senior moment
Since so much of the web is dominated by 20-somethings, it can be amusing and interesting to see how the biases of that age group can creep in to things like blog polls and memes. It’s also funny how high school has not changed since the dawn of time. So it is in the spirit of, um, something—aged crotchetiness? full disclosure? cross-generational outreach? misty sentimentality?—that I fill out my own version of the senior year meme. And I certainly mean no disrespect to Vox Nihili, who is a friend in real life. Um, I mean, IRL. Heh.
This is long, and probably boring, so I’ll post it after the jump.
- Who was your best friend?
Vince and Eric - What sports did you play?
You’ve got to be kidding. If I never go in a locker room again, it will be too soon. - What kind of car did you drive?
My parents’ mint green ’63 Chevy Biscayne station wagon. Stylin’, eh? Actually, I wish I had it now, but it was totaled a couple years later as my brother was driving me back to college in Lawrence—we were hit head-on by a senile guy in a Cadillac. Fortunately, the speeds involved were low enough nobody was really hurt. - It’s Friday night, where were you?
In a car parked in a farm field west of town, with a slightly different group of friends. Drinking sloe gin or Colt .45 malt liquor or something equally nasty. - Were you a party animal?
Despite what you might think from #4, no. We didn’t really drink that much, and real parties were strictly policed by everyone’s parents. - Were you considered a flirt?
Oh, no. I was the quiet guy in glasses pretending not to know the answers to the teacher’s questions, so people wouldn’t hate me. - Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Actually, right before senior year is when I started playing drums. I got a summer job and bought a used Japanese drumkit (when Japanese = shit) with the money. I can only thank my family and neighbors for putting up with the noise—how they stood it, I can’t imagine. Fortunately, I could already sort of keep a beat. Some friends were starting a band, so I started to play right away. To answer the question, I was in Stage Band, which was voluntary and after school hours. There was only one other guy who auditioned to play drums. The drum charts were really only a map of how many bars were in the song, and were literally notated as quarter notes on the bass and snare drums. The other guy played what was written, while I (not really being able to read music) just played a swing beat by ear. I got the gig. Then, second semester, they were doing stuff where you actually had to read, and the other guy got it. But real band, orchestra, or choir? No. - Were you a nerd?
Oh, yes. - And there’s no 9….
She’s right. Was that something to do with a Beatles album? Never mind, too obscure. - Can you sing the fight song?
I guess we had a fight song. I remember some kind of chant like “West High has no fears, follow the Pioneers.” Yikes! - Who were your favorite teachers?
My best teacher was my math teacher, junior and senior years, but I can’t remember his last name (his first name was Jimmy. Why I remember that I have no idea, because we certainly didn’t call him that). He lived with his mother, wore starched white shirts with the fold marks still in them, usually with half the shirttail coming out of his pants, chalk dust on his face, and hair in disarray—and he was a fucking brilliant teacher. He showed us how math lives in the physical world. The walls of the classroom were intersecting planes, the students’ positions in class could be specified by polar coordinates, and so on. Many of my teachers were arrogant, self-satisfied prigs, putting in their time, but not him. He may have been a complete social misfit, but he could teach like nobody’s business. - Where did you sit during lunch?
At a table. Duh. Oh, is this a social question? The people I hung out with were the smart kids, the honor students. Some of them were actually quite popular, but we weren’t the in-crowd by any means. - What was your school’s full name?
Wichita West High School - School mascot?
The Pioneer (West—get it? hurhurhur) - Did you go to Prom?
No, I got together with a couple friends and drank horrible stuff like sloe gin or Boone’s Farm. Or both. I didn’t get drunk, though one of my friends passed out and threw up something that looked like cough syrup. We had to clean him up and take care of him. - If you could go back and do it over, would you?
No, please, no! - What do you remember most about graduation?
All I really remember is that it was in a huge, echoey arena (Henry Leavitt Arena) and that I felt incredibly self-conscious walking across the stage in front of all those people. Oddly enough, despite 35 years in the music business, I still do. Fortunately there is a drumkit between me and the audience; it helps. —Hmmm, I actually played Leavitt Arena some 18 years after graduation, during the couple months we were opening for Kansas. I just now remembered. - What was your favorite class?
Probably Astronomy. I’ll always remember that late afternoon in fall, looking up at the first-quarter moon as the sun was sinking, my mother driving us back from Halstead (her home town). I suddenly understood, in a physical way, our position on the ball of the planet, illuminated by that sphere of flaming gas on the right, just as the right side of the moon’s sphere, above and in front of us, was illuminated. I suddenly got it, could feel myself on a gigantic ball spinning through space, and I’ve never lost that feeling since. - Where were you on senior skip day?
Did we have a skip day? I think we did, but don’t remember anything about it. - Were you in any clubs?
I was president of Science Club—I think there were two other members. For our first meeting we separated hydrogen from oxygen in water, and then blew it up. All this stuff came raining down from the ceiling, teachers ran in to see if anyone was killed. I think that was the end of Science Club. - Where did you go most often for lunch?
I don’t think we were allowed off campus for lunch. There was a dress code, too—it wasn’t until senior year that girls were allowed to wear pants. I remember the Great Culotte Controversy of my sophomore year. The controversy being that culottes, though they looked like a skirt, were actually (gasp!) pants! I guess that’s what we were fighting for in Vietnam, to keep girls free from pants. - What did you do after graduation?
It might have been my first actual date. I went to a steak house with Kris Ylander and met up with a bunch of friends. I kicked myself many times in the years afterward for not paying more attention to Kris. She was really cool, but I was totally oblivious. Oh well. - When did you graduate?
1970 - Who was your Senior prom date?
You mean my drinking date? I guess it was Nathan and Darell. Darell passed out. - Are you going to your 10-year reunion?
I missed it. And the 20-year, too—I never heard about it until it was over. I think I would have liked going to the 10-year, because I was a sort of up-and-coming rock star at the time; a far cry from the science geek and National Merit finalist I was before (not really, but I guess appearances count). Through the magic of the internets, I was contacted for the 30-year, but didn’t go. - Who was your home room teacher?
I remember our first hour class was our official “home room.” I never understood what home room was supposed to be about, and I don’t remember now what class or teacher that was. - Who will repost this after you?
I’ll be really surprised if anyone does. - Who was your high school sweetheart?
I had crushes on various girls, but was too shy to let them know. I found out later about one girl who had a crush on me, and was like “Ewwwww!” I’m sure that’s how it would have been if I had let any of my crushes know what was up. - Do you still talk to people from high school?
No. College is where I met my lifelong friends, and where I really established who I was as a person. Eric (remember Eric? From #1?) did transfer to KU from Friends University of Central Kansas (FU of CK) after a couple years, and we even lived in the same schol hall. He became a doctor and moved to western Kansas for a number of years. It’s been several years since I’ve seen him—always at a college friends party—though it’s always nice when we do get together.
Comments
I enjoyed reading that. I'm surprised how much you remember. I don't think I could answer quite a few of those.
Posted by: Ellen | June 20, 2007 10:53 PM
I enjoyed reading it, too. If I still had a blog, I'd take a stab at re-posting (#27).
I do remember our school's fight song - not the words, just what it was: "On Urbana", to the tune of "On Wisconsin". My dorky friends and I refused to sing it because Paul McCartney made money every time that song was played. (That was before he sold all those songs to Michael Jackson.)
Posted by: Elle | June 21, 2007 10:18 AM
Ellen, thanks for the comment. A lot came back as I wrote the thing, which is why I wandered so far off topic a lot of the time.
Elle, I miss your blog.... If you'd like to take a stab at posting your responses as a comment here, I'd approve it. No shortage of pixels on the internet.
Posted by: pat | June 21, 2007 12:33 PM
I'm THIS CLOSE to starting another blog, Pat. I just gotta figure out how to balance my need to share with the need for discretion/anonymity.
Maybe WordPress.com is the way to go; selected posts can be password-protected for the Cool Kids only (among whom you're included, of course).
Posted by: Elle | June 22, 2007 02:51 PM