My Junior High School

I went to junior high school in Somerville, Mass. from 1968 to 1971, and it was a barrel of fun. Male substitute teachers would claim to be crazed Vietnam vets so that kids wouldn't start any crap in class. The student body was once shown an anti-marijuana documentary narrated by Sonny Bono, a laugh riot in which a kid tries pot for the first time and hallucinates as if he's eaten acid. Of couse, this led to a spike in cannabis use.

I was one of the little four-eyed kids who took Latin. Our tribe was subjected to extortion attempts by boys who later went to the vocational high so that they could have access to burglary tools. "All I find, all I keep," they used to say during shakedowns. I was kicked in the shin by one of them once, but I never coughed up any dough. Although being without funds would have been a good excuse to decline the American Chop Suey that seemed to be served every day in the cafeteria.

One morning our phys-ed teacher, a locally famous ex-jock, sat us in the gymnasium bleachers and sang his own cover of, "Is That All There Is?" I don't know if he was stoned or channeling Peggy Lee, but it was precious.

All Together Now

My personal shame,grade school ,fires and explosives

I have so much to be embarrassed about.
The bomb scare to the federal court house on the day of my friends hearing.

Setting the neighbors piles of leaves on fire on my paper route.

Sending my brothers stolen porn to the neighbors in retaliation after blaming me for the damage to their new deck from a "FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN."

That's what the cops said.

The time I put my disected frog into my teachers purse because she kept me back a grade for coloring my page completely black.

I polished that fucker.


The frog happened several years later. I saw an opportunity and ran with it.
All the fire alarms and m80s in the plumbing.

Stealing money from the school bands coats left indoors while they practiced out on the field.

Throwing snowballs at unexpected motorists.

Setting a neighbors laundry on fire as it hung on the line in their yard to.....dry.

Setting the neighbors shed on fire. My idea , but I didn't light it.

By 5th grade I would mature, I began smoking to prove it. I'd keep my fires to myself.

HATERS

Please don't block my twirl , I've asked you repeatedly, and you are scrubbing on my last nerve.

Dorothy

It's not you it's me............see I'm , well , see it's hard to explain....... You know that guy at the........oh nevermind.............. Really it's so silly............ I like you, but well I have this.......... oh how do I say this without sounding like a comlete fool...........rule.......well it's not a rule really......sort of a......you know?............gosh I'm really sounding crazy.............I'm not.......well my brother might disagree with me on that (laughs),......he thinks I'm nuts. yeah my own brother......gosh i'm doing all the talking.........you've not said a word?..........No but I'll try anything once.............I'm not going to get addicted am I?

But I Won't Even Be HOME Until After 6 ...