9th grade was sorta a transitional year for me. During that time 7th, 8th, and 9th graders were boxed together at the Junior High. While the rest of the high schoolers (10th, 11th, and 12th grades) were at the high school down the road. So ironically Freshmen ruled the school….at least at the junior high. There aren’t many junior highs around anymore, rather being replaced by middle schools.
9th grade? Most of my band friends were doing the Jazz band thing during 4th period. This left me out during my 4th grade class…English. Remember Marge Simpson’s sisters who smoked alot? Well that’s my 9th grade English teacher. She had a deep raspy voice from smoking alot. She would give us an assignment, then leave to go to the teachers’ lounge to smoke. Sadly she is no longer with us, as I heard she passed away from lung cancer.
My 1st period class was science and thankfully many of my friends were in there. In fact due to the alphabetical order thing, my good friend got a seat right behind me….and there were no people with last names between P and W (shocker there). That science teacher was in charge of choosing students to go to Disney World that upcoming summer. I don’t know what it was, but I was left out of the selection process. It was sorta like “ok, let’s take some students to Disneyworld. Who wants to go?” And somehow they labeled it as some kind of school sponsored learning experience. Ok whatever. If you can justify it in your own mind, then I guess it’s ok with me. Most people would call it a vacation.
2nd period was Geometry. Our teacher was a strict disciplinarian. I learned to shut up in there and just to my work without necessarily getting mean looks from the teacher. It was one of those classes where you really hated asking questions because you figured the teacher would yell at you.
3rd period? French. I can honestly say that I probably didn’t learn anything in there. Our teacher was one of those who would try to be friends with the students and never really teach us anything. Just sit back and do written exercises. I was in for a rude awakening in French II in 10th grade when I actually got a French teacher with a Doctorate.
(4th period already spoken about above)
5th period was Civics for the first part of the year. Then Health for the 2nd part of the year. Civics was taught in the portable by some Vietnam Vet. Or so I’m told. Sometime during part of the year our original Civics teacher stepped aside and we were assigned to my smoking English teacher. So I had 2 hours with her back to back.
Health was and always will be a joke. I hated it. I can remember one time I got a “C” on my report card..something like an 83. The grade itself was arbitrary. There was no reasoning at all with it. The teacher couldn’t back up the actual grade with the previous grades on the assignments. When I complained about it, he upped it 10 points more or less to shut me up.
In Health we got to shoot guns and learn all about boat safety. My first and only time to shoot a gun. Both assignments were some state requirement for high school students and were just put into heath classes because there was no other place for it.
6th period was band of course, and I was glad to see the rest of my friends at the end of the day. Many of them worked as “managers” for the high school marching band during football season. This basically amounted to sitting the colorguard’s flags out on the right yardline. That’s it. I opted out of that excitement, so I didn’t see my friends very much.
So that’s 9th grade for me. I still made B’s and wasn’t exactly the star student yet. Still trying to figure out how I belonged in all of this.

Is it wise to name an 8th grade minischool after a R rated movie with guns and violence in it? “The Untouchables” was a hit movie in 1987 staring Kevin Costner, Robert Deniro, and Sean Connery. It was about the police trying to pin a crime on Al Capone. There was a few cuss words in it (although not as much as your typical R movie these days), plus plenty of violence which gave it an R rating. I can only imagine the brainstorming session those teachers had to come up with this nickname for the minischool. My guess is that one particular teacher was a huge fan of the movie…either enamored with Costner….or just liked the movie in general….and successfully lobbied for the name.
I’m pretty sure they changed the name of it after I left. It wasn’t as if it was a blockbuster hit. Most people have forgotten about it by now.
Minischools. It was a new and exciting concept. Students were divided into groups and rotated among the teachers assigned to the group. Made the schools a bit smaller. When I was at the junior high, we had these 8th grade minischools: Olympians, The Untouchables, and The Challengers. So basically we had one reasonably named minischool and one minischool named after an R rated movie, while the other one was named after an ill fated space shuttle.
On the flip side, we had the 7th grade minischools: The Pioneers, The Constellations, and The Investigators. All are reasonable names, except for the Constellations which was too close to “The Consipations,” and yes, the kids did call them that.
Since in minischools, all the kids have Band/P.E. at the same time…and because most of my friends were in 6th period advanced band….we were all in the same minischool together. I wasn’t all that great in band. I think it was the grace of Mr. Starks, my band teacher, which got me into advanced band. Maybe he knew of the upcoming changes when he was considering me for advanced band. Maybe he knew that I was friends with many of the people he was putting in there. Maybe he knew my sister was a good student and he wanted good student in there. I don’t know why I was placed in advanced band.

Ok so I’ve sorta been negative toward my past teacher experiences. Now for a positive teacher experience. My favorite teacher. My favorite teacher was Mrs. Britnell, my 4th grade teacher. What set her apart from the other teachers is that she truly loved her students and wanted the absolute best for them. Even before this whole prayer in public schools controversy, she was regularly leading our class in morning devotionals at school (this was a public school). This went against the grain, but it was so fundamental in my emerging faith during those vital years. She had inspirational posters around the wall. Each morning we choose a poster and she would give a short devotional about it. Then she was lead us in a prayer. I remember always praying for an absent student of ours. This student was scheduled to be in our class at the beginning of the year, but had to stay homebound for all of the year due to a bad motorcycle accident. We prayed everyday for that kid. And he was able to return to school the following year.
What was great about the class itself is that not only did I have a great teacher, I also had 2 friends of mine who were in there. We remain good friends to this day. And that was 19 years ago.
Mrs. Britnell didn’t like the annual academic awards day celebration because she felt like it was not good for the kids who didn’t get any awards. I would tend to agree with her. While the handful of us were getting all of the awards, the rest of the class was left out. So after the awards program…back in the classroom, she gave all of her students awards so that none of us were left out.
I went back to see her a few years ago. She was at a new school as a guidance counselor. She said she had to get out of the classroom because it was just too stressful. I’m pretty sure she is retired now.

8th grade science was somewhat of a joke. It was Earth Science, and honestly I can’t remember much about it. Our teacher was a typical coach. Passive learning. Read this section of material in your book and do the review questions at the end of the chapter. That was a typical work assignment. That and to deal with all the other rowdy kids in the class. Never did our teacher really get up and actually teach us something. Stand up in front of the class and write on the board? Nope. Instead it was sorta a learn at home type thing. Years later we could have learned by the web in similar fashion.
One 6 weeks we were studying the planets and it was somewhat interesting. Our teacher took the trouble of redoing the room completely with space type junk. Dark curtains and planets hanging from the ceiling. It was cool at the time. Plus we got to giggle whenever someone mentioned Uranus in typical 8th grade fashion.

I made an 89 in my 7th grade computer class. Who would have guessed? First computer class. Maybe it was the new school. Maybe it was my inadeptness with Apple II’s. I did better the next year: 94.
I don’t remember much about the computer class. I remember playing Oregon Trail and Mario Bros. But that’s about it. We might have written a program or two. Infinite loops. You know the drill. I still don’t know why I made a B in computers in 7th grade. That is alluding me. It might have been the new jargon. I hadn’t used a computer in a while….actually it was probably my first introduction to them, apart from my Atari 2600 and Texas Instruments.
Computers, Art, Music and Reading were taken as mini-courses at the junior high. We had each for 6 weeks, having Reading twice. I guess they wanted us to get the most out of reading. Mini-courses were for those subjects which they really didn’t have a full year worth of curriculum. Either that or they just wanted to squeeze in a large amount of subjects within one period throughout the year.
Then again there seemed to be a degree of redundancy since I was already taking band and had another Music class during one six weeks period. Basically I had band during first period, then I moved on to music during 2nd period. A whole morning of music.
Our music teacher was a bit on the strange side. There’s a rumor hanging around that her students always tried to get her upset enough to make her cry. I don’t remember much about it. I remember a bunch of rude people in there who had no respect for the teacher. One day we were allowed to bring our own music to listen to for the entire day. Somebody brought a RUSH tape. That’s all I remember.

My 7th grade English teacher (who’s name shall remain anonymous here) was somewhat of a “by the books” type person. I remember the first day of class. It was 6th period, the last period of the day. I hadn’t been able to visit the restroom the entire day. Those were the days of non-mini schools where we were forced to hike around all over the school to our classes instead of staying in our respective minischool pods…but more on that later. So in lieu of using the restroom, I decided to use my time more productively…like getting to class on time.
Anyways on that first day of class the teacher explained the rules to us. I didn’t bother listening since I usually had a habit of doing my work and following the rules without any problems. There was something about if you got in trouble, a warning would be your name would be written on the chalkboard. For each additional troublesome occurance, you’d get checkmarks by your name. This was standard operating procedures among junior high teachers. By the end of class I was sitting around finishing up whatever assignment had been given to me. I had the urge to visit the restroom. I went up and asked the teacher if I could. She said “no” and I returned to my desk.
At the end of class, she said something to the effect of “Ok, I’ve already written a list of people’s names on the board who haven’t obeyed the rules.” And my name was up there. For asking to go to the restroom! I could have done far worse. But somehow I got up there for bodily functions. Ok whatever.
Knowing that, later on in the year, when colds are common, I developed a hacking cough. I was pretty much coughing my brains out during English class one day. So the teacher says “Do you need to go to the restroom to get some water.” And I go. No names written on the board. Just the soothing taste of a refreshing beverage.
And I remember doing a report on music in the class. I used Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry in it. And then some Huey Lewis song. I think I was big into the Back to the Future movie back then. To play the music I used a tape recorder. I remember pushing “stop” instead of “play.” and the tape ejecting on me. As the class laughed at me, I looked over at the teacher and she was shaking her head and wrote something down on her gradepad. Ugh. I don’t think I made an A on that project.
Years later when I worked at Kmart, on a particular day I took a check from a customer. The name on the check I recognized. I told them my 7th grade teacher had the same name. As it turns out the customer was the ex-husband of my former English teacher. Interesting. I don’t know if she is still teaching or what. I guess I should have asked.
That’s what I remember from 7th grade English. Not any type of story or anything. Just a by the books teacher who doesn’t let you go to bathroom. English classes are just so overtly subjective anyways. You read whatever the school/teacher/board of education wants to you to read. They say it is great literature, but I’d tend to disagree.

Here is an interesting article which I found while going through some old church bulletins. I’m not sure why this belongs in a church bulletin.

Mountain Climbing
by Steve Hale
November 5, 1989
Congratulations to members of the Mt. Juliet High School Band for their great sauces in the recent Contest of Champions held at M.T.S.U.
25 bands from Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee participated. Mt. Juliet made the nine band final, and finished fifth overall. Two of the top five were Kentucky bands, so Mt. Juliet finished 3rd in the State of Tennessee!
This is the first time Mt. Juliet has ever made the finals in this contest. To my knowledge, ten of our young people are in this band. They are: Brett Bawcum, Chad Bawcum, Leanne Copley, Teresa Fleming, Cheryl Holland, Philip Holland, Jeff Mullins, Tina Mullins, Bryan Thomas and Melissa Whittle.
I am tremendously proud of the faithfulness among these young people after long nights (often Saturdays) traveling back home. Most of them have not missed services in spite of being exhausted. Congratulations! We’re proud of you.
The mayor of Mt. Juliet has declared Saturday (Nov. 4) Mt. Juliet Band day!

I think the article was ghostwritten by my mom, a band booster. Ok whatever. It was a big deal to make Contest of Champions back then. But in retrospect, I don’t think such a large article should have appeared in what otherwise is a religious publication.

I’m not going to my high school reunion. $56 for a single ticket is just too much for what its worth right now. I suspect much of that money goes for the bar, the hotel rental, and the food. I’d be just as happy to have it at Langford Farms or a Golf Clubhouse. Bring my own food. I’m not that much interested in dinner and dancing. Most of my friends aren’t going. So it made it easier to make up my mind that I wasn’t going.
The reunion is this Saturday night. Instead of reuniting I’ll be at church camp getting ready.
Kevin let me borrow his old 110 camera. I’m taking it to camp. I can remember in 1991 when everyone’s cheap camera were these 110 cameras. Then came the invention of disposable cameras. Then everyone started carrying those around.

Frederica, one of the school’s janitors, is the heart and soul of Lakeview Elementary School. She has been there since 1978, longer than any teacher currently there. When I visited the school yesterday to vote, she had plenty of stories to tell me. She tells me that Ralph, one of the other janitors was an alcoholic. He died 9 years ago due to lung cancer. After he left Lakeview, she cleaned out his room and found plenty of liquor bottles. Sad. What was even sadder was that one of the students, apparently a close friend of Ralph, was bringing him alcohol to school. I was shocked. I imagined some kid bringing in liquor in their Aladdin lunchbox…maybe Ralph was sipping Jack Daniels from their Mickey Mouse thermos….who knows? What appeared to be such an innocent part of life…elementary school….was actually just the same as some of the things that happen in college, high school, junior high. Innocence has been shattered. That was going on right under my nose and I didn’t have a clue.
We never dealt with drugs or alcohol in elementary school. The only controversal thing I remember seeing was some kid wearing a KISS t-shirt in the 5th grade. I was sure that KISS meant “Knights In Satan’s Service,” so I made sure to stay away from that kid. The problems of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll were reserved for high school, and to some extent junior high. I remember one day during my junior high year. One freshmen girl had a t-shirt on which said “Yes, that’s my baby,” with an arrow pointing to her pregnant stomach. I knew I had arrived to a totally different world.
The local news media is reporting each and every election result, no matter how small. At the bottom of the screen, they just showed 61 people voted for Chip Jenkins, the winner of the mayoral race in tiny Woodburn, KY, while 39 voted for his opponent. Why this is significant enough to run at the bottom of the screen, I don’t know.
Honestly the results didn’t surprise me much. I knew the lottery was going to pass, I just thought it would be a little bit closer. Republicans taking over the Senate was a surprise. Usually the president’s party looses seats in the midterm elections.

Kevin Bass showed me some really good pictures he took of David Shannon preaching on Sunday morning. Kevin has an Olympus digital camera with zoom lense. He was able to take pictures from the balcony of David preaching without using a flash. Makes me wish I had a camera like that. Mine is a 3.3 megapixel, while this one is a 2.1 megapixel. I’m not sure if the zoom lense is worth the reduction in mexapixels.
I put my life into someone else’s hands when I got in the back of that pickup truck at the hayride Saturday night. We were going to the place where we’d scare the people on the hayride. I didn’t realize how unsafe this teenaged driver was. I don’t know who he was trying to impress. If he had hit a tree, I would have been seriously injured. In the middle of our night drive through a tobacco field, the headlights went out on the truck, so they had to drive according to the flickering of the left turn signal. This old Ford truck was a junky vehicle. No glass in the rear window. “It’s a farm truck,” was the excuse the kids gave.
Contest of Champions was this weekend. It is the superbowl of marching band competitions for Middle Tennessee. I only know about this because a friend of mine reminded me about it. All of the bands in the area look forward to this competition in hope that the will place in it (or at least make finals). It’s not what you play, it’s who you know. Near the stadium there is a sign that says “Through these gates march the best bands in the world.” There should have been an asterisk at the end that said “and a bunch of bands which don’t deserve to be here.” We lived very simple lives in high school. Our biggest goal was to make it to some meaningless contest. It felt good back then, but looking back on it, the whole thing reaks of pointlessness.
I played trombone in high school. I never practiced. I never really knew the music. In some ways I think our band director let me stay in band because my parents were heavily involved with the band boosters. He could have embarrassed me by asking me to play the entire halftime show in front of the entire band. But he didn’t.
I have been considering a mission trip to El Salvador with my church. They’ve actually got it on the calendar so that everyone (not just the select few) will make plans to take part. It’s in April. It would be alot easier to decide to go, if I knew if I’d have a job in April. It involves a medical mission trip plus a Gospel Meeting while we are down there. Who knows. I’ve still got a little time to decide. Even if I end up getting a job before then, there will probably be someone who would want to take my place. It happened last year with someone else. It can happen again.