High School
2017 - The following was written in June of 2017.
High school was a bit nerve wracking at first because I was going to public school after having gone through 8 years of Holy Name. I was leaving just about all of the people I knew and it was scary. However, I soon realized that so many people at Classical were awesome, including the teachers. I know a lot of people hate high school but my time was filled with great memories.
9-12th Grade - Classical High School - Springfield, Massachusetts
Some time after graduating from Holy Name we had to move to Rittenhouse Terrace. I don't really remember when but it was probably during or after 9th grade because I remember walking to school at least once and there's no way I would have done that from Rittenhouse Terrace. But, I generally had to take the public bus to go downtown. We would purchase bus tokens and, later, tickets from school to use on the bus. I still have one of those tokens. I can remember that the bus would go down Main St and I had to get off at the bus stop at State and Main and walk up the hill to Classical. If you were particularly lazy you could wait for the bus to take you up the hill! Anyway, I can kind of remember the first day because I remember bumping into Eric Larsen (one of the few besides me from Holy Name) on the way up State street and it was good to see a familiar face.
Classical was an imposing building to be thrust into because not only did it have 4 floors (basement included) but the circuit around each floor seemed extremely long. You had to be very sure of where you were going and what your route was between classes and when you'd be able to go to your locker to drop off one set of heavy books and pick up the next set. That took some masterful planning but you eventually worked it out, even when one class was on the 3rd floor and your next was in the basement on the other side of the building. I am certain that the people putting together your schedule did not give ANY thought to whether you'd make it to class on time! But, what was helpful was that your schedule for each half of the year was set in stone and you could count on each class being at a particular time and on a particular set of days. I mention this because my kids' schedules rotated and it seemed like a huge pain in the ass for them. They just suffered through by dragging along ALL of their books. And their books were larger and heavier than mine because theirs had a bunch of pictures and mine tended to be...less pictury (not a word). Seemed very dumb to me but I guess the idea was to make it so that one kid wouldn't always be sleepy and starving during their 11am math class while another was relatively awake during their 9am math class. So they rotated the pain.
Each of us had a homeroom class which met in the morning for about 15 minutes. My homeroom teacher was Mrs Carol Hoffman, a true beauty inside and out. The kids were essentially divided up by last name so my homeroom basically consisted of people with last names starting with P, Q, and R. Really, the only reason I remember this is because I can look at the alphabetical yearbook and see of string of familiar faces before and after mine! Many years later I realized that a cousin of mine named Elizabeth Roncalli, whom I have never met, was very likely in the next homeroom over. Odd but true. Most of the kids I never really got to know because I only saw them in the morning. Others ended up being in some of my classes so they were a bit more familiar. Another strange but true thing about my homeroom was that Kenny Pooler was in my homeroom. He was the kid who I was almost mistaken for in Holy Name and whose similar moniker almost got my ass kicked!
The bell rang and the mad dash began. There were people everywhere and because your schedule was fixed in time and everyone else's was too, you would cross paths with the same people in the same hallways at the same times like clockwork. And lunch would come at the same time each day and you eventually worked out that ritual, as well. Who would you sit with and where was quickly established and you pretty much sat at the same table all of the time. If you were lucky, your schedule in the 2nd half of the year or even the following year would put you in a similar lunch period (there were 3) and you'd sit with the same kids again and again. The cast would occasionally rotate, though, and you'd lose touch with a particular person. There was Chris Richardson, Mike Hurst, Steve Bacon, Ed Hiney, Rob Jarest and probably some others from time to time. These were my lunchroom buds and we even did some things outside of school, as well. A really good group of friends, especially Mike - he lived near me and we saw each other frequently and even went to college together*. Occasionally, there was a food fight. Big duh - many people had seen Animal House and it was on people's minds!
* Funny side story: So my mom was a bit touched and she once told me she didn't want me hanging around with Mike anymore and I asked why. Well, turns out Mike had facial hair and could grow a beard and she had trouble understanding why I hung around with "that 30 year old". Or, probably more accurately, why a 30 year old wanted to hang around with a teenager! She didn't believe me when I said he was my age. Crazy woman.
Of course there is always some sort of drama to be had and mine involved one lunch I'll never forget. I have to back up, though, and explain Darlene. Darlene was in my English and gym classes in 9th or 10th grade and she was super cute and super nice and, bonus, she would actually talk to me. And she had a cute friend, Kiki, too! Suffice it to say that I was enamored and her small terrycloth gym shorts didn't hurt, either. In English, she and I and Russ Stratton and Adam Feldman made up a kind of cadre in the back corner of Mr. Barnes' class. We had a good time and Mr. Barnes tolerated us pretty well. He actually seems to have still been a teacher in the "new" Central High School in 2015. Awesome for those kids. Back to Darlene. Somehow or another her very large boyfriend named Tony (I think) thought I was making moves on her and he came roaring over to my lunch table one day and very menacingly told me that I'd better stay away from Darlene. Needless to say I stammered that I didn't know what he was talking about and I must have said OK or something placating because he didn't crush my skull. Whew. So, I wasn't technically making any move on her (other than in my head) but I guess I can see where his concern came from. Maybe she mentioned my name one too many times or he saw me hanging around her too much. Anyway, I didn't do too much talking to her after that and it was a bit awkward. She even asked me why and I think I mentioned the incident but I might not have. Who knows? Sorry for that Darlene but he was a scary guy and I was still a fairly scrawny kid. I sure hope she ended up with someone nice because she was a really great girl with a sweet heart.
Gym class was pretty good, I guess. I remember a lot of basketball and volleyball and walking around the block. I was just relieved there was no swimming! The one thing that I carried over from grade school was my lack of desire to take the required shower after gym. I don't know where I got the hangup but it wasn't really until graduate school when I started letting it all hang out, so to speak. Even then, it felt kind of weird. I chalk it up to not wanting to embarrass the other guys with my giant wiener. Cough, cough.
Classical was an imposing building to be thrust into because not only did it have 4 floors (basement included) but the circuit around each floor seemed extremely long. You had to be very sure of where you were going and what your route was between classes and when you'd be able to go to your locker to drop off one set of heavy books and pick up the next set. That took some masterful planning but you eventually worked it out, even when one class was on the 3rd floor and your next was in the basement on the other side of the building. I am certain that the people putting together your schedule did not give ANY thought to whether you'd make it to class on time! But, what was helpful was that your schedule for each half of the year was set in stone and you could count on each class being at a particular time and on a particular set of days. I mention this because my kids' schedules rotated and it seemed like a huge pain in the ass for them. They just suffered through by dragging along ALL of their books. And their books were larger and heavier than mine because theirs had a bunch of pictures and mine tended to be...less pictury (not a word). Seemed very dumb to me but I guess the idea was to make it so that one kid wouldn't always be sleepy and starving during their 11am math class while another was relatively awake during their 9am math class. So they rotated the pain.
Each of us had a homeroom class which met in the morning for about 15 minutes. My homeroom teacher was Mrs Carol Hoffman, a true beauty inside and out. The kids were essentially divided up by last name so my homeroom basically consisted of people with last names starting with P, Q, and R. Really, the only reason I remember this is because I can look at the alphabetical yearbook and see of string of familiar faces before and after mine! Many years later I realized that a cousin of mine named Elizabeth Roncalli, whom I have never met, was very likely in the next homeroom over. Odd but true. Most of the kids I never really got to know because I only saw them in the morning. Others ended up being in some of my classes so they were a bit more familiar. Another strange but true thing about my homeroom was that Kenny Pooler was in my homeroom. He was the kid who I was almost mistaken for in Holy Name and whose similar moniker almost got my ass kicked!
The bell rang and the mad dash began. There were people everywhere and because your schedule was fixed in time and everyone else's was too, you would cross paths with the same people in the same hallways at the same times like clockwork. And lunch would come at the same time each day and you eventually worked out that ritual, as well. Who would you sit with and where was quickly established and you pretty much sat at the same table all of the time. If you were lucky, your schedule in the 2nd half of the year or even the following year would put you in a similar lunch period (there were 3) and you'd sit with the same kids again and again. The cast would occasionally rotate, though, and you'd lose touch with a particular person. There was Chris Richardson, Mike Hurst, Steve Bacon, Ed Hiney, Rob Jarest and probably some others from time to time. These were my lunchroom buds and we even did some things outside of school, as well. A really good group of friends, especially Mike - he lived near me and we saw each other frequently and even went to college together*. Occasionally, there was a food fight. Big duh - many people had seen Animal House and it was on people's minds!
* Funny side story: So my mom was a bit touched and she once told me she didn't want me hanging around with Mike anymore and I asked why. Well, turns out Mike had facial hair and could grow a beard and she had trouble understanding why I hung around with "that 30 year old". Or, probably more accurately, why a 30 year old wanted to hang around with a teenager! She didn't believe me when I said he was my age. Crazy woman.
Of course there is always some sort of drama to be had and mine involved one lunch I'll never forget. I have to back up, though, and explain Darlene. Darlene was in my English and gym classes in 9th or 10th grade and she was super cute and super nice and, bonus, she would actually talk to me. And she had a cute friend, Kiki, too! Suffice it to say that I was enamored and her small terrycloth gym shorts didn't hurt, either. In English, she and I and Russ Stratton and Adam Feldman made up a kind of cadre in the back corner of Mr. Barnes' class. We had a good time and Mr. Barnes tolerated us pretty well. He actually seems to have still been a teacher in the "new" Central High School in 2015. Awesome for those kids. Back to Darlene. Somehow or another her very large boyfriend named Tony (I think) thought I was making moves on her and he came roaring over to my lunch table one day and very menacingly told me that I'd better stay away from Darlene. Needless to say I stammered that I didn't know what he was talking about and I must have said OK or something placating because he didn't crush my skull. Whew. So, I wasn't technically making any move on her (other than in my head) but I guess I can see where his concern came from. Maybe she mentioned my name one too many times or he saw me hanging around her too much. Anyway, I didn't do too much talking to her after that and it was a bit awkward. She even asked me why and I think I mentioned the incident but I might not have. Who knows? Sorry for that Darlene but he was a scary guy and I was still a fairly scrawny kid. I sure hope she ended up with someone nice because she was a really great girl with a sweet heart.
Gym class was pretty good, I guess. I remember a lot of basketball and volleyball and walking around the block. I was just relieved there was no swimming! The one thing that I carried over from grade school was my lack of desire to take the required shower after gym. I don't know where I got the hangup but it wasn't really until graduate school when I started letting it all hang out, so to speak. Even then, it felt kind of weird. I chalk it up to not wanting to embarrass the other guys with my giant wiener. Cough, cough.
Speaking of wieners, the gym teacher was Mr. McGlaughlin. Although he generally had his shit-eating grin on his face, he would sometimes change moods and start giving hell to some of the older guys and I didn't actually get that. If he wasn't smiling he was glaring! It wasn't until I joined the track team that I understood where this special treatment was coming from. He knew them a bit better because they were on the football and track teams, both of which he coached. Basically, during practices he made us do many stretching exercises and running activities and he would talk a bit more colorfully during practices than he would in gym class. Occasionally, he would yell at one of his guys in that colorful language if they were slacking or goofing off. I get the feeling it was the kids who were also on the football team he was harder on. I remember one 12th grader who had just finished up maybe his 3rd sprint around the track and he was hurting, bent over. McGlaughlin yelled at him to do his 4th sprint so the kid puked and then did his next lap. He didn't treat us younger ones like that, that's for sure, probably because he didn't expect as much from us. I guess he was considered a really good coach because he was inducted into the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame in 2014 after many years of coaching at Classical and Central High Schools. So, he couldn't have been all that bad! Could he?
How the heck did I get on the track team? I really don't know how that happened. I never did anything in grade school so why this? If I had to guess it was because a) I always knew I was fast, b) a kid in my gym class, Paul White, was signing up and c) Mr. McGlaughlin goaded all of us into it. That sounds about right. For the first 3 years of high school I ran track and got beat every time! Just about. Guess I wasn't THAT fast. I'm pretty sure I didn't do it in 12th grade for whatever reason (slacking). There were many great guys on the team, especially some of the older ones. There was Chuck who was big-hearted and who could lob a shot put as far as the eye could see. And Mark and Broderick who were just good guys to talk to and who treated us younger ones like we were little brothers. And that guy who could run circles around anyone who challenged him in the 440, Bobby Lockett. For reference, his best time in the 440 yard dash was about 48 seconds while mine was 60 seconds. And in the 100 yard dash he was running 9-something while my best was 11. The man was a machine and he went on to do great in the Western Mass meets and he went to State, as well (I think). Paul and Peter Fratini were famous for their long distance expertise. There was no way I was going to do a 2 mile race but these twins were remarkable at it. I remember Troy Hill from my grade as supremely outgoing with a big laugh and he was a superb athlete. And then there was Paul White whose skills were on par with mine and we tended to always be in the same heat. I'm pretty sure he always beat me. But winning wasn't really the pull. It was the fact that everyone who watched your race would pat you on the back and tell you what a great race you ran. Like when Vinny Del Negro congratulated me after our race in grade school. Truly remarkable to be surrounded by so many fantastic people. And as a nice side note, my father even came to a meet or two when they were at Blunt Park. I was pleasantly surprised to see him there as I didn't really see him too often in my teenage years. Another team I was part of was the Scribe team. Scribe was the school magazine and we, led by Mrs. Thomas, all had a blast putting it together. It was technically part our English class. It was nice to be surrounded by so many creative people. Having perused some of the previous years' magazines I think I can say that ours turned out unique. That was helped by my refusal to write anything ordinary. Mrs. Thomas seemed intrigued by my slant on things. I remember I once started a fairy tale involving good and evil and I would write it in parts. Part one was one assignment and part 2 was the next assignment...I only ever completed 3 parts and the story never really had an ending. She pressed me to write another part but I never did. I felt I let her down but, quite frankly, I was winging it and I couldn't see how to end it! Sorry, Mrs. Thomas. Another story was about a girl escaping Nazi Germany. This made it into Scribe and I'm afraid it sounded real enough because I had someone ask if it really happened. Not real. Just channeling. Must have watched some old movie and it got me thinking! My proudest entry (this should tell you a lot about me) is a limerick. Not only was it kind of dirty but it was supposedly historically true. I can't believe Mrs. Thomas allowed it. Another task was to come up with illustrations and I was excited to include my cartoon of two gnomes carrying off a bewildered unicorn. In my mind, it was a perfect explanation for the extinction of unicorns. Another one I couldn't believe made it in. My least thought out entry was a conversation between some man and a disguised devil in the underworld. I say this because this type of run on conversation was something I would do during my study classes to pass the time (shouldn't I have been studying?). So I edited it very little and passed it in as a writing assignment. I am guessing the gnome/unicorn drawing also came from my study class! Sadly, Mrs. Thomas passed away at the end of 2015. Really just a wonderful teacher. I used to doodle a shape and then see if I could make a face out of it. I must have done hundreds of them. Even today I look at things and see if I can picture a face of some sort. Every time I'm in the shower I see a witch's face in the swirly patterns of the shower walls - kinda creeps me out. This penchant for seeing faces probably stems from the fact that I used to copy Mad Magazine cartoons from Don Martin and the rest of the artists. In fact, my style of drawing cartoon figures kind of mimicked his and I made a series of cartoons of my track team members and hung them up in the locker room for all to see. Chuck thought it weird that I drew him up-chucking (get it?) a shot put and getting a new record. Another one had the discus thrower errantly throwing the disc and chopping a runner's head off. He said sorry and the runner picked his head up and finished the race. This was my comment on the commitment and camaraderie of our team. OK, kind of weird but that was (is) my sense of humor. So I've gotten off track a little. Stream of consciousness creeping in. In 9th grade I had a teacher named Mr. Dyer. He was clearly a cool cat from the sixties. He talked slow and said things like, "yeh, man" and "right on" or something like that. You could imagine him toking up in the past (or even as a teacher!). Definitely nice and particularly interested in helping out the ladies in the class! That was my perception, anyway. But what a job. Art teacher. Just relax and help people bring out their creativity. Occasionally nag them to work on their project. It was a good class because you could actually talk to your fellow classmates instead of always being shushed. The art continued in my years with Ms. Camp. Another wonderful art teacher who liked to challenge you to do better. I did some painting with acrylics and briefly did some oils. One of my acrylic paintings is hanging in my house today. I liked her class so much I took it two years in a row. It was another time to be creative and just gab. One of the guys I particularly remember was Rob Keough. That boy could whip up a superhero comic book panel in an instant. I was sure that was what he was going to end up doing. I still have a large superhero picture he made (somewhere along the line I started coloring it in - dumbass). Could be worth millions! |
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I definitely read too much Mad Magazine.
A birthday card from my lunch buddies Mike, Rob, and Chris. Clearly, they had a unique sense of humor that matched mine.
Robert Keough's Masterpiece...colorized. Doh!
Early on I got into the routine of waiting outside with a couple of girls for the bell to ring which allowed us to go into the school in the morning. These girls were Theresa and Lynn. I am not really sure how that came about but I am certain it had something to do with me liking Theresa. She was cute and that was pretty much enough for me at that time. I never told her I liked her but that was the usual chicken shit me. It always kind of killed me whenever she talked about other guys like Ernie (a really good kid, by the way) or somebody else. I am sure I got that faraway look I get when something is bothering me. What's wrong? Oh, nuthin'. Anyway, she kind of didn't fit the mold of girls I had liked in the past. She had a tough edge to her and she smoked cigarettes. Maybe that appealed to my growing cynicism. Lynn tolerated my presence and she had to put up with my googly eyes gazing in Theresa's direction when Theresa wasn't looking. This is all very embarrassing to admit but it happened. In any case, we had good morning conversations to pass the time.
Other teachers I had were Mr. Finkelstein, Mr. Guzowski, Mrs. Szlatchetka, Mr Leclair, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Ligarski, Mr. Phaneuf, and a host of others. Mr. Finkelstein was a history teacher who was famous for his crazy colored suits and his sense of humor. I think his class was the start of my love of history. Mr. Guzowski taught Ecology. I remember once he was trying to show us how acid rain was in our environment and he kept testing the rain only to have it come up neutral! Mrs. Szlatchetka taught science and always had a dark tongue because she taught with overheads and would always lick her markers to make them work on the transparency. Mr Leclair sticks in my mind because he would always say, "No foolin' Ed Poulin". Under our breath Mike and I would retort, "I don't care, Mr. Leclair". Silly, I know. Mr. Ligarski taught Basic and PASCAL programming. It was a cake class because I already knew it. What was memorable was that my buddy (name withheld!) worked in the school computer department in the building next door and he would change Ligarski's password. He could never figure out why it was happening! Mr. Phaneuf was my Geometry teacher. In his class I used to compare answers with one of my classmates during tests to see if we got similar answers. I wouldn't call it cheating, exactly. If our answers were different we would go back and rework the problem on our own. Half cheat??
Other teachers I had were Mr. Finkelstein, Mr. Guzowski, Mrs. Szlatchetka, Mr Leclair, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Ligarski, Mr. Phaneuf, and a host of others. Mr. Finkelstein was a history teacher who was famous for his crazy colored suits and his sense of humor. I think his class was the start of my love of history. Mr. Guzowski taught Ecology. I remember once he was trying to show us how acid rain was in our environment and he kept testing the rain only to have it come up neutral! Mrs. Szlatchetka taught science and always had a dark tongue because she taught with overheads and would always lick her markers to make them work on the transparency. Mr Leclair sticks in my mind because he would always say, "No foolin' Ed Poulin". Under our breath Mike and I would retort, "I don't care, Mr. Leclair". Silly, I know. Mr. Ligarski taught Basic and PASCAL programming. It was a cake class because I already knew it. What was memorable was that my buddy (name withheld!) worked in the school computer department in the building next door and he would change Ligarski's password. He could never figure out why it was happening! Mr. Phaneuf was my Geometry teacher. In his class I used to compare answers with one of my classmates during tests to see if we got similar answers. I wouldn't call it cheating, exactly. If our answers were different we would go back and rework the problem on our own. Half cheat??
The cast of characters I drew to pass the time. See, Mr. Leclair, I DO care. Clearly, I wasn't paying attention in class!
I had a nice friendship with a girl named Patty. She and I would pass notes back and forth all of the time and let me tell you that the flirtation meter was on maximum. I still have some of those notes, I think. I flirted with a lot of girls but there was definitely a connection of some sort with her. She had this great smile and very pretty eyes. She was a smart one, too. Again, I was too chicken to act on it. I don't think it would be too strange to say that I did some looking up of some of my old school acquaintances and one thing I discovered was that she found herself a nice young man and she still looks fantastic!
Classical was known as a college prep high school so I guess it should be no surprise that I was surrounded by a lot of smart kids. I held my own but I never really considered myself to be on track to go to college. I tend to think in the moment and am not a big planner. Same today as back then. So, whenever my advisor Mr. Wilke and I met we didn't really have much to talk about. Still, I took classes like Physics and Math IV for some reason. I guess I did OK in Physics but by the time I got into Math IV (the class taken by masochists after Algebra II) in 12th grade I seemed to want to have none of it. My math teacher didn't seem to like me because of my lack of trying and that was a strange feeling for me. Not being liked. Plus, I had trouble doing assignments in English on time and my GPA fell a little in 12th. Not horribly, but I definitely could have done better. Mrs. Thomas was probably not too happy with me but I eventually got my assignments turned in...even if I was working on them after the final! I remember furiously writing in my car out in back of the school to get an English assignment done. Yikes. The math thing was odd for me and I even got a D in at least one quarter. All the more strange is that I went to UMASS 3 years later and entered the engineering program and aced Calculus! But that's another story.
There were a few things going on in my final year that probably led to my downfall. I started working. I started driving. I started actually hanging out with my friend Mike Hurst and some of my other school friends. Plus, I was probably a bit preoccupied with my next to last high school crush. I am not certain why it didn't start earlier but maybe it was because she was new to the school or maybe she just started taking the bus at the time I was taking it. Anyway, her name was Jennifer. She was in the grade below. I tried my darndest to do my usual flirting and she resisted. And she seemed to be amused by me and my feeble attempts. Well, that didn't really stop us from being friends. She was unique and smart and tall and pretty and always kept you guessing at what was really going on in her head. A real puzzle. So I never made any headway with her but not for lack of trying.
Classical was known as a college prep high school so I guess it should be no surprise that I was surrounded by a lot of smart kids. I held my own but I never really considered myself to be on track to go to college. I tend to think in the moment and am not a big planner. Same today as back then. So, whenever my advisor Mr. Wilke and I met we didn't really have much to talk about. Still, I took classes like Physics and Math IV for some reason. I guess I did OK in Physics but by the time I got into Math IV (the class taken by masochists after Algebra II) in 12th grade I seemed to want to have none of it. My math teacher didn't seem to like me because of my lack of trying and that was a strange feeling for me. Not being liked. Plus, I had trouble doing assignments in English on time and my GPA fell a little in 12th. Not horribly, but I definitely could have done better. Mrs. Thomas was probably not too happy with me but I eventually got my assignments turned in...even if I was working on them after the final! I remember furiously writing in my car out in back of the school to get an English assignment done. Yikes. The math thing was odd for me and I even got a D in at least one quarter. All the more strange is that I went to UMASS 3 years later and entered the engineering program and aced Calculus! But that's another story.
There were a few things going on in my final year that probably led to my downfall. I started working. I started driving. I started actually hanging out with my friend Mike Hurst and some of my other school friends. Plus, I was probably a bit preoccupied with my next to last high school crush. I am not certain why it didn't start earlier but maybe it was because she was new to the school or maybe she just started taking the bus at the time I was taking it. Anyway, her name was Jennifer. She was in the grade below. I tried my darndest to do my usual flirting and she resisted. And she seemed to be amused by me and my feeble attempts. Well, that didn't really stop us from being friends. She was unique and smart and tall and pretty and always kept you guessing at what was really going on in her head. A real puzzle. So I never made any headway with her but not for lack of trying.
Somehow or other Jennifer and Mike and me arranged to go to the Bing Theater to go see a movie and Jennifer brought along her very cute friend Michelle. Michelle had seen me and Mike in school selling Scribe magazine at the school entrance and she was interested in the handsome stud with the tight pants (that would be me). Can't say I blame her. Anyway, it was kind of a setup but not really because I knew she'd be there and, of course, we sat together. The next school day I remember Jennifer coming to inquire what I thought of Michelle and me being very excited at the possibility of going on a real date with her. Now, I don't remember when this was arranged but I do know that Michelle asked me out and I amazingly said yes. I say amazing because this was one of those few times when I leapt and wasn't quite the chicken. So, our first real date was on June 3rd, 1984. We went to the movies to see Wrath of Khan and then to Friendly's on Sumner Ave. Michelle did not seem to drink any of her orange soda. She was so nervous. Me too. I discovered her to be so smart and she knew where she was going and what she wanted to do and I just couldn't get over that beautiful smile and astounding laugh. I guess her extremely tight jeans didn't hurt, either. But let's be fair. EVERY girl's jeans were tight back then. She just happened to fill them out particularly well! I know. Shallow again. I WAS only 17. The rest is history and we've been together for 35 years.
An excellent way to end high school, wouldn't you say? |
Simply the most beautiful person in the world! Her, not me.
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