Pirates In The Neighborhood!

My friends and I didn't do the typical high school crap in the movies. We didn't go to the crazy parties with drinking and drugs. We spent more time watching TV and reading books than anything else.

My dad owns a bar, so I never had an interest in drinking growing up. From what I saw, alcohol affected everyone the same way, regardless of your age, so I didn't see why drinking was the cool thing to do in high school. My friends had other reasons for not drinking either. Bar life taught you never to ask why your friends don't drink.

With that in mind, how does a millennial teenager celebrate her sixteenth birthday? My best friend had the perfect solution for birthday celebrations.

At my best friend's house

At first, I wasn't sure how that party would turn out. Within the first hour of my being there, two friends spoiled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for me. So I spent the first hour there sulking, for I hadn't read the book yet.

But once I got over it and had some cake and ice cream, we thought about what to do next.

I'm not sure which one was out at the time, but all of us were obsessed with the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We looked at one another, mischievous grins on our faces. We knew what we had to do.

We raided my best friend's linen closet for bedsheets. They'd work best as a cape. Then, we found pirate hats and toy swords. We taped a stuffed parrot on my shoulder.

My two friends found bedsheets for themselves and some extra swords. I don't remember if anyone wore hats or not. I might've been the only one, being the captain of a mutinous crew. We admired ourselves in the bathroom mirror and set outside.

Pirates invaded the neighborhood!

The moment we hit the edge of my best friend's driveway, the battle began. My crew mutinied for my being late to read Harry Potter! I had to protect my honor!

We chased one another through the neighborhood, sword-fighting and sometimes throwing the stuffed bird. Each time another crew member picked it up, I'd yell and dramatically dive for the bird! It fell off my shoulder not long after stepping into the driveway.

As the battle raged on, we passed a house where two old ladies sat on the porch. They cheered as we battled. I tried hard not to laugh as I heard them cheer, "Yay!" with every sword swing.

Pretty soon, our battle summoned more older people out of their homes. They watched us, fascinated by our battle. With every house we passed, we heard more cheers and kept battling one another.

I don't know how long we stayed out before we admitted defeat. I don't even remember who won the epic battle. By the time we finished and headed home, we'd heard enough cheers to make us wonder if we entertained the whole neighborhood that day.

Maybe we did. Or perhaps the two old ladies at the first house were loud enough to fill the whole neighborhood with their cheers.

What's boring to teenagers entertained old people for a day

I'm sure if we asked any high schooler at that time, they would've had two reactions: They would've laughed or wondered if I had a boring life to do that.

In my case, most of my graduating class would've expected it out of me. I was the class weirdo, so a story like that wouldn't have surprised anyone.

Neighborhood pirate fights turned into Wal-Mart shenanigans by the time we started driving. In college, it turned into a summer thing to wander Wal-Mart doing weird stuff in the store.

Now, my friends are parents. By the time their children become teenagers, they're going to have fun telling them stories about the crazy things we did when we were their age.