PEYTON PLACE DON'T ALLOW MISTAKES

I grew up in West Covina California. It's a little suburb of L.A..

We used to say that West Covina was nineteen miles and twenty years away from L.A..

I went to Edgewood High School. Rydell High in Grease was based on it. I swear. Really. I was Rizzo and my best friend was Marty Maraschino, all budding virginity waiting for his first bleach job and boy. We had sock hops and ice cream socials. I swear. Really.

Another movie was based on EHS (hail to thee our alma mater dear Edgwood hear our pledge...blech). Mean Girls. That ode to all that is mean and bitter and bitchy. Or as we liked to call it, 5th period. At Edgewood you either learned how to sharpen your claws or you got cut.

I had very sharp claws.

Marty developed them. Turns out Marty's mom had at one point made a "mistake" (Marty) and had to go "away" for awhile. Marty found this out much later at a dinner that featured his first and only really brilliant fashion collection. Luckily, Marty had sharp claws. Marty's mom told a story about how in her day (at Edgewood. Natch) "good" girls didn't make "mistakes". She had a choice. Take care of the "mistake" or get married.

Get out your shotgun.

Did I mention that West Covina was the inspiration for another movie?

Peyton Place.

Flash cut many years later. Well, not that many. A few. I swear. Really.

I was in hair school. Quelle surprise. I made friends with two friends. One was "D" a beautiful white girl with the looks of a Gypsy and the brain of a scientist. Her bf was a guy named Kendall. Imagine Michael Hutchens (before that whole strangling to death while beating off thing) without a job. Well, long story short "D" made a "mistake". "Good" girls in West Covina don't make "mistakes".

Well, "D" didn't believe in shotguns. She decided to take care of her "mistake". She asked me to take her to the clinic to solve her problem. Her BF was too busy doing God only knows what. I said no problem and figured we would go to In-N-Out after. I was gonna have her pay since I was driving. Then we would hit Wings, West Covinas'chicest hairdresser hangout. Overlooking the freeway and full of Persians from Diamond Bar just over the Hill and Latino Cha Cha hair "stylists" from the mall, Wings was the perfect place to go after taking care of a "mistake".

Or so I thought.

I was wrong.

To this day I can remember the look on "D's" face as she got back in my car. I was blaring K-Roq ("Why don't you dance with me? I'm not no Limburger!") and "D" sat down quietly. As we drove away I asked her if she wanted something to eat. "No. I just want to go home" was all she said. I drove her home and she got out of the car and slowly walked into the house. Really slowly.

A little later in the summer of "mistakes" her bff "Y" made a "mistake".

Who ya gonna call? Fagbusters.

I took "Y" to the same place I had gone with "D". This time I knew to wait in the waiting room.

When she came out she had that same look on her face as "D". This really horrible and terribly sad look. So sad the sky turned gray and the sun turned it's back. We walked, slowly, to the car.

The radio stayed silent. So did I.

Finally, I asked if she was ok.

"No" she answered in the softest calmest voice you've ever heard. "No".

Finally "Y" looked at me and said "I killed my baby". Her eyes filled with tears but she never cried. It was so painful that I wanted to throw up.

We got to her trailer (don't) and I walked her inside. She said she would be okay and I left.

I got into my little red Fiesta, drove around the corner and cried like a 16yr old white girl at a Jonas Brothers concert. No, I didn't cry. I weeped. And sobbed.

When I hear about people who think abortion is some sin and all people who have them are just trash who think of it as birth control I get so mad. Neither of those girls was trash. Neither. And if they had been they still should have the right to make a choice about what they did with their bodies. Neither of those girls goes a day I bet without thinking about the choice they made. And you know what? I think they made the right choice. Neither one of them was in any position to have a child. Neither of them had the support of their families or boyfriends. Both of them were on the verge of graduating and starting their lives. Both of them went on to make good women. And great moms.

If the two of them committed a sin then God will deal with them. If I committed a sin by helping them then God will deal with me.

Sarah Palin doesn't want young women to have a choice. Sarah Palin made a choice when she admirably decided to have her baby even though she could have within her rights decided to fix her "mistake". Her own daughter made a choice and decided to have her "mistake" when she was well within her rights to decide that having a baby at 17 while your mom is running for Vice-President of the United States was above her pay grade.

They both had and made a choice.

In Nazi Germany if you were considered not of good Aryan stock or if you were mentally challenged or were a Jew or god only knows what else, you didn't have a choice. You or your baby were "taken care of". In China until very recently if you had a child and made another "mistake" you didn't have a choice. Your decision was made for you.

This is not China or Nazi Germany. Women here have a choice. But people like Sarah Palin don't want women to have a choice. Yet, they don't want to help prevent "mistakes" by supplying basic sex education (how's that theory working in the Palin household?) or protection. If a "mistake" is born they offer no assistance to the mother and demonize her if she's poor. You make a "mistake" you live with it.

And so does your "mistake".

Please don't vote for anyone who doesn't want a woman to have a choice.