The Woodrow Years -11th grade
1973 was a good year for me. I had learned the halls of Woodrow Wilson High School and my 10th grade year was successful. September 1973 started with a crazy man on radio station WWNR. Larry Dale, he made mornings fun. He had good music, humor and SES “School Emergency Service” that is where you listened for school cancellations. Larry Dale and Dan Blanney gave me my first break in radio in 1977. As a young impressionable 15 year old I really enjoyed Larry Dale; “This is Larry Dale saying this is Larry Dale”. I am not sure what prompted me to want to be in radio. My dad wanted me to go into nursing. His logic was that way I would always have a job; I should have listened. What I listened to was Harry Chapin sing “I am the morning DJ at WOLD.”.
Halfway through the tenth grade, I wanted to try something new. I wore wigs from eighth grade until my senior year of high school, when I finally said enough is enough. I am wearing my natural hair. That’s another story and a blog unto itself. During this time, a lot of my classmates had long hair, so I convinced my mom to let me buy a long blonde wig. I remember when I first wore it to school some people didn’t recognize me. As David Shumate so eloquently put it, “Now you look like somebody.” It’s funny how a look can give you confidence that you never had before. I was excited I could have so many different hairstyles. I loved it.
It was also during this time I was in homeroom 11-0 which was Miss Amato’s room. I had her sister at park Junior High. They looked a lot alike. Our homeroom entered a poster contest for Homecoming and I drew one. Woodrow was playing the Logan Wildcats. I drew a poster of a football and someone kicking it saying that “The Eagles will kick the Wildcats” anyway. The poster got messed up because someone splashed water on it. It didn’t squelch my enthusiasm in the least, then for some unknown reason I decided I wanted to be a Lassie. Those are the ladies who do the dance routines during games. I kept hearing all of this stuff how limber you had to be, so I went home every night and worked to do high kicks, to do all the dances I saw on “Soul Train”. I was sure I could do it, but I chickened out when tryouts came. I figured that I would have a snowball's chance in hell of becoming a Lassie. A dream short lived. I still love to dance though.
School was going well though. I had Mr. Wayne Bennett for English. I had Mrs. Pat Culicerto for World Cultures. Mr. Holms was now teaching choir and I had art from Coach Jackie Joe Robinson, Mrs. Avis for Algebra. With that said I really enjoyed Mr. Bennett’s class. He wanted me to enter stuff in a writing competition. I never did though. I was afraid that it wouldn’t be good enough. I have composition books under my bed and in the cedar chest of writing to this day. I was writing short stories back then. I was also in class with Matthew Saunders, who was a talker. Later after we graduated we would date. Mrs. Pat Culicerto class was fun, there were some crazy kids in that class.
Like many teenagers I was hooked on soap operas. We would get into a discussion about “General Hospital”. I had my favorite soaps. When I got home from school “The Edge of Night”, “General Hospital”, “The Secret Storm”. And “One Life to Live”. I would escape into my magical world of soaps and write alternate plots for the story lines. The only class I had trouble in was Algebra and Mrs. Avis recommended I drop the class. I know now that I could have passed that class if someone would have worked one on one with me. My fear of Math haunted me until 2009 -2010, when I went back to school as an adult and had some really good teachers who did take the time to help me. The first problem is that I couldn’t see the board. When I went back to school at 50, the teacher, Dr. Kelli White wrote on a white board using a red marker. It was easy to see. Then Dr. Shirley Davis did the same thing and I went to her offer for tutoring sessions. I liked school for the most part.
As we entered 11th grade some of the people that rode our bus came back to school pregnant. That had their babies and I began to see what a hard time they had with things. Trying to do schoolwork and getting the fathers to pay attention to the child. That’s when I made a decision that I wanted to be married, before I had any children. I knew that I couldn’t take the drama. Towards the end of 11th grade streaking became the thing to do. One day someone rode a motorcycle down the hall in “C” section and out in the schoolyard naked. It was funny. People did crazy things back then. I also remember on WJLS there was “The CBS Mystery Theater”, it came on at 11:07 PM. We used to stay up and listen to it. Little did I know, a few years later, that I would be one of the people responsible for recording the program. Some of the songs I remember from that time “Benny and the Jets” Elton John, “Locomotion” by Grand Funk Railroad. “The Waltons” and “Happy Days” were starting to become popular. There were also the made for TV “Movie of the Week”; several I remember were “Sunshine” and “Lisa Bright and Dark”. Sunshine was the story of a young guy raising his little girl after the mother dies of cancer. Lisa Bright and Dark was the story of a girl with mental problems who at the end walks through a glass door.
11th grade, my best year of high school.
Halfway through the tenth grade, I wanted to try something new. I wore wigs from eighth grade until my senior year of high school, when I finally said enough is enough. I am wearing my natural hair. That’s another story and a blog unto itself. During this time, a lot of my classmates had long hair, so I convinced my mom to let me buy a long blonde wig. I remember when I first wore it to school some people didn’t recognize me. As David Shumate so eloquently put it, “Now you look like somebody.” It’s funny how a look can give you confidence that you never had before. I was excited I could have so many different hairstyles. I loved it.
It was also during this time I was in homeroom 11-0 which was Miss Amato’s room. I had her sister at park Junior High. They looked a lot alike. Our homeroom entered a poster contest for Homecoming and I drew one. Woodrow was playing the Logan Wildcats. I drew a poster of a football and someone kicking it saying that “The Eagles will kick the Wildcats” anyway. The poster got messed up because someone splashed water on it. It didn’t squelch my enthusiasm in the least, then for some unknown reason I decided I wanted to be a Lassie. Those are the ladies who do the dance routines during games. I kept hearing all of this stuff how limber you had to be, so I went home every night and worked to do high kicks, to do all the dances I saw on “Soul Train”. I was sure I could do it, but I chickened out when tryouts came. I figured that I would have a snowball's chance in hell of becoming a Lassie. A dream short lived. I still love to dance though.
School was going well though. I had Mr. Wayne Bennett for English. I had Mrs. Pat Culicerto for World Cultures. Mr. Holms was now teaching choir and I had art from Coach Jackie Joe Robinson, Mrs. Avis for Algebra. With that said I really enjoyed Mr. Bennett’s class. He wanted me to enter stuff in a writing competition. I never did though. I was afraid that it wouldn’t be good enough. I have composition books under my bed and in the cedar chest of writing to this day. I was writing short stories back then. I was also in class with Matthew Saunders, who was a talker. Later after we graduated we would date. Mrs. Pat Culicerto class was fun, there were some crazy kids in that class.
Like many teenagers I was hooked on soap operas. We would get into a discussion about “General Hospital”. I had my favorite soaps. When I got home from school “The Edge of Night”, “General Hospital”, “The Secret Storm”. And “One Life to Live”. I would escape into my magical world of soaps and write alternate plots for the story lines. The only class I had trouble in was Algebra and Mrs. Avis recommended I drop the class. I know now that I could have passed that class if someone would have worked one on one with me. My fear of Math haunted me until 2009 -2010, when I went back to school as an adult and had some really good teachers who did take the time to help me. The first problem is that I couldn’t see the board. When I went back to school at 50, the teacher, Dr. Kelli White wrote on a white board using a red marker. It was easy to see. Then Dr. Shirley Davis did the same thing and I went to her offer for tutoring sessions. I liked school for the most part.
As we entered 11th grade some of the people that rode our bus came back to school pregnant. That had their babies and I began to see what a hard time they had with things. Trying to do schoolwork and getting the fathers to pay attention to the child. That’s when I made a decision that I wanted to be married, before I had any children. I knew that I couldn’t take the drama. Towards the end of 11th grade streaking became the thing to do. One day someone rode a motorcycle down the hall in “C” section and out in the schoolyard naked. It was funny. People did crazy things back then. I also remember on WJLS there was “The CBS Mystery Theater”, it came on at 11:07 PM. We used to stay up and listen to it. Little did I know, a few years later, that I would be one of the people responsible for recording the program. Some of the songs I remember from that time “Benny and the Jets” Elton John, “Locomotion” by Grand Funk Railroad. “The Waltons” and “Happy Days” were starting to become popular. There were also the made for TV “Movie of the Week”; several I remember were “Sunshine” and “Lisa Bright and Dark”. Sunshine was the story of a young guy raising his little girl after the mother dies of cancer. Lisa Bright and Dark was the story of a girl with mental problems who at the end walks through a glass door.
11th grade, my best year of high school.
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