His name is Michael-Leon Wooley, but we all affectionately called him Wooley Bear.  Why?  Because he is a big, sweet guy -  like a big teddy bear. :)

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a horrible memory.  Recalling hilarious highschool stories just isn't my forte' because I simply don't remember much.  But I do actually remember one infamous night that involved Wooley Bear.


It was the summer after I graduated from highschool.  I was 18 and (I'm sorry to say) had just discovered alcohol.  At that time, eighteen was the legal drinking age in Washington D.C. and I lived in the suburbs.  So getting something to drink was just a quick trip across state lines.

So one fine night, myself, Wooley Bear and my friend Cindy got ahold of some liquor and headed over to Foxhill Park to drink.  I seem to recall a 6-pack of Mt. Dew (my fav!) so Cindy and I were probably making some disgusting version of a wine cooler with the soda as a base. (gag!)  But when you are eighteen and unsophisticated, it just doesn't matter, eh?  Wooley Bear, older and a bit more sophisticated, was drinking something harder for sure - not our pansy little Mt. Dew coolers.

Anyway, we had set ourselves down on a bench next to one of the baseball fields and were drinking and talking and laughing.  We noticed a cop pull into the parking lot of the park.  Now we hadn't been foolish enough to park there because the park is closed at dark.  We parked at the highschool next to the park and walked over.  But, someone else had parked in the lot and the cop put it's big floodlights on it.  Apparently, whoever had parked there had moseyed off to some other area of the park and the cop decided to try and find them.  To our horror, the cop car started driving around the perimeter of the far baseball field and then started our direction.

"Run!!"

We couldn't carry all our sodas and drinks so we shoved them under the park bench and headed for the nearby woods.  Now you have to remember, it's night, and there are no lights.  I started running through the woods, in the direction of the school.  I seem to remember losing my shoe at one point and then suddenly, a massive sticker bush was blocking my escape.

I didn't have much time to figure out a way out of this predicament as Wooley Bear was right behind me.  He started pushing me forward yelling, "Go! Go! Go! Go!"  You have to remember, he is a big guy!  He literally just used me as a human shield to tear through the sticker bush.

I finally managed to peep out, "stickers!"

I don't actually remember extricating myself, or what happened with the cop car.  (I don't think it ended up coming all the way down to the end where we were)  What I do remember was standing under the lightpost in the school parking lot and looking down at myself.  I was covered with little bloody scratches all over my arms and legs.  I looked like a victim of a bad piranha movie.

I also remember going home to get cleaned up and Cindy running in to tell mom, "She's really okay, it just looks bad!"

So there is my fond memory of Wooley Bear.  Okay, fellow thespians from Bowie Highschool, what is your favorite memory of Wooley Bear?

Posted in: highschool, Memory Lane, Princess and the Frog on Thursday, December 17, 2009 at at 7:00 AM