D’s Wayback Machine part 1
Okay then, here is the first of a round of posts based on the yearbooks I have sitting around. Let’s start with some kids of whom I actually have memories beyond just their names. It has been quite awhile since my junior high years so unfortunately my memory won’t take us as far as I’d like…
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The guy above would be none other than my best friend in my intermediate years. Sorry C, but I hadn’t met you yet and beside, you were still a tyke in 2nd or 3rd grade at this time. J and I were practically inseparable. Unfortunately after 7th grade he moved to live with his dad. I never met his dad, but I was jealous to hear how he had an Atari with a ton of games. Well, I had an Atari too, but not so many games. One time our boy scout troop was away at camp and we were trying to live Indian style (hey, political correctness was not the behemoth it is today so we didn’t use the friendly Native-American term). Anyway, most of us wore breechcloths- no I don’t know what tribe(s) used breechcloths instead of pants. While most wore them over shorts, J and I didn’t! 😯
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This guy started off disliking me in 6th grade for some reason. He would call me something then run away, and I would chase after him. Eventually we became friends. We used to hang out at the teen center through this time and in high school.
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This is someone else who started of as sort of an enemy in elementary school. As in the last photo though, T and I became friends. He lived in an apartment by the railroad tracks with his mom. There was one time I invited him over, then went into my back yard to climb a tree. That was the time I fell down 12 feet to the ground from a lower branch. My bones must have been made of rubber because I broke not a single one, though I was dazed when he arrived.
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Someone likes striped shirts… These two weren’t friends with me, but were best friends themselves. They belonged to a different boy scout troop, one that met at a nearby church instead of the junior high. At least their troop didn’t fold like ours… The first one above told me at one time in 4th or 5th grade that he could be friends with anyone. Then I asked if we could do something at his or my house sometime. He was “busy” on each day I proposed. I guess I wasn’t a part of “anyone.” Together, the two of them shared the names of an famous cartoon duo.
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He wasn’t a friend of mine either, but for some reason I wanted to imitate this guy in 8th grade- I have no idea why. He must have been new to the school for 8th grade, as he isn’t in the other two yearbooks.
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I wrote something rude on this guy’s 8th-grade photo, though I don’t remember crossing paths with him. I do know we were in the same music class in 8th grade, and one of the assignments was to take a rock song, find the lyrics and discuss them after playing the song in class. I chose a song by The Police. He chose one by Iron Maiden. After that Iron Maiden was my favorite band.
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This one was in cub scouts with me I think- I’m pretty sure it wasn’t boy scouts. He was someone with a similar personality to mine, which is to say introverted. However, we didn’t become good friends though I’m sure we did hang out together occasionally around this time period. A few years ago I subbed for his mom in near-urban district. I remember picking up a book in her room and thinking, “hey- this is the book we used in 7th grade language arts with all the stupid sentence diagramming.” I opened the cover and there was his name. I just have to wonder why he never turned the book in at the end of the year…
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I do not have fond memories of this guy. He lived in the house behind ours and a couple over. I wrote something rude about him in my 8th grade yearbook, but not on one of the main photos.
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This is another one of whom I have less than happy memories. In fact, I guess he was sort of my nemesis. He came up with a creative unpleasant nickname for me based on an incident at shower time after gym class. Not one of those “you’re growing up and your body is changing” incidents, but nonetheless, I am not going to share… He ticked me off enough that a couple of times I had him on the ground punching his face. He is the only one I ever had a fist fight with. Thankfully I never saw him again after junior high. Oh, I wrote something rude on his 8th-grade photo too (smart-***). I guess I was just mean that year. :/
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The only girl this time around, she lived about a block from the school. She makes my memory list for this reason- one time my friend J and I decided to walk to an arcade in the next town over, about four miles away. Afterward, we walked back and we had an amazingly stupid idea to hitch a ride back. Her mom was the one who picked us up- J knew it but I didn’t. Oddly enough, she did not report this back to our parents.
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Well, that’s it for now. I’ll see what other memories I can dig up for all of you for future posts. 🙂