I was just reminded about this story over the past week:
On one side of the equation was this lady in town that walked everywhere. She was the mother of these kids in our school and she could always be seen walking around town. I know they owned a car, so I can only assume it was for exercise.
On the other side was our group - towards the end of high school it was not uncommon for us to be driving the streets at 5am or 6am after a night of God knows what.
This must have been around Halloween, because we were driving around in the early hours of the morning and Dave had somewhere along the way picked up a pumpkin. We were minding our own business when we approached this lady from behind. She was walking (as usual) and before I knew what happened the car window was open and the pumpkin was flying through the air. It was a direct hit. It hit her in the head and sent her flying into a bunch of bushes.
At the time it might have been the funniest thing to ever have happen in the world. When I think about it now I feel a little bad when I snicker.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
20 years? You gotta be kidding me
Saturday night was the 20 year reunion for the class of 1989. Yeah, I know, technically I was a graduate of the class of 1990, but I can’t bring myself to associate with a class that I only spent 1 year with, so I’m sticking with 89. Besides, it’s been 20 years; you think anyone outside of my group of friends remembers that I didn’t graduate with everyone else? Me neither.
So, 5 out of 10 of us went. Not bad, considering 2 of us were officially class of 1990 and another 3 didn’t get an official diploma from CHS. The night was off to a hot start as soon as I got my name sticker – it had our senior yearbook picture. Now I never took a yearbook pic senior year, so they had my Jr year pic where I had a shaved head and was wearing a COC shirt. Nice. I think I was the only person there that looked just like their pic.
We loitered around during the cocktail hour and mostly talked to each other. Although, I did talk to my old childhood friend from when I lived in SO. It was good to see him and hear that his family and parents are doing well. Spoke to a few other people that I played sports with in Jr High and HS and then when I was going in for dinner I saw a friend that I hadn’t seen a lot of over the past 5-10 years so it was good to catch up with her over the course of the night. During dinner there was a DJ playing all of the 80 hits we all know and love, as well as a video screen showing pics from our year book – which I was featured in due to having a friend on the year book committee.
My general consensus is that both the guys and girls fared about the same. Some guys gained weight or lost some hair (raises hand), and some of the girls gained weight or dyed their hair. But there were a few girls that looked very good, especially considering that I know they had children. I have to say, that for the most part, everyone looked similar to how they looked in high school. Now, I was on drugs and skipping class for a good portion of high school so there were a lot of people that I just didn’t know, but for the most part I recognized a good portion of people and if I didn’t I took a peek at their name tag. On a side note I only recognized 2 of the black people from our class that were at the reunion (there were less than 20 there). Also, one of the funnier moments of the night occurred when everyone moved to the hotel bar after the festivities ended. I was talking to a friend of mine and this girl comes up and is like, “Oh, I wanted to say hi to you” and then kind of butted into our conversation. It took me about halfway through the conversation to figure out that it was a girl I hooked up with a couple of times in 10th grade. Oh well.
The highlight of the night was a conversation Jeff and I had with a classmate. Within 5 min we heard all about how his marriage fell apart and how he was banging the babysitter. It was classic. At least he mentioned that he’s on the wagon, so I guess that’s good news.
All in all it was a good time. My friends still see each other so it wasn’t like we had to go to see anyone, but it was still a good excuse to get out of the house. We also had a BBQ at my buddy’s house the next day so that was just icing on the cake.
A question we were wondering is - what's next? 25 years or do they wait for 30? No one knew.
So, 5 out of 10 of us went. Not bad, considering 2 of us were officially class of 1990 and another 3 didn’t get an official diploma from CHS. The night was off to a hot start as soon as I got my name sticker – it had our senior yearbook picture. Now I never took a yearbook pic senior year, so they had my Jr year pic where I had a shaved head and was wearing a COC shirt. Nice. I think I was the only person there that looked just like their pic.
We loitered around during the cocktail hour and mostly talked to each other. Although, I did talk to my old childhood friend from when I lived in SO. It was good to see him and hear that his family and parents are doing well. Spoke to a few other people that I played sports with in Jr High and HS and then when I was going in for dinner I saw a friend that I hadn’t seen a lot of over the past 5-10 years so it was good to catch up with her over the course of the night. During dinner there was a DJ playing all of the 80 hits we all know and love, as well as a video screen showing pics from our year book – which I was featured in due to having a friend on the year book committee.
My general consensus is that both the guys and girls fared about the same. Some guys gained weight or lost some hair (raises hand), and some of the girls gained weight or dyed their hair. But there were a few girls that looked very good, especially considering that I know they had children. I have to say, that for the most part, everyone looked similar to how they looked in high school. Now, I was on drugs and skipping class for a good portion of high school so there were a lot of people that I just didn’t know, but for the most part I recognized a good portion of people and if I didn’t I took a peek at their name tag. On a side note I only recognized 2 of the black people from our class that were at the reunion (there were less than 20 there). Also, one of the funnier moments of the night occurred when everyone moved to the hotel bar after the festivities ended. I was talking to a friend of mine and this girl comes up and is like, “Oh, I wanted to say hi to you” and then kind of butted into our conversation. It took me about halfway through the conversation to figure out that it was a girl I hooked up with a couple of times in 10th grade. Oh well.
The highlight of the night was a conversation Jeff and I had with a classmate. Within 5 min we heard all about how his marriage fell apart and how he was banging the babysitter. It was classic. At least he mentioned that he’s on the wagon, so I guess that’s good news.
All in all it was a good time. My friends still see each other so it wasn’t like we had to go to see anyone, but it was still a good excuse to get out of the house. We also had a BBQ at my buddy’s house the next day so that was just icing on the cake.
A question we were wondering is - what's next? 25 years or do they wait for 30? No one knew.
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Walk Out
It started with a mysterious flyer handed out around school when we were in 10th grade. I don’t remember the specifics, but it had something to do with budget cuts and voicing our opposition by walking out of class mid-day and holding a mass protest out in front of the Board of Education (which was located right next door to our high school) - I think it even might have been signed “Mister X”. To be honest, I didn’t really understand (or care) about the protest. I think it was supposed to be this secret underground student movement that would shock and surprise the teachers and administration into talking action. However, I do remember being bored in class one day and asking my history teacher what the deal was with the “walk out”? I might have created a faux pas because the other kids in the class looked at me with daggers in their eyes, like how dare I share our secret strategy with “the enemy”. In the interest of full disclosure there’s a good chance that I was high during this incident, I’m not making excuses, just playing the percentages.
As I mentioned, I had no interest in budget cuts, they could have cut high school out of the budget entirely and I would have been fine with that. But there was something going on there, a buzz if you will. There were rumors that at least one of the networks would have a news crew there and so I guess we used it as an opportunity rather than a cause.
The day of the walk out Al brought his video camera in to school to document the event for posterity sake. I remember using the walk out as an excuse to cut the whole day of classes even though the walk out didn’t start until later in the day. I also remember Al “interviewing” me and Alan in the back of the school before the event to get our opinion on the walk out. I haven’t seen the video tape in about 20 years (because Al’s brother’s taped over it – Superman II anyone?), but from what I remember of the interview it consisted of a lot of random complaining on our part. Of course, the interview was just the prelude to the main event of the day – the actual walk out. Students started gathering out in front of the school at the specified time – since I was already cutting I can’t give any first-hand account of teachers standing in disbelief as their students walked out en mass. We then walked over to the board of education and stood around while more and more kids joined the protest. There were even a few teachers there; I guess to make sure things didn’t deteriorate into chaos. Out of almost 2000 kids in school I’d guess that somewhere between a half and three quarters ended up joining the protest.
Out of nowhere one of the organizers of the walk out stood up on the back of a pickup truck that was parked in front of the board of ed, I didn’t recognize her, and to this day I couldn’t tell you her name. She started rambling about one thing or another, but of course, whenever you have this many kids in one place it would be tough for even Sirus (Can you dig it?) to hold their attention. About this time Alan hit play on his little boom box he used to carry around and the Cro-Mags “We Gotta Know” started drowning out the rambling girl on the pickup truck. Almost immediately all of the metalheads, dirtbags, and hardcore kids broke into a spontaneous mosh pit further distracting the crowd from the purpose of the walk out. The walk out was clearly losing steam, the final straw was a hail of rocks that crashed into the truck as the girl speaker was trying to lead the crowd in a chant of “No budget cuts!”.
The crowd soon started to disperse and head back to their remaining classes. I never saw any sign of reporters and I don’t remember any disciplinary action on the part of the administration. In the end, the only impact was a mosh pit, a school wide case of juvenile delinquency, and a long forgotten video tape.
As I mentioned, I had no interest in budget cuts, they could have cut high school out of the budget entirely and I would have been fine with that. But there was something going on there, a buzz if you will. There were rumors that at least one of the networks would have a news crew there and so I guess we used it as an opportunity rather than a cause.
The day of the walk out Al brought his video camera in to school to document the event for posterity sake. I remember using the walk out as an excuse to cut the whole day of classes even though the walk out didn’t start until later in the day. I also remember Al “interviewing” me and Alan in the back of the school before the event to get our opinion on the walk out. I haven’t seen the video tape in about 20 years (because Al’s brother’s taped over it – Superman II anyone?), but from what I remember of the interview it consisted of a lot of random complaining on our part. Of course, the interview was just the prelude to the main event of the day – the actual walk out. Students started gathering out in front of the school at the specified time – since I was already cutting I can’t give any first-hand account of teachers standing in disbelief as their students walked out en mass. We then walked over to the board of education and stood around while more and more kids joined the protest. There were even a few teachers there; I guess to make sure things didn’t deteriorate into chaos. Out of almost 2000 kids in school I’d guess that somewhere between a half and three quarters ended up joining the protest.
Out of nowhere one of the organizers of the walk out stood up on the back of a pickup truck that was parked in front of the board of ed, I didn’t recognize her, and to this day I couldn’t tell you her name. She started rambling about one thing or another, but of course, whenever you have this many kids in one place it would be tough for even Sirus (Can you dig it?) to hold their attention. About this time Alan hit play on his little boom box he used to carry around and the Cro-Mags “We Gotta Know” started drowning out the rambling girl on the pickup truck. Almost immediately all of the metalheads, dirtbags, and hardcore kids broke into a spontaneous mosh pit further distracting the crowd from the purpose of the walk out. The walk out was clearly losing steam, the final straw was a hail of rocks that crashed into the truck as the girl speaker was trying to lead the crowd in a chant of “No budget cuts!”.
The crowd soon started to disperse and head back to their remaining classes. I never saw any sign of reporters and I don’t remember any disciplinary action on the part of the administration. In the end, the only impact was a mosh pit, a school wide case of juvenile delinquency, and a long forgotten video tape.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Hey, these kids look too safe; let’s give them some bows and arrows
I’m not sure who made the final decision. In my mind it’s something that should have gone through at least 3 levels of vetting before being approved. Somehow, the “powers that be” at our Jr High thought that we should have a day of indoor archery during gym class. Archery? You heard that right. It would have been safer for them to give us access to enriched uranium.
Let me set the scene for you. Targets lined up along one wall of the gym and a line of 75 kids at the opposite end of the gym. I think the teachers knew better because (for the most part) they basically stood in the hallway once we had the weapons in hand. Now I’m going to guess that maybe 1 person in our class had ever used a bow and arrow in their lives. As a result, as soon as we got the go ahead arrows went in every direction: towards the targets, into the floor, into the ceiling, towards other targets, towards other students, etc. It was pandemonium. After a while we got a little bored and started trying to bounce the arrows off the floor at the targets and trying to shoot the ducts on the ceiling. At one point someone shot at the teachers while they were putting a balloon on one of the targets and that was pretty much the end of class. These were real arrows too, the bows were kind of a joke (made of hard plastic and single stringed), but if you got into one the arrows could penetrate a hard target at 50ft, so they could do some damage.
It’s not really a surprise that we only had archery gym class once in my 3 years at Jr High
Let me set the scene for you. Targets lined up along one wall of the gym and a line of 75 kids at the opposite end of the gym. I think the teachers knew better because (for the most part) they basically stood in the hallway once we had the weapons in hand. Now I’m going to guess that maybe 1 person in our class had ever used a bow and arrow in their lives. As a result, as soon as we got the go ahead arrows went in every direction: towards the targets, into the floor, into the ceiling, towards other targets, towards other students, etc. It was pandemonium. After a while we got a little bored and started trying to bounce the arrows off the floor at the targets and trying to shoot the ducts on the ceiling. At one point someone shot at the teachers while they were putting a balloon on one of the targets and that was pretty much the end of class. These were real arrows too, the bows were kind of a joke (made of hard plastic and single stringed), but if you got into one the arrows could penetrate a hard target at 50ft, so they could do some damage.
It’s not really a surprise that we only had archery gym class once in my 3 years at Jr High
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