It was 1996 and my cousin Cathy had just finished her sophomore year of college at Vanderbilt. She was coming to visit our Grandma Terry and Aunt Jane Terry where we all lived near Charleston, SC.
Cathy was raised near Detroit, Michigan as her Dad had a job with General Motors. So her whole outlook on life was much different than mine.
My name is Troy, I'm 22, and I'm a true blue southerner, born and raised in South Carolina. Instead of going to college, I'd gone to trade school and I was a carpenter apprentice, hoping to start my own home building company some day.
My cousin Cathy was what I call a genuine yankee. She used different words...yankee words. She would say soda pop instead of Coke. And she said you guys instead of y'all. I thought she was cute and I'd always loved seeing her when she and her parents visited in summer. I'd always secretly been attracted to her. But I'd never tried anything with her. She was my cousin after all.
Cathy dressed differently than southern girls... often wearing short tight skirts and sometimes not wearing a bra.
She even cussed. I'd heard her say "fuck that" more than once.
Grandma and Aunt Jane almost fainted when they heard her say that.
It was early spring and our First Methodist church was having a Sunday School Party on a Friday night so I asked Cathy if she wanted to come with me. I figured she would like to meet some of my friends and it seemed OK since it was a church activity after all.
"Hey Cathy, what did you decide about the party" I asked.
Oh, I don't know Troy. I won't know anyone there but you. Besides I'm not really a religious kind of girl.
It's not a religious thing. It's just a normal party with free food and non alcoholic drinks. Please come with me. "It will be fun. I promise."
Cathy finally agreed. She knew it was better than staying at Grandmas and watching reruns of Matlock on TV.
I picked her up at Grandmas in my old blue Chevy Caprice. It had a bench style front seat so it was the perfect date car.
The Sunday School party was under way when we arrived. There was music playing on the stereo and a few couples were dancing. Someone had brought a big bucket of chicken along with other snacks and good things to eat. There was some fruit punch and ice tea to drink.
