School (or Glory Days)

High school is big down here in the south (high school football bigger than that). I think it is bigger in most areas of the country than in the Northeast, though I think I may not be a good one to judge that.

Was high school a big deal to you?

Perhaps I underestimate it's influence but here's how I see high school as I reflect back on it:
First, as my previous post states, my memory isn't all that and high school doesn't seem to enter my mind very much.
Second, my mind drifts back to elementary school and seems to me to have been a bigger influence on me than high school.
Third, college was more important to me than high school.

As for reunions, I'd certainly like to attend them more than I have, but being out of state limits my availability, however, lots of times, some of the people you want to see don't attend. And of your fellow classmates, those that you haven't continued friendships with into adulthood, we really don't know each other at all, do we?

But why does elementary school have such a pull on me? For a number of years in my thirties (perhaps the aging process?) I was even fixated on those years. So much so, that I thought about going back to my old school and obtaining a print that sits on the wall from when I was in second grade donated by a family of a classmate who died along with her parents in a plan crash that year. I did go back and visit the school to look at the print, though no one there knew anything about its history (which is why I thought of obtaining it, at least it had some meaning to me if not anyone currently or attending in the future).

Director Michael Apted (Thunderheart, The World is Not Enough and the forth coming third installment of the Narnia series) created the documentary Up series where he interviewed 14 seven year olds and has followed up with them every 7 years since 1964. "The premise of the film was taken from the Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man," which is based on a quotation by Francis Xavier."

Perhaps this is why I seem to get fixated on the elementary years. Perhaps these are really the years that forge who we are. And as previously mentioned, I can recall more from those years than from high school.

I went to Mount View Road Elementary School in Morris Plains, NJ (I lived in Cedar Knolls and based on location was able to walk to school) from 1970 to 1976. We buried a time capsule under a new tree planted in the parking lot--if I recall correctly, I was the second to last person to sign it, I think John C. was the last, but I could be wrong.

In second grade, Karen D. was my "girlfriend" (you know how that goes)--Paul D. would make fun of her and I'd chase him around in her gallant defense. I remember she moved after that year across town and attended a new school--I recall being crushed.

Paula S. would chase Steven S. through the swing sets trying to kiss him. I got my ass kicked by Jeff G. who was a couple of years older than me (I psuedo "dated" his sister Susie in 4th grade).

Mrs. Hamilton pulled my hair backstage during a play once for talking too loud, in second grade. Karen Jo W. moved to the area and during a talent show one year she sang "Over the Rainbow" in a most beautiful voice (she's one I'd like to see at a HS reunion). Frank S. and I played a clarinet duo that same talent show. Doug S. broke his leg one year and couldn't walk around the school during the Halloween parade. In third grade I had a huge crush on Patty W. who started school with her sister Lauren--the same year Vin P. started school and for some reason he and I didn't hit it off, I think I was jealous of him for some reason.

My good friends those years: Tommy H. (whose oldest brother died in a car crash years later-he was a great guy too), Rob D., Rob M, Kevin M., Frank S. (who died in a car crash during high school), Paul D, Paul L. and Pete C. (who were a year older), Denise T. who is my oldest, continuous friend (we've known each other since Kindergarten).

In those days, Mount View was also open during the summer-the true "summer school" which was strictly for recreation. We'd spend nearly every day playing softball, all of us along with Chris C., Billy C., Ed M., Rick L., Ted C., Greg D. and others. And we'd curse like sailors, F'in everything. It was marvelous. And we'd leave in the morning and come home at night without our parents wondering where we were or worrying if anything happened to us.

Yet, if I try, I can't really pull the same level memories of high school...those years seem so inconsequential, as if they never happened. (Though I do recall a bunch of us staring at Marisa C.'s ass-she was a grade below us-one day through the glass door and pointing this out the Mr. Shoe--and a fine ass it was.)

Even my dreams, on occasion, will pull in these elementary year friends and fellow students more than from the high school years.

So, while the media makes HS seem so important and my impression is that to the rest of the country HS is important, is it the same for us from the Northeast or is it just me who doesn't seem to think so?

PS
All this reflecting and confessing makes me think of one other thing I'll throw in as a confession: during middle school (6th grade) thru HS, I always had, to one degree or another, a crush on Christine F.--to the point where I always thought it would be cool to make love to her in the grass on a warm summer day when it would do that really light warm misty shower even though the sky was really black.

TMI, I know...sorry....