summer friends in a mason jar

"all there is to do in janesville is sit in cars and listen to the radio."
"we go to janesville from whitewater to sit in cars and listen to the radio."
"and perkins."

i know two times is not impressive but, man, i have heard this series of sentences twice in the past week or so. maybe this means truth? if two groups of people say the same thing, does this not mean it's public opinion?

last summer kevin, kara, and this one girl and I went driving. because all there is to do in janesville is drive out of janesville. (as an aside, when i was sixteen kaity and i drove in my chevy caprice CLASSIC towards whitewater and found a cup in the middle of the street. memorable. i find out five and a half years later that we were in lima township.) we found ourselves in the nowheres and on the drive back, after we had decided we were going to go to denny's, i commanded kara to stop. i finished the cigarette and she said, "what?" "just stop here." she slows down but still asks, "why?"

"just do it." i had spotted a gravel entrance. we park and get out. kevin starts to walk across the street. the girls and i walk towards the hill. and we see them.

thousands (maybe millions? i've never been good at estimation.) of fireflies float in waves above the ground. it was the first time in a long time where we did not have our cameras with us and i am thankful for that. for two reasons: there is no way we could have captured what was happening & it would have taken away from the magic.

we stood and watched those flies glint about each other for too long in the chilly summer night winds and there will never be evidence of that. we were all in love with each other back then. kara and i spent every day together that summer. kevin and i hadn't fought yet. and that one girl, well, back then i called her by her name. and she wasn't terribly annoying to me. at least, i had the patience to ignore when she grunted idiotic remarks and was a terrible listener. back then i went to kara when i wanted to be listened to. when i wanted a real conversation. and we went to denny's before the smoking ban and smoked at least a pack a night over cooling coffee.

and we wrote our first novels. we bitched about patty. we wondered about ex-boyfriends. and we were constantly reminiscing over all the things that had passed during the week.