The only class I ever skipped was biology. I hated that class but I'm not sure why I picked that day to skip. Maybe had a test, I don't know, but I'd almost say there was no reason...just felt like skipping.
Probably the earliest memory I have is of me and Charles riding our tricycles around in a circle in the garage. I don't think dad used it for anything.
I remember when Snooky had a litter of puppies (the first?). I don't recall how many there were but only a couple survived. If they had been given names I don't remember what they were. I had a favorite but dad gave him/her away to some guy. It's all kind of fuzzy but I think dad told us that this guy had driven by and his daughter had seen the dog. She wanted it so they pulled over and somehow or another the dog left with them. In hindsight it seems unlikely that something like that could have happened. I mean, think about it. Guy's daughter wants a strangers dog? Daughter's father actually stops and asks for the dog? Guy gets the dog with no money transacted (that I know of). I wish I knew what happened to that little puppy but I'm pretty sure it's not THAT.
The other surviving dog was run over by a car in the road in front of our house. I won't forget the sight of him, blood stained white fur, his head was pretty much crushed.
Looking back now I could well be wrong about these two being the only survivors. I seem to recall bringing one to the new house when we moved. If that was the case, and the more I think about it the more I'm convinced that was it, I don't have any idea what happened to it.
Speaking of tragedies involving dogs...Charles had a friend named Lawrence who used to come visit the house often. He had a dog named Queenie. I have no idea why but Queenie was with him this one day. We were all three riding bicycles up and down the road, Queenie chasing after us. I saw a luxury size car crawling up the road. I mean, it was going really slow so it surprised me that when it hit Queenie she went down. There was an old lady driving and she must not have realized she'd hit the dog because she just kept right on driving, head up, eyes straight. Lawrence was really shook up about it, and I can remember the way he sounded calling her name.
I might have felt sorry for him at the time. But not too long after that we got into an argument and I made him leave. He must have been pretty mad because as he walked down the driveway he cursed me profusely. There was an older lady who lived next door, Mrs. Huggins, and when I thought of her hearing the fowl things Lawrence was yelling I couldn't just let it lie. I ran out after him and basically beat the shit out of him. That felt good. I really didn't like Lawrence much even before that, maybe he would get the message and stop coming around.
I don't know what it was with our fascination with drugs. We (Charles and I) had no real intention of actually doing actual drugs, but there was something about it...We used to take gelatin capsules and fill them with Kool-Aid or sugar or whatever fine powder we had around. I don't think we ever took one, but believe it or not I actually sold a few to a guy down the street. Kevin A. and me would mix sugar and flour together, put it in sandwich bags and take them to school, pretending to be dealers.
We didn't do that stuff for long, but once when I was a senior I told a fellow student that I had some "really good shit" that would get him really really high. I wouldn't have done this were it not for the naivette of this dude, he got picked on quite a bit. Anyway we gave him a couple of pills and pretended to take a couple ourselves. Then we drove around town for a while saying stuff like, "wow, man, I am really getting off on this!" We asked this kid if he was "feeling it yet". He did say he was getting high. Maybe it was pyscosomatic or maybe he was just wanting to fit in. I feel really bad about how I treated him and a few other people in high school.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
The Old Familiar (featuring alignment to the right this time)
Music fails
God turns a blind eye
If only for a moment
Lost to me forever
I asked my friend to fill me in
This season out of time
Out of touch and out of mind
He knew all the clues and the juicy details
Tasked to remember that night
For this moment of truth
Serendipitously placed in this time and space
To remind me of days soon faded away
To shine the bright light of cold reason
With all I believed I never conceived
I was capable of murder
But when my head was pulled from the dream
The static uncertainty shocked me
A mean and relentless electricity
I couldn't fool or convince myself
I was part of this world
Far from the gaze of YWVH's stare
My friend tried to pull me out
To wake me from this violent dream
Eyes wide open, he wondered what I'd seen
I saw him the carrion hungry to feed
Miserable mercury, come to tell me the game had only just begun
A player on a vast stage, told to hunt me down
Bring me back to square one, full circle 'round
After so many years I'd tried to forget
The paranoia that read others' thoughts and words
As encouragement to me, but all that I heard
Were lies and cruel manipulations designed
To build up my hopes cuz the higher they flew
The harder they fell
It's what they liked to do
So I turned on my friend, neither he or the Lord
Would put me through that again
I would have killed him
I would have broken every bone in his body
I told him as much
The only thing I remembered, until now,
Was the cop right behind me and the cuffs 'round my wrists
That and silently wondering why
And what all had happened when God closed His eye
Silently riding along the state highway
Sitting uncomfortable, metal at my spine
The cop turned on the radio
I didn't think they could do that
Grateful Dead, "Friend of the Devil"
I smiled
It sounded good
Thursday, November 14, 2013
10 anomolous memories about high school
10 anomolous memories about school. Share yours!
1. Coach Pyle set up a car stereo in his history (?) class with speakers at the side of each wall. Every day he would play Jim Croce 8-Track tapes on a loop. I'm not sure of his motive, but the end result was Jim Croce burn-out on a scale equal to Hiroshima. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was driven up the wall by the sheer monotony. I swear I almost puked everytime "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" made it around to the front of the queue.
2. Our band director, who had been there for less than a year, entered into an extramarital relationship with the French teacher. Actually he wasn't married, she was, I don't guess that makes any difference in the moral equation. Everyone knew about it. In his defense, she was a hot number. Just joking, folks. There's no defending adultery.
3. Do you remember those Tart 'n' Tiny candys? They were like little BBs made of sugar. More or less the same thing as Nerds. One time a whole lot of us armed ourselves with handfuls of this candy. When Mrs. Searcy turned her back we threw all those Nerds at the chalkboard. You wanna talk about a rattled educator? She was a fragile sort anyway. She left the room in tears as the whole class laughed. Kids can be mean.
4. This happened in French class. The "jock corner" was in the back of the room (duh). Typical jocks who would rather have been anywhere but there, goofing on each other. Now there weren't many black people at our school in the class of 80. I can only think of two, both very popular and cool guys. KT was one of the two and he was sitting in jock corner with the others in that French class. They start looking for words in the back of the textbook and asking what they meant. The teacher gladly tells them. Then one of them, sitting next to KT, asks, "What's 'La Cochon Noir'?" The teacher says "The black pig" and they all roar with laughter at KT's expense. I know that might sound racist, but these guys were close friends, I wouldn't be surprised if KT was in on it. The idea was to shock and make the teacher uncomfortable. It worked.
5. There was this poor guy who used to get a lot of teasing, he played tuba in the band for awhile. I'll never forget the day someone stuck a tampon in the bell of his horn.
6. There was a canopy above the west door of the field house. One day Paul Allen decided to act the fool and got up on that canopy yelling and hollering at the people on the ground. David McCurley and I thought it would be funny to throw handfuls of pebbes at him. So here comes Jerry McAnally up behind us, sees what's going on, and I guess he thinks it's funny too...except that he picked up this huge rock and hurled it at Paul, striking him in the head. Paul wound up having to get stitches and Jerry suffered a smattering of punishment from administration. Oh, and we got detention, too. How unjust is that?These pebbles were so small they most likely didn't even reach him. And here we are getting the same sentence as a kid who beaned with a big rock. What's that all about, huh?
7. One time, in the seventh grade, I took two copies of National Lampoon to school with me. I was always bringing Mad magazine, Cracked and other comic books to put in the middle of my textbooks to make it look to my teacher like I was reading the book, like I was supposed to be doing. Now, National Lampoon sets itself apart from all the other magazines I would bring because it typically contains a few...uh...inappropriate photographs of half naked women. All in the name of humor, mind you. I knew I shouldn't have shown them to anyone, let alone the guys I DID show it to (one of which I think was the above mentioned Jerry McAnally. It wasn't long before offers were made and though it was not my original intent to sell them, I broke down in the face of how much they were willing to offer for them. I sold them under one condition: do not show them to anyone. I knew what a powder keg of trouble would be set off if the whole class found out there were magazines in the building with naked women pictures. Needless to say they did not honor my demand. Word got around, as it tends to do. The buyers got an hour of dentention each. I got the choice between five hours or three swats. The principle got a couple of free issues of National Lampoon. Addendum: I chose the swats. For a little guy David Cox could sure swing a mad paddle.
8. Here's a perfect example of the gulf between the way things were and the way they are. Our school used to have a smoking section for the students. Between classes and during lunch they were welcome to use this space to light up, usually with a teacher or two joining them. It was right outside the woodworking class. Kids would walk into class REEKING of tobacco. Disgusting.
9. Back in the 5th grade the Gideons used to make the rounds and give all the students those little pocket New Testaments. I remember one of those times when, walking across the playground I saw two kids teasing Paul Allen, throwing his little bible over his head, passing it back and forth like pseudo-bullies will do. The same Paul Allen who would one day take a rock to the back of his neck, I felt sorry for him. On impulse (I can only imagine) I jumped into the mix and retrieved the little book, giving it to it's rightful owner. For my troubles I got punched in the face by one of Paul's tormentors. He didn't see fit to offer thanks, either.
10. This isn't exactly a "school memory" but it happened on school time. Me and my best friends Steve Duncan & Gary "Chet" Affentranger were at Kenny's Red Devil Restaurant. I'll make this short and sweet. Steve picked a booger out of his nose and put it in the blue cheese dressing on the salad bar. There. Short and sweet.
1. Coach Pyle set up a car stereo in his history (?) class with speakers at the side of each wall. Every day he would play Jim Croce 8-Track tapes on a loop. I'm not sure of his motive, but the end result was Jim Croce burn-out on a scale equal to Hiroshima. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was driven up the wall by the sheer monotony. I swear I almost puked everytime "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" made it around to the front of the queue.
2. Our band director, who had been there for less than a year, entered into an extramarital relationship with the French teacher. Actually he wasn't married, she was, I don't guess that makes any difference in the moral equation. Everyone knew about it. In his defense, she was a hot number. Just joking, folks. There's no defending adultery.
3. Do you remember those Tart 'n' Tiny candys? They were like little BBs made of sugar. More or less the same thing as Nerds. One time a whole lot of us armed ourselves with handfuls of this candy. When Mrs. Searcy turned her back we threw all those Nerds at the chalkboard. You wanna talk about a rattled educator? She was a fragile sort anyway. She left the room in tears as the whole class laughed. Kids can be mean.
4. This happened in French class. The "jock corner" was in the back of the room (duh). Typical jocks who would rather have been anywhere but there, goofing on each other. Now there weren't many black people at our school in the class of 80. I can only think of two, both very popular and cool guys. KT was one of the two and he was sitting in jock corner with the others in that French class. They start looking for words in the back of the textbook and asking what they meant. The teacher gladly tells them. Then one of them, sitting next to KT, asks, "What's 'La Cochon Noir'?" The teacher says "The black pig" and they all roar with laughter at KT's expense. I know that might sound racist, but these guys were close friends, I wouldn't be surprised if KT was in on it. The idea was to shock and make the teacher uncomfortable. It worked.
5. There was this poor guy who used to get a lot of teasing, he played tuba in the band for awhile. I'll never forget the day someone stuck a tampon in the bell of his horn.
6. There was a canopy above the west door of the field house. One day Paul Allen decided to act the fool and got up on that canopy yelling and hollering at the people on the ground. David McCurley and I thought it would be funny to throw handfuls of pebbes at him. So here comes Jerry McAnally up behind us, sees what's going on, and I guess he thinks it's funny too...except that he picked up this huge rock and hurled it at Paul, striking him in the head. Paul wound up having to get stitches and Jerry suffered a smattering of punishment from administration. Oh, and we got detention, too. How unjust is that?These pebbles were so small they most likely didn't even reach him. And here we are getting the same sentence as a kid who beaned with a big rock. What's that all about, huh?
7. One time, in the seventh grade, I took two copies of National Lampoon to school with me. I was always bringing Mad magazine, Cracked and other comic books to put in the middle of my textbooks to make it look to my teacher like I was reading the book, like I was supposed to be doing. Now, National Lampoon sets itself apart from all the other magazines I would bring because it typically contains a few...uh...inappropriate photographs of half naked women. All in the name of humor, mind you. I knew I shouldn't have shown them to anyone, let alone the guys I DID show it to (one of which I think was the above mentioned Jerry McAnally. It wasn't long before offers were made and though it was not my original intent to sell them, I broke down in the face of how much they were willing to offer for them. I sold them under one condition: do not show them to anyone. I knew what a powder keg of trouble would be set off if the whole class found out there were magazines in the building with naked women pictures. Needless to say they did not honor my demand. Word got around, as it tends to do. The buyers got an hour of dentention each. I got the choice between five hours or three swats. The principle got a couple of free issues of National Lampoon. Addendum: I chose the swats. For a little guy David Cox could sure swing a mad paddle.
8. Here's a perfect example of the gulf between the way things were and the way they are. Our school used to have a smoking section for the students. Between classes and during lunch they were welcome to use this space to light up, usually with a teacher or two joining them. It was right outside the woodworking class. Kids would walk into class REEKING of tobacco. Disgusting.
9. Back in the 5th grade the Gideons used to make the rounds and give all the students those little pocket New Testaments. I remember one of those times when, walking across the playground I saw two kids teasing Paul Allen, throwing his little bible over his head, passing it back and forth like pseudo-bullies will do. The same Paul Allen who would one day take a rock to the back of his neck, I felt sorry for him. On impulse (I can only imagine) I jumped into the mix and retrieved the little book, giving it to it's rightful owner. For my troubles I got punched in the face by one of Paul's tormentors. He didn't see fit to offer thanks, either.
10. This isn't exactly a "school memory" but it happened on school time. Me and my best friends Steve Duncan & Gary "Chet" Affentranger were at Kenny's Red Devil Restaurant. I'll make this short and sweet. Steve picked a booger out of his nose and put it in the blue cheese dressing on the salad bar. There. Short and sweet.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
MSN.com
Big changes for this blog, seeing as how I”ve more or less abandoned it. This could be a huge train wreck but I don’t really care anymore. From now on I’m going to be using the Windows Live BlogThis tool to post crap here. I don’t even know exactly how it works yet but regardless, this is how it’s going to be done IF it’s going to be done.
All of this has been made possible by Spotify’s crashing constantly and my trying to get it back up and running. In the course of my as yet futile attempts I have decided to lay low and do what this computer tells me to before reinstalling after a total system recovery. That means I’m going to use Internet Explorer for the first time in years. We’ll see how this works, but I’m surprised to note a couple of features I’ve wished Chrome would implement which are already available here. It all comes down to speed. I’ve been very patient in the past and if being overly cautious about my Spotify means doing it again with IE then that’s what I’m going to do.
So here we go…a new journey…
(I blogged this from the MSN homepage, hence the title and link.
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