| The Nerd Years 1985-89 |
| Well, unlike the previous section, I am not gonna bore you with a lot of the academic wahoo. All you need to know is that in middle school I averaged a 3.5 GPA, was a member of the band (trumpet player), breakdancing team, and student council, and participated in the science fair three years in a row. My first years of high school I averaged a 3.2 GPA, was in the choir and drama club, took German and was an Air Force ROTC cadet. Capiche? All right, now on to the good stuff. Please don't ask me why, but I wore bow ties and plaid shirts frequently in middle school. The bow ties I think was a result of watching too many of those Penny Singleton/Arthur Lake "Blondie" movies as a kid. The plaid shirts were Mom's doing. 'Nuff said. I was becoming addicted to the cartoon and toy line "Transformers". During my middle school years I would buy, sell, and trade them like a drug dealer. I served as the "geeker", where I would perform the transactions and serve as the liaison between my classmates and my friends that did not attend Starling. Some trades went well, others sucked. Well, my "nerdy" demeanor (read: not a "boy in the hood") would get me into a lot of fights. And I was not a person that I would allow myself to have someone hit me; I would hit back. I have to thank the Three Stooges for "helping" get me out of a lot of mess. I would slap two or three people at one, bop heads together, flex a bicep and point to it, saying, "See that?", then sucker-punching the fool. I even gave one person two fingers to the eyes. I did not play around either. By the spring of 1987, I graduated from Starling, and Stooges and Transformers took a back seat to something I never really paid attention to until I realized these funny, yet delicious feelings I got every time I saw a particular group of people. Yes, GIRLS! UM-HMMMM and UM-UM-UM. With brassieres and legs. Even the ugly ones were looking mighty fine once they developed. When I attended East High that fall, the one girl who was my complete opposite stepped into the picture. Her name was Kimberly Harris and while I won't go into detail about our misadventures, suffice it to say that we had a Steve Urkel/Laura Winslow relationship, even though they were unheard of at the time. But by the end of my ninth grade year, I got tired of my futile attempts to pursue her and decided to run around "hollerin'" at girls like a sailor at port on an island full of beautiful women--without any real success. I also began taking personal accounts of my daily events by keeping a diary. While nothing spectacular happened in my life during these years, it was a great chronicle source for my teen years. I was also actually beginning to like rap music (something I previously called "acknowledged garbage"). My ninth grade year was highlighted by my school play roles: Heartbleed Haymeadow in "The Saga of Sagebrush Sal" and a dance extra in "The Wiz". I have a copy of the play "The Wiz" and I honestly must say that I danced like an epileptic patient on speed. In other words, I tried too hard. My tenth grade year was highlighted by my participation in Air Force Junior ROTC as a cadet--which were nicknamed "Rot-C Rangers" and "Nerds in Blue". Sadly, my biggest goal in high school was to get a girlfriend and lose my virginity. The former was accomplished July 31, 1989, (and lasted about 35 days), the latter would not occur for another six years. I also got my first kiss at that time. Ah, memories. As the year 1989 came to a close, the nerdiness would be relatively more reserved, but my personal image would be more defined, as you will see here...... Back to Page 2 Back to main page |