Today's meme #2: High School Memories
May. 18th, 2007 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatcrazycajunNostalgically nicked from folkmew:
26 Questions About Your High School Days
folkmew:26 Questions About Your High School Days
1. Who was your best friend?
At my first high school: Chris Mixon, who get me to my very first science fiction club meeting (Lafayette Area SF Society) and my very first convention (Vul-Con V, New Orleans, 1978). At my second: Don Jump, Air Force ROTC cadet and the only bigger SF/fantasy geek in the place than me.
2. What sports did you play?
Sports? Me?! The quintessential 98-lb. weakling? Puh-lease. Besides, I was no good at baseball (this having been established in a local subdivision Little League-type team in Oklahoma, some years prior) and had no interest in football or head for any other games.
3. What kind of car did you drive?
Couldn't afford one on my own, and my folks buying me one was not an option. But I did get to take Driver's Ed and get my learner's permit.
4. It's Friday night, where were you?
Playing D&D with the few actual friends I had, like as not. Usually at Janie Lester's house, though I do seem to recall we alternated with one or two other places. (I was so crushing on her, but she didn't like me that way...dangit.)
5. Were you a party animal?
That would have required me being invited to actual parties. The only such events I went to were open room parties at SF conventions, and I only got to about three cons in my whole four years in high school.
6. Were you considered a flirt?
Nope; too shy and clueless. But I did at least once in a blue moon get flirted with... though I was never sure if it was just pity, a practical joke or actual interest.
7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Not since elementary school, when I had played snare drums in band.
8. Were you a nerd?
Nerd, geek, spaz, dork -- pick your neologism. Glasses, bookish, shy, scrawny...take a wild guess.
9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
Never even came close.
10. Can you sing the fight song?
I'm not sure either school even had one. If they did, I've long forgotten them both.
11. Who was your favorite teacher?
Teachers, plural. From school #1: Mr. Ralph Guerin, science; Mr. Terry Girouard (a cousin of my mom's), art.
From #2: Mrs. Carol Sue Pier, history; Ms. Sienna Harvey, art; and Mrs. Adele Stephens, English. Oh, and Mr. Jack Harkrider, journalism teacher and advisor on both the school paper and yearbook.
12. Who was your home room teacher?
Memory hazy; try again later.
13. What was your school's full name?
#1: Northside High School, Lafayette, LA, 9/1977-12/1979.
#2: Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz High School, Irving, TX, 1/1980-5/1981.
14. School mascot?
By a curious coincidence, the mascot for both schools was the Viking. (Northside's Vikings teams wore red and black; Nimitz Vikings wore blue and silver.)
15. Did you go to Prom?
Yep—in a rented black tux with tails. Even had the silly top hat and a plastic cane; trés Fred Astaire.
16. Who was your Senior prom date?
My five-years-older then-girlfriend from New Orleans, a lovely well-endowed Italiana named Hollie Domiano. (We met at Vul-Con 7.) She wore a pastel crepe gown for the prom...and a black corset, fishnet stockings and garters underneath for the screening of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW we attended after, where she actually joined the local live cast and sashayed down the aisle lip-synching "Sweet Transvestite." Embarrassment and arousal fought for dominance in my hormonal teenage head that night.
17. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
Only if I could go back knowing everything I know today, including how some of the other students turned out as 20-years-on adults. (Not only could I avoid a number of rather unpleasant events and dumb-assed mistakes, but a few well-placed bets and/or stock-market investments would leave me richer than Bill Gates is now!) Otherwise? Not even if you offered me Gates' entire fortune—tax-free.
18. What do you remember most about graduation?
The silly grin I had on my face in my senior picture. Not much else at this point. ADDENDUM: Just remembered a bit more: Commencement was held in Texas Stadium, where the NFL's Cowboys played then as now (none of the three high schools in Irving had a facility big enough on their campuses), and the whole crowd of students, faculty and staff plus families only filled about a quarter of that cavernous space. I remember looking up at the balcony, with names like Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett and Danny White painted on it, and feeling awed.
19. Where were you on senior skip day?
In class; I may have hated the social scene, but I loved learning. Besides, skipping tended to get seniors in the kind of serious trouble I wanted to avoid.
20. Did you have a job your senior year?
Only during the preceding summer: gift shop clerk at Six Flags Over Texas, during the heat-wave summer of 1980 (average daily temp in the asphalt-laden park: 120°). I still have the souvenir gimme cap with "We Beat The Heat" emblazoned across the front that all staff got at season's end.
21. Where did you go most often for lunch?
School cafeteria, both schools. Northside didn't allow students off campus for lunch, and Nimitz didn't have any fast-food places within walking distance.
22. Have you gained weight since then?
Yeah, but it took a long time after graduation; I was still regarded as anorexically thin at least a decade later.
23. What did you do after graduation?
Went straight to college at LSU in Baton Rouge, in June 1981; didn't even wait for fall.
24 When did you graduate?
May 1981.
25. Have you kept in touch with anyone from high school since graduating?
Not for many years, but since the reunion (see #24 below) I have started slowly but surely hearing from a few via e-mail, Reunion.com and MySpace.
26. Are you going to your 10 year reunion?
That would have been in 1991, and I missed it —- but I did make the 20-year reunion. By then I was living in NYC and 9/11 had just happened; everyone was REAL nice to me.
At my first high school: Chris Mixon, who get me to my very first science fiction club meeting (Lafayette Area SF Society) and my very first convention (Vul-Con V, New Orleans, 1978). At my second: Don Jump, Air Force ROTC cadet and the only bigger SF/fantasy geek in the place than me.
2. What sports did you play?
Sports? Me?! The quintessential 98-lb. weakling? Puh-lease. Besides, I was no good at baseball (this having been established in a local subdivision Little League-type team in Oklahoma, some years prior) and had no interest in football or head for any other games.
3. What kind of car did you drive?
Couldn't afford one on my own, and my folks buying me one was not an option. But I did get to take Driver's Ed and get my learner's permit.
4. It's Friday night, where were you?
Playing D&D with the few actual friends I had, like as not. Usually at Janie Lester's house, though I do seem to recall we alternated with one or two other places. (I was so crushing on her, but she didn't like me that way...dangit.)
5. Were you a party animal?
That would have required me being invited to actual parties. The only such events I went to were open room parties at SF conventions, and I only got to about three cons in my whole four years in high school.
6. Were you considered a flirt?
Nope; too shy and clueless. But I did at least once in a blue moon get flirted with... though I was never sure if it was just pity, a practical joke or actual interest.
7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Not since elementary school, when I had played snare drums in band.
8. Were you a nerd?
Nerd, geek, spaz, dork -- pick your neologism. Glasses, bookish, shy, scrawny...take a wild guess.
9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
Never even came close.
10. Can you sing the fight song?
I'm not sure either school even had one. If they did, I've long forgotten them both.
11. Who was your favorite teacher?
Teachers, plural. From school #1: Mr. Ralph Guerin, science; Mr. Terry Girouard (a cousin of my mom's), art.
From #2: Mrs. Carol Sue Pier, history; Ms. Sienna Harvey, art; and Mrs. Adele Stephens, English. Oh, and Mr. Jack Harkrider, journalism teacher and advisor on both the school paper and yearbook.
12. Who was your home room teacher?
Memory hazy; try again later.
13. What was your school's full name?
#1: Northside High School, Lafayette, LA, 9/1977-12/1979.
#2: Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz High School, Irving, TX, 1/1980-5/1981.
14. School mascot?
By a curious coincidence, the mascot for both schools was the Viking. (Northside's Vikings teams wore red and black; Nimitz Vikings wore blue and silver.)
15. Did you go to Prom?
Yep—in a rented black tux with tails. Even had the silly top hat and a plastic cane; trés Fred Astaire.
16. Who was your Senior prom date?
My five-years-older then-girlfriend from New Orleans, a lovely well-endowed Italiana named Hollie Domiano. (We met at Vul-Con 7.) She wore a pastel crepe gown for the prom...and a black corset, fishnet stockings and garters underneath for the screening of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW we attended after, where she actually joined the local live cast and sashayed down the aisle lip-synching "Sweet Transvestite." Embarrassment and arousal fought for dominance in my hormonal teenage head that night.
17. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
Only if I could go back knowing everything I know today, including how some of the other students turned out as 20-years-on adults. (Not only could I avoid a number of rather unpleasant events and dumb-assed mistakes, but a few well-placed bets and/or stock-market investments would leave me richer than Bill Gates is now!) Otherwise? Not even if you offered me Gates' entire fortune—tax-free.
18. What do you remember most about graduation?
The silly grin I had on my face in my senior picture. Not much else at this point. ADDENDUM: Just remembered a bit more: Commencement was held in Texas Stadium, where the NFL's Cowboys played then as now (none of the three high schools in Irving had a facility big enough on their campuses), and the whole crowd of students, faculty and staff plus families only filled about a quarter of that cavernous space. I remember looking up at the balcony, with names like Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett and Danny White painted on it, and feeling awed.
19. Where were you on senior skip day?
In class; I may have hated the social scene, but I loved learning. Besides, skipping tended to get seniors in the kind of serious trouble I wanted to avoid.
20. Did you have a job your senior year?
Only during the preceding summer: gift shop clerk at Six Flags Over Texas, during the heat-wave summer of 1980 (average daily temp in the asphalt-laden park: 120°). I still have the souvenir gimme cap with "We Beat The Heat" emblazoned across the front that all staff got at season's end.
21. Where did you go most often for lunch?
School cafeteria, both schools. Northside didn't allow students off campus for lunch, and Nimitz didn't have any fast-food places within walking distance.
22. Have you gained weight since then?
Yeah, but it took a long time after graduation; I was still regarded as anorexically thin at least a decade later.
23. What did you do after graduation?
Went straight to college at LSU in Baton Rouge, in June 1981; didn't even wait for fall.
24 When did you graduate?
May 1981.
25. Have you kept in touch with anyone from high school since graduating?
Not for many years, but since the reunion (see #24 below) I have started slowly but surely hearing from a few via e-mail, Reunion.com and MySpace.
26. Are you going to your 10 year reunion?
That would have been in 1991, and I missed it —- but I did make the 20-year reunion. By then I was living in NYC and 9/11 had just happened; everyone was REAL nice to me.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-19 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-23 12:17 am (UTC)After three years of tort, estoppel, and plover,
The best part of law school is when it's finally over.
[No wonder he's also known as "The Stray Doggerel Man." {weg}]