My cousin Jesse's birthday is June 14--which is this month! In honor of his impending 24th birthday, I'm going to remember one particular birthday party for him. I believe it was 2000, which would have made it June 16 and 17, but it could have been 1999, which would make it June 18 or 19 (or maybe 11 and 12).
My mom and I and a bunch of Jesse's friends were there. There was a pinata shaped like an ice cream cone, which they hung on the swing set in the backyard. When the pinata was broken, I noticed the cherry part on the ground, so I excitedly picked it up, expecting to find a treasure trove of candy, but in fact it was just a piece of pinata. Since I looked at that piece, I lost valuable candy-picking time and was able to collect only a few pieces. Afterward, Jesse saw my lack of candy and took pity on me and gave me some of his. Quin would have been 6 (maybe 5) and he really wanted the blue Tootsie Roll Pop I had. I offered him the red one (I wanted the blue one too), but he was only interested in blue.
Jesse was having a sleepover. I wasn't planning on staying for the sleepover, but was eventually convinced to stay when they said they had blankets I could borrow.
This was the era of ABC's TGIF, and we were all downstairs watching this programming. Boy Meets World was on, and I was saying that I didn't really like that show, because it was more like a soap opera. My then-uncle Wayne said enthusiastically, "Well, that's what it is, it's a soap opera!" At this, one of Jesse's friends said, "Actually, the early episodes were a comedy," and Wayne said quite seriously and rudely, "Well, no one asked your opinion." Jesse's friend had a shocked look on his face.
Later, Jesse and his friends wanted to play war games, and they found some face paint to put on their faces. They were all in the bathroom applying the paint; Peter was caking it on really thick, and he was putting it all over his face, while the other boys were just making marks with it. I was standing outside the bathroom because I needed to use it; I had no interest in playing war games or wearing makeup. Wayne discovered what was going on and told them that the makeup was "for Halloween and Halloween only." The boys then started washing off the paint. However, there was one boy who had been out of the room when Wayne gave his commandment, and he walked came around the corner a little bit later and Wayne, in his ornery voice, said, "What did I say? That's for Halloween and Halloween only." The boy was surprised. I knew he had not heard Wayne's lecture, but I didn't dare say anything for fear that Wayne would lash out at me.
Then we slept in the backyard. I was sleeping in a tent with Quin (who had his stuffed lion named Mario) and I think some other people. Some of the boys slept outside and there was a lot of talking going on. Sue was sleeping on the trampoline next door, and she kept telling everyone to go to sleep, saying, "It's called a sleepover, not a wakeover." One boy then said quite loudly, "Ah-choo!" and another boy said, "Cough, cough." I thought that was kind of dumb, because "ah-choo" does sound like a sneeze, but "cough" sounds just like a word. (I actually just looked up cough in the Oxford English Dictionary, and it appears that cough is actually of onomatopoeic origin.)
The next day we went to my house (since I needed to be dropped off). Sue told my mom that her back hurt, that she was too old to be sleeping on trampolines. Later (I don't know if it was that day or another) I told my mom about the Boy Meets World incident, and she told my grandma about it over the phone.
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