high-school survey making the rounds

[cellio]

From a few people, most recently osewalrus, some questions about high school.

1. Who was your best friend?
Lori D, who was a year ahead of me. We were in the drama group together.

2. What sports did you play?
Ha. Right.

3. What kind of car did you drive?
Ha. Right. :-) Well, if my parents needed to have an errand run I drove one of their cars: either the land yacht (Country Squire wagon) or, if I got to choose, the little Ford Pinto with the manual transmission (we didn't yet know about the exploding gas tanks).

4. It's Friday night, where were you?
Usually at home.

5. Were you a party animal?
Nope -- neither by inclination nor by invitation.

6. Were you considered a flirt?
No. (I didn't know how to play that game anyway.)

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
No to band; didn't have orchestra or choir. (There was a mandatory middle-school choir from which I engineered my explusion because it was that bad.)

8. Were you a nerd?
Math nerd, language nerd, and bookworm. You know Jason Fox in Foxtrot? If he'd existed then he would have been my hero. Not so much for the stuff with the iguana and his sister, but the school stuff is spot on.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
No. I liked learning, and I thought that if I kept showing up I might get some. :-)

10. Can you sing the fight song?
Err, there was a fight song?

11. Who was your favorite teacher?

That would be Mr. Weed, who taught English, debate, and parliamentary procedure, and who was the faculty advisor for the drama group. He was smart and direct, qualities I admired (and admire). He challenged me. He was willing to treat me like an adult, which included enforcing the down-side of that. (Hey, you wanna play with the big boys, you follow those rules...) I've tried to track him down to say thanks belatedly, but his name is too darn common and I have no idea where (or, sigh, if) he's living.

12. Who was your home room teacher?
I have no idea.

13. What was your school's full name?
So far as I know, it was just [Town] High School.

14. School mascot?
A cartoon character associated with a local power company. I kid you not.

15. Did you go to Prom?
No.

16. Who was your Senior prom date?
See above.

17. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
Heavens no. It took me years to realize that the world isn't as bad as that.

18. What do you remember most about graduation?
Tape-recording my valedictorian speech for my grandmother, who was sick and couldn't be there. Oh, and the newspaper -- which had been given copies of the speeches -- corrupting their quote from mine to introduce a grammatical error. Hmpf.

19. Where were you on senior skip day?
In college.

20. Did you have a job your senior year?
I was a typesetter for the college newspaper that year.

21. Where did you go most often for lunch?
We ate in the school cafeteria. The idea of students being permitted to leave the school at all during the school day was foreign.

22. Have you gained weight since then?
About 30 pounds.

23. What did you do after graduation?
Summer job (sub shop), then college.

24 When did you graduate?
Early '80s.

25. Have you kept in touch with anyone from high school since graduating?
Lori D (the person from question #1), until several years ago when I realized that our lives had drastically diverged, we had nothing in common except a past, and her husband the evangelist was getting under my skin. If I were a better person I would have said something instead of just drifting away, but I could never find the words to say.

26. Are you going/did you go to your 10 year reunion?
No, haven't gone to any of them.

Comments

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

More of similar stuff can be found in this old post in my LJ (http://dr-zrfq.livejournal.com/18055.html).

1. Who was your best friend?
Didn't have just one: Carl, Molson, George, Joe.

2. What sports did you play?
Pickup sports? Almost anything. An actual HS team? Sub on the varsity golf team my senior year.

3. What kind of car did you drive?
One of my parents' cars, and only the last 3 months of senior year (once I had my license). We too had a Country Squire wagon, and we also had a Plymouth Volare, which I nearly totalled 3 days before graduation (I fought the car off the embankment, thus saving it from flipping over, which would have totalled it *and* me -- but it hit a wall instead).

4. It's Friday night, where were you?
At a game (in the band), or on the road (going to visit family), or at a friend's house (playing RPGs and other games), or at home (playing piano).

5. Were you a party animal?
Not really, but I wasn't uninvited.

6. Were you considered a flirt?
Not in high school. I was about as unflirty as it got. Never had any luck with girls, and it didn't matter that much to me.

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Band and choir all 4 years. Diocesan Honor Band last 3. District and State Choir my senior year. Orchestra, freshman year only (after which it disbanded).

8. Were you a nerd?
All sorts of nerd. Math nerd, science nerd, word nerd, music nerd, theater nerd, and so on. Not that it mattered much to me, or to my classmates.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
No, but I did get in trouble, and graduated with an unserved detention.

10. Can you sing the fight song?
No, but I can probably still play the trombone part.

11. Who was your favorite teacher?
Hands down, my senior year science teacher, Mr. Rosenberger. Also the assistant band director at the time.

12. Who was your home room teacher?
Senior year it was my junior-year English teacher, much to her chagrin. Can't remember the others.

13. What was your school's full name?
Allentown Central Catholic High School (http://www.acchs.info/).

14. School mascot?
Viking.

15. Did you go to Prom?
No.

16. Who was your Senior prom date?
See above.

17. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
Overall, no. If I did, I'd really only change minor things; not worth it.

18. What do you remember most about graduation?
Hot. Noise from all the built-in fans near the gym ceiling. Giving what was apparently the shortest valedictory speech in the history of the school, and nearly getting in trouble with the teachers for what I said. (But I had the valediction, so I'd already officially graduated!)

19. Where were you on senior skip day?
At an honors banquet. So I *did* skip, but I had a legit excuse...

20. Did you have a job your senior year?
Teaching piano to younger kids.

21. Where did you go most often for lunch?
School cafeteria, or sometimes we'd go up to the calculus teacher's office overlooking the caf. As it was for you, the idea of students being permitted to leave the school at all during the school day was foreign; we weren't even allowed to go down to the parking lot.

22. Have you gained weight since then?
About 70 pounds.

23. What did you do after graduation?
Tried unsuccessfully to find a summer job, then college.

24 When did you graduate?
Early '80s.

25. Have you kept in touch with anyone from high school since graduating?
Still exchange cards with Molson and occasionally George. I suspect there's one old HS friend on LiveJournal.

26. Are you going/did you go to your 10 year reunion?
I went to my 5, 10, 15, and 20 year reunions.