8th & 9th grade, where the mischief began. Actually, it was that dang junior high school, especially with a tradition of after school detention (going to Williams Market) and being present for high school football games. The temptations came at us in stereo and we were quick to jump on board. Well, at least I was. It's shameful to admit, but 9th grade woke me up - I passed out on Jack Daniels early on a Sunday morning doing what idiots do at that age...
...act irresponsibly.
I still name that event as one of the better things that ever happened to me, though. I learned young to refocus on education, a purpose in life, my mission, and the future. I can see as an older me that the phase at NSJH was short-lived, but anyone who goes through the hallways aren't as lucky. Some disappeared by 10th grade. Others never made it to graduation. And of course, reunions share more of the story. What began in the junior high school took some lives because they never left that world.
Phew. That's a hard truth.
So, I went through weight-gain in puberty, then extreme weight loss in my junior year, until finding recreational running in my senior year to keep me at a nice balance.
But junior high.
I am still dreaming about Ms. Coffin (Earth Science) and the rocks we all studied and wanted to throw at her. I am also thinking of Ms. Clapsaddle (photography) who had a wonderful wandering eye that I inherited myself. I still appreciate when Nadia Craft sends me an eyeball for my birthday saying, "Hey, Crandall. You eye found its way back to California again."
Touché.
Mrs. Bradley and Frau Sonich were wonderful German teachers, and there I met Melanie Nappa (clogged danced with her at a State competition in fact) and wouldn't reunite with her until we were seniors and worked with a local social work office to provide peer counseling with kids who didn't always have the best circumstances. Ah, then decades later, we found ourselves both with PhDs from Syracuse University and, for a short while, I had the privilege of seeing her when her daughter came to Fairfield (that was short-lived...hard to be in a community with so little art and diversity). But I loved those visits. She's a NSJH/CNS/SU sister. We're just two stories from north of Syracuse.
And I think this is why I keep keepsakes - they trigger so much, and I can remember the smells, the moments (1st kiss during a color guard show from a very aggressive girl from Central Square under the tree of the auditorium). I also am thinking of a classmate who I was close with at this time who didn't fair so well, and who recently passed with the addictions begun in those days. Dang. It's a lot. Bless the souls of the Nighthawks still processing this life thing. I'm lucky to also have a Northstar within. Melanie even married one of the Captains, now doing dental work in CNY raising their beautiful daughters.
So, with that. I'm off. 3-days of marathoning, followed by a weekend of grading, so I can end a rather perplexing June (who glimmers of Hope...ah, Hope Wins!)