Last night was my 25th high school reunion.  The reunion planning committee had been planning this for months.  We’d get mails and Facebook notifications of the steps and progress.  They did a great job with the venue, food and trying to contact everyone to get them to come.  I suspect we had around 60 alumni there plus spouses and significant others.

I must admit that I was feeling kinda nervous in anticipation to the lead up to the reunion.  What is refreshing was that everyone I spoke to was cordial.  But I didn’t really see anyone that treated me harshly in school.  Those people had since moved on and were not in attendance.

What is unusual is those social media post from alumni saying “I wish I could have been there.”  I’m thinking that they’ve known about this for months.  Apart from starting a new job or having a sick child with no babysitter you really don’t have an excuse not to be there.  Deep down inside I think people might want attention for not being there…maybe.

I went back to my old junior high last night (now a middle school) for my niece’s volleyball game.  It was one of the first times I’ve been back since the 80s.  Junior High was tough for me.  I wasn’t activity bullied in a traditional sense, but there were moments.

I entered and saw that a wall had been built between the outside doors and the commons / cafeteria area.  I guess it was for more security.  My mind flashed back to those lunch room hours where I was given soy burgers and half pints of milk.  Back then I was self conscious and wouldn’t have dared brought my lunch for fear of being made fun of.  But deep down the ham sandwich and chips that my mom packed for me would have been ten times better than whatever they served in that lunchroom.  I went hungry many times.

No one ever really chooses to go back to junior high.  Even those bullies never really want to go back. I figure those bullies are probably now dealing with dead end jobs and just getting by.  Do they feel regret for treating everyone harshly during the late 1980s?  Or was that so far back have they become laid back?

I really wanted to take a quick tour of the school, but it was after hours and I was with my mother who I needed to help to the car.  I wanted to see if those lightning bolt Olympian logos from my minischool were still on the lockers.  It was in 1988 when they decided to introduce the concept of minischools in order to curb the problems.  Initially the school was built to have each subject in a pod – that is a u shaped group of classrooms groups by subject – English – History – Math – Science…  Minischools put the u shaped pods into housing 2 minischools with a teacher from each of the subjects.  You stayed all day with the same group of kids and weren’t having to travel all over the school to each of the pods.  You stayed in your own pod.  The idea was radical at the time.  Due to the way band was organized all of my friends were in the same minischool.  However I did hear about those in one minischool who’s friends were in a completely different minischool.

By the time I got to the 9th grade and still in the same school with the minischools, I was somewhat tired of what I saw as babying the 7th and 8th graders with minischools.  We were freshmen, and against the grain, we ruled the school or so we thought.  It was unusual in that our city’s high school was just 10th through 12th grades.  The high school was already overcrowded and at that point they simply did not have room for the freshmen class.  So there we were: high school freshmen in a school with 8th and 7th grade mentality.

Much of junior high, especially my 7th grade year, was something I wanted to forget.  I wouldn’t say this revisit struck a cord with me, but it did give me pause.

Last night I dreamt about something I hadn’t done for 14 years. I dreamt about being in the high school marching band. Somehow in this dream I was on a band trip. Our band director was somewhat of a disciplinarian, and in this episode he disciplined us for talking and disrepect by sending us back to the buses on a band trip.
I was more of less a placeholder in band. I held an instrument, played occassionally, but never practiced. I always got A’s in band (as everyone else did, but I’m not so sure I deserved it). I’m pretty sure my less than stellar effort was overlooked because my parents were so involved in the band fundraising activities.
In the dream I stood up to our band director. This is in contrast to real life, I never found myself standing up to our band director (as I never stood up against any other teachers). He demanded hard work, but was fair. I never walked away from band class thinking I had been done wrong. Band was just an activity that took up much of my time in the Fall. The reason why I quit was that I wanted more free time. I think myself and a group of my friends collectively decided to quit at the end of our junior year. And yet there was no waivering in it. Once I had made the decision that was it. I never wished to go back.
That senior year of high school served as almost as a transition period between high school days of band to the college days. I’d consider those sophomore and junior years in band as being almost identical. My senior year was different, as it is different for most everyone else also.

I saw an old classmate from high school at Kroger today. Or rather, he saw me. I’m not the type of person to actually look at faces. Rather I try to avoid visual contact with strangers. I don’t know why. I think it started in college. I would avoid eye contact with people in trying to avoid having a conversation with them. Introverts are like that.
This is the 2nd time within a couple of years where someone has noticed me and I didn’t necessarily recognize them. I guess I haven’t changed much physically since high school. I’ve gained a little weight (upto 140 lbs according to my last doctor’s visit) and wearing glasses now.
Anyways the conversion with the classmate was the obligatory “I know you. Yeah, what’s you’re name? What are you doing now?” That was it. Which is how most people converse with acquaintances from high school. It’s not that we dislike each other. It’s just there’s not much to talk about.

I saw Coach Holiday at Walmart yesterday. My 8th grade Earth Science teacher. His class wasn’t all that great…nor difficult. Mostly it was do blue questions at the end of each chapter. Busy work as I remember it.
I thought about going up to him and introducing myself to him. But I decided not to. I’m not sure he would have remembered me or cared.
The thing I remember about his class was the 6 weeks we studied space. He draped his classroom in black garbage bags and hung planets from the ceiling. That was cool at the time. I could tell he worked a long time on it.
At the end of the semester, he’d tally up the grades and tell us what we’d have to make on the final exam to pass. Usually I’d have to make a 104 on the final exam (which I was exempt from anyways) in order to pass.

This week, kids across America went back to school. The time was right, especially if you’re on a year round schedule (which most schools around here are). I won’t bother getting into the merits of year round vs. traditional school schedule. I’m no longer a student; I don’t have kids; therefore I’m not going to comment on it.
I remember several first days of schools. I remember in 3rd grade, my mom was really sick with a stomach virus and my dad (for the first time) took me to school that day. They almost put her in the hospital for dehydration.
In junior high, they’d herd us into the gym and give us our schedules. In high school our schedules were predetermined the year before. We’d meet with the guidance counselor to determine what classes we were taking. For most of the college bound kids, it was already mapped out. Periodically you were given a choice such as being able to take Physics or AP Biology/Chemistry.
Thinking back on my high school schedule, there was one strange part of it. In 10th and 11th grade, my math class was with the grade ahead of me. I wondered why I didn’t have math with my class peers. My peers were taking the same advanced math class, however I was in the “average” math class with the class ahed of me.
Ultimately first days of school have to be done in order to move on. You have to crawl before you learn how to walk.

I know of at least 3 people I went to high school with who are now working as youth or music pastors in some capacity. What is significant is that in high school many times they were unkind to many people. At least that’s how I see it. I just find it halfway amusing that those who seemed so arrogant at times in high school are now in charge of building others up. Do people change? Hopefully they do. I can’t hold people responsible for the way they acted 10 years ago. Maybe they’ve learned something about how to treat others.
Youth ministers/pastors are there for building others up. It should be one of their basic instincts. Anyone who is in it for any other reasons are doing it out of shear laziness.

It wasn’t until college that I got a backpack for school use. And with college it was almost an necessity that I get a backpack.
High school was easy. I managed to get to my locker before each class to grab my books. At the most I had to carry around 2 books. Same way in Junior High. When you get to Junior High, you are sorta still in shock on how to manage your time well enough so that you could get back and forth to your locker without being late for class. But we did manage, without getting our named written on the board for tardies.
In college it was a necessity. You couldn’t possibly get back and forth to your dorm and get your books in time for your next class. So the day before class my freshmen year, I got a backpack from the school’s bookstore. I probably paid too much. A crappy Eastland backpack. Nondurable. And I still have it. I never use it. It is a wonder it lasted so long. Other people would carry around the camping backpacks. I always wondered why they did it. But now I realize they did it for durability.
What did people do in the 70 and 80s when they didn’t have backpacks? I mean did they constantly have to go back and forth to their dorm rooms to get their books. Did they use lockers?

Throughout elementary school I brought my lunch in my lunchbox. I had a Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox, a Mickey Mouse one, and a off-brand plastic one with a green dragon on it called “The Beast.” My lunch almost always consisted of 4 items: Sandwich…usually PB & J or ham; potato chips; Little Debbies (has a snack for you); and a thermos full of Kool Aid….or….and I can’t much stomach the tough nowdays…tea. I don’t drink tea now. I find it repulsive.
I still have my Dukes lunchbox, and possibly the others elsewhere. It’s cool stuff. In 1st grade there was another kid in my class who had a Dukes lunchbox too. Too many times he would mistakenly take home my lunch box (even though it clearly had my name on it). So the next afternoon I’d have 2 lunchboxes to take home with me.
The few times in elementary school where I would buy my lunch was when they had pizza. I liked pizza then about as much as I do now. It was always a treat to get some pizza. And surprisingly they always served it with milk so they could call it a balanced meal. Milk just doesn’t go very good with pizza. And believe me, I’ve tried the chocolate milk and it just isn’t as good as the Purity brand milk you can get at Kroger.
In 3rd grade in the lunchroom we were forced to sit boy girl boy girl. Somewhere in between Cara Birchett and Becky Brimm was where I landed in the seating arrangement. And when you put 3rd graders in boy-girl seating arrangement, it always make for interesting lunchroom conversations. Usually the boys would do something gross with their food and the girls would grimace and cry foul.
In 4th grade there wasn’t much of a seating arrangement. However one of the teachers would get aggravated and get one a microphone and say “Five minutes of no talking!” No one ever really listened to her. It was a dull roar at times. I guess they couldn’t get enough volunteer parents to watch the kids while the teachers went to the teachers lounge. Nope. The teachers were forced to sit in the lunchroom with their students. And, at times. At the same table with their students. Looking back I couldn’t imagine the general dislike that could have been for the teacher. That one break in the day where they could potentially relax and they were forced to sit and eat lunch with the kids they had to be around all day with.
I also remember in 4th grade some kid got in huge trouble for throwing a milk carton at the trashbin at a far distance. I’m not sure why it was so bad to do this. Maybe it was a potential food fight. Or maybe the teacher specifically told him not to do it, but he did it anyways. I don’t know.
Somewhere in between 3rd and 4th grade the PTA got together and painted the school lunchroom with your favorite cartoon/Sesame Street character. I can remember Bert and Ernie somewhere around there. Being 4th graders we thought it was mildly stupid, especially at the time Sesame Street was considered babyish.
In junior high somehow I decided that bringing my lunch was juvenile. And since I was in the big world of junior high, I would buy my lunch for $1.10 each day. Mistake. I barely ate it and it wasn’t worth it. Somehow it was worth it just to fit in. I don’t remember if anyone brought their lunch. Too difficult to keep up with. Too easy to have stolen.
Then in high school I began bringing my lunch again. Brownbag. Sandwich…and some cheese Pringles. Ate those almost everyday my sophomore year. Plus frozen Hi-C which would be unfrozen, but cold by lunch time. W00t!
I remember my junior year where they had a food fight or something nearer toward the last day of school. I got in there just after the mayhem had stopped. I don’t think there was much of a fight. I was sorta glad I didn’t get caught up in that.
That’s my lunchroom stories.

You could smell it on their clothes. In junior high the most outwardly scandalous things someone could do would be smoking. Occasionally I would see someone pull out some cigarettes in class while the teacher was out of the room. It was mostly for the shock value to it. But I never saw anyone smoking at school. Never. Sure, there was plenty of other bad things going on in the junior high. But all I ever saw…or smelt rather, was the stench on their denim jackets. I guess if they ever got caught at school with it, they were suspended.
Where did they get the cigarettes? Did older siblings/friends buy them for them? Stealing them from their parents? Cigarette vending machines? I had no idea. I suspect they got older friends to buy it for them. Or there were some corrupt gas station attendants who sold cigarettes to 14 year olds.
In high school chewing tobacco and dip became more apparent. Seeing a big wad of dip in the school’s water fountain was a common site.
So there was a certain amount of shock value in “Stand By Me” seeing the kids smoke. “They’re smoking????” I thought to myself. But then again now, the shock has worn off somewhat.
How do they start smoking? Well obviously they start sometime in school…either junior high or high school. I did have one friend who started smoking in college. I rarely visited him because of it. Actually I never visited him.
I don’t know if smoking is a problem in school anymore. Rarely do I see anyone smoking. Its pretty much become the old school rule. Surely there are younger people smoking these days…or the cigarette companies would have been out of business by now. But I guess the crowd I run around with don’t have that nicotine addiction problem these days.