Half Days In High School Are Not Good
My elementary and secondary education was a little jumbled. K-First, public school. Second-fifth, a Catholic (not in the "universal" sense) school the next town over, back to public for sixth-eighth, then over to another Catholic (FOUR towns over) joint for high school.
With the high school being a half-hour away, there was not a lot of dispute with my parents about my driving at sixteen. When I was legal to drive, I was commuting, no question. For a brief time, I carpooled (gave rides to) this girl from the next town over, who had also attended the parochial elementary school. One day, our high school had some sort of half day in-service deal and I was going to drop her off at home, when she had the idea to visit the public school in her town, who had a full day. I figured, sure, why not, seeing as I knew a bunch of folks there too, having attended the small catholic school in the same city and hadn't seen some of them in quite some time.
So- we stop by her house- she wanted to change before going over there. Now- this is the point where, in some sort of movie, this would become something. Instead, it was more the something where I remembered that, at the time A&E was running episodes of early 80s Late Night With David Letterman in the afternoons and she had cable and I was instead annoyed that she didn't take long to get ready, so I couldn't see the entire show that they did from their offices because the studio was too warm. Oh well.
We drive over to the high school- it's around lunch time. It is awkward. She is wearing normal clothes. I am in dress code (no jeans, no t-shirts, no sneakers) and feeling out of place and also realizing that, well, sometimes high schools do not like random visitors (even before Columbine and 9/11, when we all changed and as a nation. Together. Remember that? Yes.). We went to the cafeteria, she found her friends. I found a few of the people I'd not seen in years. One of them- the first thing he said was- "Dude. Your hair is messed up." He was right, of course- it was this strange early 90s mushroom/afro deal, but still, this guy had been one of my best friends a few years before and this was a bit off-putting, you can't go home again and all that. The bell rings, everyone goes off, including the person I'd come there with, who'd just gone off to someone's class and I was just kind of standing there. No idea what to do. Wandered the halls for a bit, until some teacher or assistant something or other asked who I was and what I was doing. I got flustered and nervous and apologized and just left and drove home.
I never saw that entire Late Night episode, which was the most annoying thing about the whole deal. I think Terri Garr ended up taking a shower in Letterman's office, but I'm not sure. I heard she has MS now, or something.
With the high school being a half-hour away, there was not a lot of dispute with my parents about my driving at sixteen. When I was legal to drive, I was commuting, no question. For a brief time, I carpooled (gave rides to) this girl from the next town over, who had also attended the parochial elementary school. One day, our high school had some sort of half day in-service deal and I was going to drop her off at home, when she had the idea to visit the public school in her town, who had a full day. I figured, sure, why not, seeing as I knew a bunch of folks there too, having attended the small catholic school in the same city and hadn't seen some of them in quite some time.
So- we stop by her house- she wanted to change before going over there. Now- this is the point where, in some sort of movie, this would become something. Instead, it was more the something where I remembered that, at the time A&E was running episodes of early 80s Late Night With David Letterman in the afternoons and she had cable and I was instead annoyed that she didn't take long to get ready, so I couldn't see the entire show that they did from their offices because the studio was too warm. Oh well.
We drive over to the high school- it's around lunch time. It is awkward. She is wearing normal clothes. I am in dress code (no jeans, no t-shirts, no sneakers) and feeling out of place and also realizing that, well, sometimes high schools do not like random visitors (even before Columbine and 9/11, when we all changed and as a nation. Together. Remember that? Yes.). We went to the cafeteria, she found her friends. I found a few of the people I'd not seen in years. One of them- the first thing he said was- "Dude. Your hair is messed up." He was right, of course- it was this strange early 90s mushroom/afro deal, but still, this guy had been one of my best friends a few years before and this was a bit off-putting, you can't go home again and all that. The bell rings, everyone goes off, including the person I'd come there with, who'd just gone off to someone's class and I was just kind of standing there. No idea what to do. Wandered the halls for a bit, until some teacher or assistant something or other asked who I was and what I was doing. I got flustered and nervous and apologized and just left and drove home.
I never saw that entire Late Night episode, which was the most annoying thing about the whole deal. I think Terri Garr ended up taking a shower in Letterman's office, but I'm not sure. I heard she has MS now, or something.