This is the first time I’ve ever played meme, but I was tagged by Alex and I just couldn’t resist this one.
IN YOUR SENIOR YEAR…
1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes, I dated Scott Elder. I got my first speeding ticket driving his car when he, his friend Harry and I drove from graduation to a party at Stan O’Grady’s summer house in New Jersey. I was doing about 7,000 mph and a cop pulled me over. I was shaking so badly I couldn’t find my driver’s license in my purse, and so rattled that I said “Oh, fuck” out loud and then had to apologize to the policeman. I think he was vastly amused. He let me go with a warning.
I still speed. Clearly, I did not learn my lesson that day.
2. Did you marry someone from your high school? Oh my goodness, no. It’s eyebrow-raising to think how different my life would be right now.
3. Did you carpool to school? No, I went to a prep school in New England, and lived in various dorms for the four years I was there.
4. What kind of car did you have? Checker Taxi was everyone’s car, we weren’t allowed to have cars on campus.
5. What kind of car do you have now? A 1993 Toyota Paseo.
6. Its Friday night…where are you now? At home with my sweetie.
7. It is Friday night…where were you then? In my room doing homework (we had Saturday morning classes), or in the Coffeehouse, the student hangout on campus, smoking cigarettes and drinking Coca-Cola.
8. What kind of job did you have in high school? We weren’t allowed to have paid jobs while we were in school, but there was a rotating system of work. Let’s see. I waited on tables at dinner at least 3 times. We had 4 “seated meals” a week, with an assigned table presided over by a faculty member. Students got a new table assignment every week. If you were a waiter, you did it for an entire term. It sounds hokey, but it was actually a really good system for meeting other kids, other faculty, practicing social skills, and just basically staying engaged with the wider community.
I also washed dishes several nights, raked leaves… I think that’s about it.
During summers, I made some money by working with my dad at the Tri-County Fair in Northhampton, MA. Maybe more about that someday in a post.
9. What kind of job do you do now? I write fiction, essays and screenplays. And I’m the Managing Partner of Humans At Work, LLC.
10. Were you a party animal? In sophomore and junior year, I certainly did my share of partying. But I was elected secretary of the senior class, and class officers were expected to model good behavior, which included not breaking the rules. And so for most of the year, I kept myself out of the parties, which meant that I was far out of the mainstream of weekend social interaction. It was actually really hard. Finally, in late spring, after an undefeated crew season, I said Oh, fuck this and went to the ginormous crew celebration party and drank a lot, and it was great. I wish I’d done it sooner.
11. Were you considered a flirt? Oh, yikes, no. I was very shy and reserved. I wanted to be a flirt but didn’t have any of the body confidence required.
12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Nope.
13. Were you a nerd? No.
14. Did you get suspended or expelled? No. But one of my responsibilities as a class officer was to serve as an advisory member on the school Disciplinary Committee (faculty did all the voting), and people did get suspended/expelled on my watch (although not on my advice — I thought expulsion ought to be reserved for things like assault, not drugs or alcohol).
15. Can you sing the fight song? We did not have one, for which I am grateful.
16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? M. Hurtgen, Mr. Katzenbach, Mr. Davis (as a coach, I never had him as a teacher), Mr. Carlisle, Mr. Lederer, M. Duguay.
17. Where did you sit during lunch? With friends if any of them happened to be in the cafeteria at the same time — we all had individual schedules, it was more like college than like public HS that way. But I always had a book with me and was happy to read over lunch.
18. What was your school’s full name? St. Paul’s School.
19. When did you graduate? 1978.
20. What was your school mascot? None. I think mascots are strange.
21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? If I had to go back and repeat high school, I would absolutely go back and do SPS again. In a heartbeat. Going there is still one of the five best choices I’ve ever made.
22. Did you have fun at Prom? Well, we didn’t really have an official prom. We did throw ourselves a big spring dance, but it was open to the whole school. I went with Scott. He had been drinking, and at one point we were dancing to a disco song (it was the 70’s, we were allowed), and he tried to dip me and dropped me instead.
23. Do you still talk to the person you went to prom with? No, which is too bad. We’ve never attended reunions at the same time. Last I heard, he was married with 3 kids and working in Hong Kong.
Actually, I’d really like to talk to Jordie, my first boyfriend at school. But he won’t respond to my emails. I hurt his feelings badly, and have regretted it for years. I’d also like to talk to John.
24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? I’d like to, but it’s a long trip. We’ll see. I always have a good time.
25. Do you still talk to people from school? Absolutely. Our class actually has a private email group, and we’re planning a service project in Concord NH (where the school is located) to get together and help build a public-assistance dental clinic (similar to a Habitat for Humanity project). I hope I can be part of that.
26. School colors? Maroon and white.
27. What celebrities came from your high school? Tons. Rich elite New England prep school, after all. Judd Nelson, John Stockwell, Michael Kennedy, John Kerry, Rick Moody, Gary Trudeau, the list goes on.
I’m not tagging people — I’m just no fun that way — but feel free to comment if you want to tell a high school story, or leave a link to your blog if you decide to answer these questions.
Wow, I could never answer these questions because high school was such an incredibly horrible experience for me that I ended up dropping out in my junior year. I don’t remember the name of one teacher or fellow student, either.
High school * shudder *
I wrote down the questions so I could remember them: I did not date in highschool. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t marry someone from my highschool. I walked to school or rode the bus. My family only had one car, and my Dad drove it to work. Now I drive a 1990 Ford Taurus, It’s Friday night and I’m at work. I work in a group home for people with mental illness and disability. I liked parties and went to quite a few. See above re: slow bloomer. I was in band. I loved school. I wanted approval. I was not expelled. Our school fight was “On Wisconsin”(?). Our school song was Deep Purple. My favorite teachers were Mrs. Greenspan, Mr. Mensch, Mrs. Newman and Mr. Murdoch. My school was Manzano High School. The mascot was a lion(monarch, get it?). I didn’t go to the prom(see above, etc.). I still talk to and see several people from high school. Our school colors were purple, white and silver. No celebrities graduated from my high school, including me. Well, that turned out to be interesting.
Hm, you and I grew up in completely different worlds.
Kelly, St. Paul’s was a completely different world for me than the one I grew up in. It was a mind-bending experience in pretty much every way, most of them good. It changed my life completely.
Barbara, am curious what made them your favorite teachers? That was one my hardest questions to answer — I liked most of my teachers well enough, but am not sure that there were real standouts for me in HS the way there were in grammar school… Still thinking about it.
Colleen, I know how lucky I was, for sure. Many people I know had a miserable time in HS. I was still an adolescent with all the usual special moments that brings (*shudder*), but at least I got to be one in a place like St. Paul’s. I will always bless my parents for being willing to let me go — it was hard for them, and very loving.
My high school was in a small town, some horrible teachers and some good ones. It was such a terrible time that I actually have a hard time believing that any adult ever has positive emotions about their high school.
But if I force myself to think about it objectively, the one thing that coloured the entire teenage experience was the disappearance (still unsolved, though certainly murder) of a girl my age. Of course there was no counseling available, not in 1982, and no adult ever reached out to any of us girls as far as I know. It made life pretty damn dark for all of us.
Why Mrs. Greenspan, Mr. Mensch, Mrs. Newman and Mr. Murdoch were my favorite teachers. Mrs. Newman was my latin teacher, and she was larger than life. She studied to be a doctor. She got a Masters degree in drama and was a cheerleader at Yale. I should also mention that she wae old-probably 55!
Mr. Mensch taught me to write(and to read). He never talked down, but simply led your best effort out of you.
Mrs. Greenspan was a newer generation of feminist. My senior paper for her was on Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. She was an empathetic person, which made her perfect for teens filled with angst.
Mr. Murdoch was an ironic realist who patiently chipped away at our black and white political idealism. And he did it with humor, not with put downs.
I hpoe that gave you a little bit of a picture.
I bailed on this after the first few. Did I date someone from my own class?
I dated no one all through high school.
Subsequently I did not go to my prom.
Evidently I was a nerd, but pretended obstinately that I wasn’t.
I had a beat to crap ’62 VW my senior year which couldn’t speed if I’d wanted to.
However, my best friend was in two classes with me in high school, so that was a highlight.
I’ve never gone to a reunion and they’ve stopped asking me.
High school is supposed to be this profound seminal experience for people, and I suppose it was for me, too, but not in a particularly good way. The obsessiveness with which many people cling to those years baffles me a bit, but also makes me wonder what it was I lacked that caused me to miss the point.
On the other hand, nothing I’ve done (at least professionally) since then has much to do directly with high school. I was writing before I got there, they offered no photography classes, and none of the connections I was supposed to have made ever crossed my path later.
Huh.
Kelly, how awful. My boarding school was my whole world — a small town in its own way, a very close community — and I don’t know what I would have done or felt if one of our own had just disappeared. Especially if no adults would talk about it.
Barbara, your teachers sound fabulous. Thanks for sharing.
I have memories like this of some teachers from grammar school, but I’m not sure how I would characterize my “favorite” teachers in HS, and I’m honestly not sure how much I learned from them beyond book learning. It seems like most of my lessons of that time came from my peers. But perhaps I am simply not stepping back far enough to see a bigger picture.
Mark, I don’t think it’s HS per se that we’re all obsessed with, it’s adolescence. I’m guessing that any common social experience of that age would get the same kind of airplay that HS does.
I am so glad I don’t have to be fifteen again!
—I am so glad I donât have to be fifteen again!—-
Abso-frakkin–lutely!
I guess in the interest of truth I should mention that my parents were both alcoholics, so I wanted to get the hell out of the house and would have spent 16 hours a day in school if I could. My friends and teachers couldn’t help me with that because I never ever talked about it. Funny what motivations make you love learning.