“George” visits, girl codes, fads, fashions and other reflections from a mom as she watches her daughter grow.

My daughter, a toddler, is learning words right now and she recently started saying, “Wow! Wow! Cool!”

Time warp… I’m 15, in 9th grade, and my best friend and I are goofy. We talk like “Valley Girls,” need ways to talk about our monthly friend in code, so we affectionately name him, “George.”

Why, “George?” I’m not exactly sure. Perhaps it was just the first goofy name we could think of. But, it had to be a guy because no female would ever be so cruel and demanding toward another female. We came up with other code names to identify various “George necessities”, such as, “hot dog” and “hamburger”.

We had conversations about who is coming to visit and what we are having for lunch, or we discuss meals we might be hungry for. We’d talk about when “George” is coming, how long he typically visits, whether he overstays his welcome and what his personality is like…if he is really nice or mean, if we barely see him, or if he won’t leave us alone. Code – It gave us a way to safely communicate in our own language and allowed us to connect and bond as females as we experienced life’s changes.

Ahhhh, the days gone by! When we were twitterpated about a boy, mortified because the teacher asked us WHY we needed the pass to go to the bathroom when “George” was visiting, when we tried to get the pass to go to the bathroom and went out of our way to wave at friends and boyfriends through the slim rectangular window in the classroom door while class was in session, when we got excited about school dances, when cell phones and texting didn’t exist and passing notes was cool, when we carried Esprit purses, wore K-Swiss shoes, talked in pig latin, and had our make-up in Kaboodles! We learned the words to every song on the radio and everyone knew the Roger Rabbit, The Butt, Cotton-eyed Joe, and swooned over NKOTB.  

Being a girl was so much fun and now that I’m a mom I get to see my own daughter eventually go through her own teenage years. It’s a long way off yet, but I look forward to seeing what her code words will be, what she will get excited or embarrassed about, what fashions will be all the rage, and what music and dancing she’ll enjoy. She’s only a year old now, but I’m sure that it will seem like it was just yesterday when the time finally comes.

What fun it will be fun to see what the future holds! Wow! Wow! Cool! 🙂