School Story:
9.27.08 1:18 pm
Meeting classmates for the first time in 20 years was something that months before brought a great deal of mixed feelings. I missed the 10 year out of... well, low self confidence mainly. I guess I was still far too worried about what really doesn't matter much anymore. But I'd like to think that I've matured some. At least in some areas.
I've reflected on some of the detail I had written in my profile and decided to make some changes. I try to teach my children that there are two kinds of humor: genuine humor and then the other kind that comes at someone's expense. I reread my profile and some editing was required.
May I also make a few random observations?
1. I am truly thankful to all those whose lives have come in contact with mine. It's more evident as time goes by that those things that are truly valuable are the relationships we make. I'm very thankful.
2. A great many thanks to all those of our student council from yonder years who have made such a valuable contribution to the sucess of this reunion. I'm so very glad I chose to attend.
3. I'll say a prayer in thankfulness to all those who have blessed my life, helped provide a good example, and been good friends.
Previous bio content below, after a few modifications. I hope the humor below is appropriate.
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OK. Reading others stories kicked the memories back up. Here's a few:
'87-Mr. Dudley's Algebra, the class was located next to the boys/girls bathrooms. He'd be in mid-sentence on one of his lessons, stick his nose in the air, and then without a word, charge off out the door and into the bathrooms. This happened 2-3 times before he said, "I smell marajuana." Most laughed, but a few became a little concerned... I probably shouldn't name names...
'88 - Algebra-2, (I'm horrible with names and can't remember the teacher. Short guy, and pretty cool for a math teacher.) Anyway, I didn't care for the class much... as it was not much of a challenge, but I did like story problems. It's the only time you really apply the principles being taught. Well, most of my classmates didn't feel the same way. I'll never forget when a test came out with nothing but story problems and what was the test titled? "Shane's Favorites" I never told the teacher about how I was threatened with my life by other classmates for that one. After that experience, my exuberance for story problems lessened considerably.
OK. I read about Mrs. Smith and Mr. Davis in another bio and thought to add this one. You know that electric generator that Mr. Davis used to light up the Cathode Ray tubes? It would throw a spark between two wires like a miniature version of what you'd see in a Frankenstein movie. Anyway, I sat pretty close to where Mr. Davis used that thing and he heard me laugh when he accidentally brushed against it wrong and shocked himself. He turned and said, "You should see how it feels buddy." I thought about it, but obviously not long enough. There were some pretty cool people in the class... I was a nerd. This was my chance (only a nerd really thinks this way) to show the cool folks that I was really somebody. So I offered to have Mr. Davis show me what it felt like. For the next several mins we played with that generator as I grabbed the wires and he turned up the dial to throw more current. When the charge started sparking through my shoes, hair was standing up, arms were shaking, and I couldn't speak 'cause my mouth was clenched shut, he figured I'd had enough. I don't recall if I gained any "cool points" with the popular folks in the class, but I do remember that I felt extremely relaxed in Mr. Morton's English class as I slumped in my desk. It was great... Nowadays, a teacher would get fired just for pretending to shock a student. Along with fellow classmates, I often wonder what happened to our teachers and how well they might be doing.
Ok, here's another. Added this on 7/3/08 when I read Kristi Allred (Leigh)'s profile. Remember Driver's Ed? Most of us took it at the old campus from Mr. Pascal. That was his name right? Anyway, he had a flair for the dramatic. I remember he was in the middle of one of his little stories about a little girl that drove by instructions given from her blind grandfather... Yep... totally true... and Neil Hatler gets up, stands on his chair at his desk and begins to roll up his pant legs like he's contemplating wading out into some imaginary water. Mr. Pascal turns around from facing the board, sees Neil there and stops mid-sentence. A short pause, then, "Neil, what are you doing?" Neil replys in a non-chalant way, "I dunno about you Mr. Pascal, but it's getting pretty deep in here." Oh man... classic. The class busted up, Neil was dismissed with Mr. Pascal's blessing... and the remaining 10 minutes was spent with Mr. Pascal behind his desk fuming as we were all given some sort of written assignment.
It was Driver's Ed class that we were coming out of when we all heard about the Challenger space shuttle disaster. What a surreal experience that was. The sad part was that it wasn't but about 2 days before the jokes started circulating. It was the first time NASA sent up an "ordinary" citizen.
