School Days

Via Red, here's another of those addictive memes.

This time, it's High School.

Here we go:

1) Where did you graduate from and what year?
Jamestown High School, 1981.

2) did u have school pride?
I had pride in my school's geeks. I sort of rebelled against the athletic department when, while trying to divide up my after-school schedule, the basketball coach asked if I wanted to be a basketball player or a "Drama Fag". Naturally, being me, I wanted to play hoops and do the play (although I was a much better actor than center); his attitude pissed me off so much I swore off all team sports. I was a cynical, involuntary spectator at the "pep rallies". But when the competition one-act play or the speech team kicked butt, I was obnoxious in my enthusiasm.

3) Was your prom a night to remember?
Yeah, sort of. Prom would be a lot more fun if everyone weren't constantly harping on how it was supposed to be one of the most special nights of your life.

4) Do you own all 4 Yearbooks?
We only had three - ninth grade was considered Junior High. I still just have Sophomore and Senior year in the house. I'd love to find Junior.

5) What was the worst trouble you ever got into?
Getting into trouble was rarely an option; Dad taught at the school, and had a supernatural ability to see anything irregular, usually before I'd even thought about it. Oh, I came reeeeally close, once, to getting into huge trouble - a story I'll save for another time - but all's well that ends well.

6) What kind of people did you hang out with?
I was the anti-clique animal. I hung out with everyone - jocks, geeks, motorheads, brains, druggies, drama club...the only crowd that I never really, er, cliqued with were the cheerleaders. Pity.

7) What was your number 1 choice of College in HS?
Never really thought a lot about it. It really didn't matter to me at the time; I'd been pretty much bred to be a high school teacher, and it doesn't really matter where you go if that's what you're going to be. I was also thinking about joining the Army anyway, so it was going to matter. Things got decided my senior year, when my mother got a job at the local college, which meant about an 80% tuition break. So I never really "chose" college; circumstances led me there.

8) what radio station did u rock out to?
KQWB ("Q98!") in Fargo. Back in the seventies and eighties, Q98 played everything; the playlist was the sort of eclectic joy you can't find today; everything from mainstream hard rock (Judas Priest) to great Minneapolis punk (it was the first time I heard The Replacements, the Suicide Commandos and Husker Du), to the Clash. They were the only radio station around that actually played cuts from Springsteen's non-radio-friendly Nebraska. Also WLS in Chicago, and (in junior high) KFYR in Bismark. In fact, I taught myself guitar by ear largely by listening to KFYR's "Torrid Twenty" as I did my homework; as a song I liked came up, I'd pick up my guitar and try to figure out the chords.

9) Were you involved in any organizations or clubs?
Too many. Hoops in ninth grade. Drama all four years. Speech in 11th and 12th grade (won state championships both years), debate in 10th (hated it). Student council my senior year. German club eighth through tenth (won the state German Scrabble championship in tenth grade!). I played guitar in the Stage Band from 10 through 12th grade.

10) What were your favorite classes in high school?
Drama, Creative Writing, and my dad's Speech class. Also summer school; I took it all three years. Biology, Writing/American Lit (with my Dad) and Government. I did it partly because the summer school teachers were usually better (they wanted to be there), partly because I wanted to graduate early (a policy they discontinued my junior year, to my outrage), and partly because a lot of my friends were there for the same reason. A small group of us - Bob Martin, Dwight Rexin and Dove Boe - took summer school every year; we had a lot of fun together.

11) Who was your big crush in Highschool?
I had a fairly debilitating crush my sophomore year; everyone who needs to know about it, does.

And the summer before my senior year, oddly enough, I got thoroughly smitten by the cousin of an occasional commenter in this space. Nothing came of that, either.

12) Would you say you've changed a lot since highschool?
I'm not quite the same self-absorbed douchebag I was back then, I hope.

13) What do you miss the most about it?
The kids I was closest with. And there were a lot of them; it was a small town, so the kids were a lot more closely-knit than those at the schools my kids go to. My "must-see" list at reunions is very long and very diverse; everyone from "Mad Dog" Grenz (my oldest pal in the world) through Pennie Werth. College was such a let-down after that.

14) Your worst memory of HS?
Junior year; I'd just had a huge fight with Phyllis Willey, the principal cellist in the orchestra (I was #2). I liked Phyllis, of course - we'd been friends for years. I'd been meaning to apologize for my part in the fight. That morning, I walked into the radio station on the way to school (I was at KEYJ at this point) and heard that she'd been killed the previous evening in a car accident. That was total gut shot.

15) Did you have a car?
Pffft. Not 'til my junior year of college.

16) What were your school colors?
Blue and white, for the Blue Jays.

17) Who were your fav. teachers?
My dad, Mr. Barkus (music), Mrs. Smith (creative writing), Mr. Davidson (drama), Ms. Kaitfors (gym).

18) Did you own a cell phone in highschool?
My family had a single, rotary-dial phone that had been built to last in the sixties; when I graduated, we still owned the first phone I remember seeing as a child. I didn't use a cell phone until I was at KSTP in 1986 ($2 a minute!).

19) Did you leave campus for lunch?
Most days I had noon classes; I brownbagged probably 3-4 days a week from ninth grade on. Sometimes I'd run home (we lived four blocks from school) or, if I was especially lucky, my grandma's place (one block east); best lunch ever.

20) If so, where was your fav. place to go eat?
Grandma's. Or the bakery on Main Street - their Poboy sandwich rocked.

21) Were you always late to class?
Never. Not once that I can recall.

22) Did you ever have to stay for Saturday School?
Didn't have it. Detention was after school.

23) Did you ever ditch?
For starters, I never heard it called "ditching" or "cutting" until I was in college. It was "Skipping". And no, not officially. Our senior year, we could "sign out" of Photography class to go shoot pictures around town. This was basically glorified skipping; Jon Ketterling and David Kostick and I used to sign out and run to the bakery or McDonald's (which we didn't get one of until I was 16). But it was legal. Otherwise? Never. My dad would have detected it by listening to the ground and hearing my vibrations outside the building.

24) What kind of Job did u have?
9th grade: Paper route.
10th grade: Worked for a stretch at Buffalo Candy and Tobacco, a warehouse.
11th/12th grade: KEYJ Radio. Best highschool job ever.

25) When it comes time for the reunion will you be there?
As I noted above, JHS '81 was a fairly close-knit class (60+% came back for the 20 year reunion). I'd travel through hell, crawl across broken glass, and french-kiss Helen Thomas to get to my class' reunions.

26) Do you wish you were still in high school?
No. Sometimes I wish more of it were in me, though.

Posted by Mitch at February 22, 2006 12:03 PM | TrackBack