So here are a couple of pictures from my high school senior annual. Totally slamming the crew-cut (or ‘flat-top’ as it was called back then) and sans the bags of life under my eyes.
See what I mean?
And I was 6’4” and weighed 170 lbs. I was so skinny I had to jump around in the shower to get wet…had to stick my tongue out to make a shadow…could swallow a grain of rice and look like I had a beer-belly…get the picture.
To prove it, here is my football picture from the annual. Back in ‘62 we had to wear knee pads that were wider than my knees. And the open mouth…a closely guarded secret I discovered. Opening the mouth like that causes the intake of wind to draw the football into your hands. But you had better catch it or you will have a mouth full of football and a few less teeth.
Anyskinny, I was thinking how it was for me back in the day. It sucked. I was a dork, a goofball (I bet that comes as a surprise to most of you) and never had any close friends. I had a few in elementary school, but in high school everybody made new friends and drifted in different directions. So because of the loneliness and the feeling of not being good enough, I didn’t like school or the people associated with it.
I was never a punk or trouble maker (other than talking in class and making people laugh), but I just couldn’t fit in. I had horrible grades and was told so many times how smart I was but was just lazy. Any of you moms out there ever say that or hear it about your precious? Boy my mom sure laid it on. Now I know that I had ADHD, but it wasn’t heard of back then.
So after high school I went my own way and never heard from any of the fuckers again and they never tried to get in touch with me. When I would come home on leave from the Navy, I would drop by the school to see some of the teachers and classmates who were still there. It was just the same. Ignored and left out. No one overly glad to see me.
Therefore I went the next 45 years not knowing about any of them. What they were doing (except of a couple who were killed in Nam), how successful any of them became. Which ones went to prison (not an uncommon thing in my school.) Who passed away. Nothing.
Until Face Book. Now I am in touch with most of my graduating class plus several who graduated before and after me.
And boy how they change in the 49 years since leaving school. They are friendly. The jocks and the nerds have breakfast once a month (I haven’t made one of those yet but I plan on do so). The girls who wanted to scratch the eyeballs out of each other are sharing cokes and showing pictures of their grandkids.
In Atlanta there is a hotdog/hamburger place that is pretty well known. The Varsity is across I75-85 from Georgia Tech and back in the day was the meeting place for all the high schools around Atlanta. On Friday and Saturday nights there was a never ending string of some of the best looking and sounding cars driving through the place. Carhops had to dodge between the stream to deliver the orders.
Now some of the old classmates meet there every couple of months and just have a good time. Once I kind of moved off to the side and watched them, remembering how they were and the activities of school - what was so important and drastic, shit like that. It was kind of sad that we aren’t that young anymore, yet I am proud of who and what they have all become. I’m still an outsider in a way, but I must say I am really enjoying their company now.
How ‘bout that!
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