A ‘High School Days’ Prompt to Wrap Up the Month

You know I can’t resist a prompt

I foolishly believed I would make it into a new month without being drawn into another writing prompt; I was wrong. Normally, it’s a Plethora of Pop prompt that derails whatever I’m currently working on, but this time it came from Lori Dooner with the seriously throwback (for me at least) article below:

High school. Ugh.

I initially resisted, mainly because there is not much difference between the four years of high school and four years in the county jail. You didn’t choose either one, are thrown in with people you don’t know, often barely survive the experience, and leave knowing you never what to do that again.

But my ability to resist writing prompts is only slightly stronger than my ability to resist Midway carnies at the State Fair, and I found myself thinking about the questions so much I might as well just write the damn thing. So I did.

1. What year did you graduate?

The paranoid side of me first thought this question was designed to gather information in order to steal my identity. Then I remembered I don’t have an identity worth stealing, but I’m still not giving a year here. It can easily be found in several of my stories, so go read some of them. If you can’t be bothered to do that, I was born the same year as Buddy Gott; you can do the math.

2. Did you carpool?

I did not. I rode the bus freshman year and drove a boss silver 1976 Grand Prix the next three years. It was bigger than some apartments I’ve had and was nicknamed The Love Torpedo.

3. What kind of car did you drive?

Oops. See above.

4. It’s Friday night football — were you there?

Every Friday, all in the hopes that my tiny Catholic school might finally win a game against public school teams that had a bigger junior class than we had students in the whole school (plus, all the cute girls were there). We didn’t win, but not long after I graduated they formed a league with other tiny Catholic/Christian/Private schools and we won three straight (bogus) state championships.

5. What kind of job did you have?

The typical teen jobs: grocery sacker/stocker, restaurant busboy, and finally working the loading dock at a men’s clothing store in the mall. Working in the mall really was as cool as it is in all the ’80s movies.

6. Were you a party animal?

Not really. I was fortunate (unfortunate?) to grow up in a family that told me from a young age (9 or 10, I think) that if I wanted to drink alcohol I could do it at home. Nothing kills the rebel-cool of drinking beer with your underage friends on a Saturday night than your parents letting you do it at home since you were a pre-teen.

7. Were you considered a jock?

It depends on your definition. I played basketball for a couple of years, but we played the same huge public schools the football team did. I was 6' 1" and played center; my first game freshman year, the opposing team’s center was 6' 11". We went 3–33 that year.

8. Were you in a band?

No. I love music, but I am a disaster when it comes to actually playing music. In elementary school they wouldn’t even let me play the triangle.

9. Were you a nerd?

Freshman year I was absolutely a nerd. My girlfriend sophomore year updated my wardrobe, my hair, and my geek glasses, then transferred to a new school junior year. I still owe her big time.

10. Did you get suspended?

Amazingly, no. I spent a fair amount of time in the principal’s office for arguing with my religion teachers, though. Thankfully, he was a Marianist Brother and not a Jesuit priest.

11. Can you sing the fight song?

I couldn’t even then, and definitely can’t now. The administration steadfastly resisted my suggestion that we change it to “Born to Run,” a travesty for which they will someday answer to God.

12. What was your high school mascot?

A Viking, which is ironic given the number of Catholic monasteries those marauders looted over the years.

13. If you could go back and do it all again, would you?

Only if I was also able to go back knowing the winners of the Super Bowl, World Series, and Kentucky Derby for those four years. I would bet big and retire at 19. It would also be cool to pay $10 for a concert ticket again.

14. Are you still in contact with people from high school?

A few, mainly through Facebook. Facebook has been a godsend in that one area. The only reason to go to a stupid high school reunion is to see who got fat, who went bald, and which girl no one remembers somehow blossomed into a supermodel. You can find all of that on Facebook now, which is why I’ve been to one reunion in four decades.

15. Do you know where your high school crush is?

You’ll need to be more specific. In high school, my biggest crushes were Debbie Harry from Blondie, Patty Smyth from Scandal, and Phoebe Cates (that scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High made a lasting impression). As for the non-fantasy crush, she lives about thirty minutes from me and we’ve been friends since freshman year. The crush faded, the friendship did not.

16. What was your favorite subject?

English, especially a semester of nothing but Shakespeare junior year. When I didn’t want to memorize passages from the plays, my teacher told me this:

“It may seem stupid to you now, but ten years from now you’ll be drunk in a bar somewhere trying desperately to impress a woman and failing miserably. You will then leap onto a table, recite Portia’s speech from The Merchant of Venice by memory, and win both the day and the woman. Trust me.”

Ten years later he was right; I recount that incident here:

17. Do you still have your high school ring?

I do (somewhere), but not out of nostalgia. When I went to pawn it after graduation, I learned that Ultrium (the new space-age metal the ring rep had sold many of us) was worth less than tin. Live and learn.

What are your high school memories? Leave a comment or even better take the challenge yourself. You know you want to Buddy Gott, Simon Dillon, Terry Barr, Eric Pierce, Sarah Paris, Aimée Brown Gramblin, Mark Holburn, and Arpad Nagy.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this story, you can support my writing directly by leaving a tip below or, even better, joining Medium here. You’ll get access to all of my articles (including my weekly rants and numerous Springsteen stories) as well as those of all the other great writers here.