antonio Banderas, and Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos, with a young Sonia Braga.

And one year (my sophomore or junior year at LFC), we threw this huge bash, called "The International Festival," along with the other foreign language clubs.

This party was going to be huge. My friend "E" and I did a lot of the coordination, such as getting various foods (Italian pastries, like cannoli, from an Italian bakery in Chicago, Greek pastries from this Greek bakery in Chicago's Greek Town, Indian foods, and such), compiling various types of music (salsa, reggae, Greek, merengue, Spanish rock, etc), and reserving the Commons for the evening, and putting up colorful fliers everywhere.

Well, the party was packed, and everyone had a blast! The dance floor was jam-packed, the music keeping everyone on their feet all night.

We talked about "The International Festival" for weeks, it seemed. To this day, my friend "E" and I still reminisce about it on occasion, like if we hear a song from our International Festival compilation.

So while some of these events didn't exactly happen in the classroom, they were still linked to my favorite subjects, and always bring a smile to my face when I think about them.


Please come back next week when we have another "No Theme" week.

Memory Lane Friday is hosted weekly by Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs. Please click on the button below to read her entry, as well as this week's other Memory Lane Friday entries.