The Meadows Gang started, oh, around 1982, I suppose, when most of us were in 5th grade. Actually, earlier forms of the Meadows Gang started to conjugate during recess hours at Meadows School, in which we formed tight-knit groups playing various games around the lovely wood-built structure. One of the earlier games I can remember is "Bees", in which, somehow, Kelly E. was the 'Queen Bee', and us lowly-'worker bees' would run around the playground and 'sting' each other and capture other people and turn them into bees. It was an odd game, with no real point, but weren't all games back then? The main thing was is that we were having fun.

   The real Meadows Gang started to take shape when we started to carouse around the Meadows subdivision at night, causing havoc to innocent by-standers. Ding-dong-ditching was the thing to do then, and I believe we rang almost every doorbell in the entire subdivision. Throughout junior high our activies evolved to include blocking roads at night with garbage, playing roof-dodge with the use of Tim H's families' toys, football games in Tim H. and Jon M. front yard, "Baby-J", the "moving garbage", the "bell", getting kicked out of Meadows Pool every night (the "Engulf"?), tennis, and last but not least, "glass ass".  In between these activities we would usually stop by June H.'s or Michelle K.'s house, to enjoy their company, and in hope that we might see some boobs or something.

    High school brought about the discovery of alcohol, for some earlier than others. This only led to raise our activites to a bit more destructive level. I can recall my first encounter with alcohol, during a sleep over at Mark S.'s house, with Jon M.  I'm sure most of us remember our first encounter. For most of the guys, beer was the drink of choice. Brand didn't matter. We'd take whatever Jon M. and Jeff L. could buy at the local 7-11. I'd love to put down on here some of the things we did, but let's just say I cannot for fear that a police officer might read this page and decide to do something. Even though it occured over 12 years ago.

    I believe it was in high school when the Meadows Gang was the closest knit. We would go everywhere together, do everything as a group. Whether it was parties, "crusing" around (car tag?), in school, at sporting events, or just hanging out, there'd always be a large group of us. And we'd always make something exciting, or at least strange, happen. I hear alot of people say that they hated high school. I loved high school, almost every minute of it, and it was because of this close-knit group of friends that I had. We had a blast until the moment we graduated in
1990. Then came college.

    College brought about some change. Obviously, the entire Meadows Gang didn't go to the same school (although that would have been kinda cool). We spread ourselves out quite a bit, but we all made some great road trips to see each other. A majority went to Northern Ill. Univ, with others at Augustana, Univ. of Ill, Eastern Ill. Univ, Univ. of Iowa. So we were all withing a couple hours drive of each other, usually. And whenever we made a weekend road trip, once again... we always had a blast.  The Christmas breaks inbetween college years yielded some fantastic New Years' parties, a few courtesy of Mike R. And during the summer breaks, although we all had summer jobs, we always seemed to find the time to have some great gatherings. We were still a pretty close group.

    And so here we are now, all graduated from college, most of us being in the work force for at least a few years. Most  have gotten married, most of us have moved out on our own, and alot has changed. And with this change, while most of us still keep in touch, the great gatherings of the Meadows Gang have come to be a rare thing.

    This is a very brief summary of the Meadows Gang. To write all the great times down we had would take a long, long time. We all have our own memories. And hopefully, this page will help us remember some, and to keep us in contact with each other for years to come. As alot of us signed in each others' yearbook in 1990:

"May the Meadows Gang live on."