Mine also happened at camp, and for some reason (even though it was...GIRL SCOUT camp) I was mad embarrassed and didn't want to have to make a special trip to the nurse and get supplies and whatnot, and it was all awkward and awful.

Of course, at home, somehow we tried to avoid talking about all these things, and the protocol was to steal products like those and shaving supplies and whatnot from my mother's bathroom, and hope she had some. And hope she'd notice when she was low and go buy more. Perhaps not the best plan.

David, Scott laughed out loud at your E story.

Vortex, I do not know this famous napkin story.

erika, my then BFF was 14. We had the same birthday (my milestone came on my 12th birthday). She was so relieved to be a part of it, and by then, the rest of us were thinking what a pain it was.

-t, heh. Other word nerd.

eta...

sj -- you were 9? Oh you poor little baby.

I was almost 17 and only got it because it was medically induced. Oh, malfunctioning girly parts. How you mocked me.

I was way old, and it was the week before my appointment with a developmental specialist, because I really was that old. I told my mother right quick, so we could get that embarassing thing off my calendar.

My body was very good period-wise to me for the first while, but over the past ten years ago, I have achieved unenviable near-normalcy.

And yet? I'm still thinking it's always sudden.

Yeah. Mine were in reverse order. I was really and truly board flat until my junior year and then bam! sudden boobs from the Boob Fairy.

erika, I was 14 too. By which time everyone around me had long got past the At Last I'm A Woman stage and slid right into bitching about it, so the only real thrill (aside from the commemorative plate) was the confirmation that all my plumbing was relatively normal. Woo hoo?

I was almost 12. It was actually the second year that my mom had packed supplies in with my camp stuff, just in case.

Then I started having problems with it so I was the first in my circle to get a pelvic...my rites of passage? Suck out loud. But then, my BFF got a period cake from her hippie mom so it could be worse.ETA: Yeah, JZ, did not need another way to be a freak, but it wasn't an event by then.

my family was pretty blase about the whole becoming a woman thing. Godot still has my boobs.

Vortex, I do not know this famous napkin story.

Everybody loves this story :)

One of the many things that I loved about my dad is that we could talk about anything. As I mentioned, my mother was a little psycho about the menstrooooooation thing. One day, as I was standing in our L shaped hallway, my dad asked me if I needed anything from the grocery store. I hesitated, thinking about it, and my dad thought that I needed something and didn't want to say. My dad said "if you need anything from THAT aisle, I'll buy it, but I need specifics. I need to know the name, how many, and the color of the box!" We both laughed and were kidding around when my mother came upon the conversation and realized that we were talking about IT so, she dragged me around the corner to the short part of the L to tell me that you NEVER discuss that with a man, even your father, blah, blah, blah. I was looking at her like she was crazy when my father poked his head around the corner and yelled "period! period! period!" I cracked up. My mother was frozen in horror. Before she could recover, he poked his head around the corner again and shouted "napkin! napkin! napkin!" By this point, I was helpless with laughter. My mother tore around the corner to yell at my dad. She ended up making him apologize to me. She felt vindicated because she thought I was so embarrassed that I couldn't look at him, but the reality was that if we made eye contact, we both would have cracked up and gotten in trouble.

It suddenly occurs to me how incredibly screwed up I would be if it wasn't for my dad. My mother has some issues.