I have just completed the 8th grade and turned 14. This will probably be in no certain order since to me it all happened at the same time, lol. My dad is heavy into the American Legion and becomes the Department of France’s Assistant Adjutant. On that note, the Heidelberg AL post #3 starts it’s own Sons of the American Legion Squadron (SAL) of which I am the Adjutant. We have blood drives (yes, I donated with parents permission), and garage sales (this is where I got my “wonder” bowling ball) and even participate in events all over Europe. We took a bus trip to Nance, France for a Memorial of WWI soldiers, Flanders Field. A very somber time, and I still have the medallion that commemorates the event. I was so moved that I wrote my first poem “Unknown Soldier”. Unfortunately, I never signed it and left it on the bus. I was surprised when the publisher of the Post #3 newsletter (my dad) gave me the following copy with my poem in it, but it was signed author unknown. My dad said though he knew it to be my handwriting (no one can ever fake my chicken scratch, lol); it was his decision not to give me credit it for it because it was unsigned and he didn’t want to show favoritism. Dad was pretty hard on me all my life, like I guess most military dads are and I hated it (until later in life, with children of my own I realized that he actually had been pretty fair and taught me a lot, though I didn’t listen – wasn’t his fault, lol). He was very forgiving most of the time, even when I burned his silk T-shirt (he had a lit blue, gold and black, it was the light blue I ruined trying to iron it for a dance that night. Many years later the remaining two became mine).
In band class I am in love (okay, being an adult now I can say infatuated) with the girl who sits in the first clarinet chair, Nancy G., and constantly find myself singing the Stones song Angie, but replacing her name in it (go figure). New friends are made during the school year, Sonny and Danny who both live in my stairwell. We do almost everything together. It is with these two and another friend that the most famous of poker games that I had written in TAG UR IT came about. We had been playing for an hour or so, penny and nickels of course, after all we are not rich, and if memory serves me correctly it was Sonny’s deal. Everyone bet the limit and when we all laid down, we all had a Royal flush (A-K-Q-J-10 of one suit) I had Spades, Sonny – Diamonds the other boy –clubs and Danny – Hearts. We had an argument over the top hand, and it was settled by Hoyles Book of Rules for Cards, and ended up me being the winner. Depending on where you are playing either Spades or Hearts can be considered the high suit, but by reasoning, we were on an American Army Base which is essentially American Soil so Spades is high.
We are doing more and more bike riding this year, riding all over the place, together or alone if one or more is grounded, which seems like a lot these days. I found out that you are not to forge you father’s signature on an official document (some kids were playing on the scaffolding and wouldn’t get off. My dad was the area MSG, sort of like HOA president, and I wrote a note for them to take home to their fathers and signed dad’s name. The jig was up when one of the parents came by to thank my dad and assure him it wouldn’t happen again. (can you say ooops! – busted and grounded). Played Basketball during the winter-spring, I believe I was on the Super Sonics, but I remember one of the cheerleaders was a girl named Cheryl (whom I keep in touch with on her own website for us HHS Alumni). Most of the time the upperclassmen would ignore us, but not always. It is due to this that I got into my habit of how I eat my hamburger and fries. At lunch, besides having open lunch (again, thank God), we could also go to the cafeteria and have either the normal nutritious meal, how get stuff like hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, etc. My usual was a cheeseburger with three orders of fries (that would fill up the tray, lol) and then outside for football or baseball or whatever. Well a couple of upper’s would come by and steal food off your tray or take a bite of your burger. I told my friends I would fix them, and I did, the next day he took one bite of my burger, threw it back on my tray and another ate a couple of fries, and then put the rest down. You see, I put tons of mustard on my cheeseburger and heavily salted my fries with no ketchup, lol, never bothered me again, and I never changed this habit, still how I eat them. Somewhere during the spring a senior flute player in the band and I had made out (ring of hickeys, lol, both of us wore turtle necks the next day, I blame it on the alcohol, so did she). I also got into trouble at school for my first and only time, where as the vice principal called my mom to let her now I was getting 3 spanks. It was stupid, really. I believe it was in 7th grade maybe, like I said a lot happened. Me and two friends where in the boys bathroom, at the long urinal. A partition wall separated it and the sink. Well, boys being boys we pushed and shoved, and Kevin, who was on my right got pushed so hard he started to pee up the partition. We though this was cool and had a competition going over who would be the first to go over the partition and into the sink, until the Vice principal walked in. He wasn’t happy to say the least. Got it when I got home also, didn’t sit for a couple of days, but I learned.
Bowling has been wonderful this year. I received four awards, most improved, highest game, highest series and high average. Thanks all to my “wonder” ball I had mentioned earlier. She was a brown and cream marble that I got at one of the American Legion garage sales, for only $1 and had to beg dad for it. The ball weighed 13 pounds and when I started bowling found out it was left handed (I am right handed). It changed my set, approach, alignment, mark and curve (drastically, but finally got the feel for it), far right of lane, right mark next to center, and curve would come back to the 1 and 2 pins, if I hit the mark right it is a strike or at least an easy eight. I now start and the very far end of the lane on my set and approach. The weight of the ball slows me down from rushing. I am also the team captain. For those in the know, let me state that I am bowling 10 pin.
One of my favorite passions is to collect patches, I do this with both the SAL and Boy Scouts of the places I have been. Went on an all Europe Jamboree, it was great! We survived off of C-Rations, my favorite being the brownie. Also started smoking this summer. The Asst. Troop Leader, a junior, and I went walking in France to slide out and have a smoke. I tripped over a root (turned out to be unexploded bomb). On another trip we were heading to West Berlin. We got in trouble by the officer of the crossing guards. One of the other guys (never found out which one) was trying to trade a pack of Marlboro’s for an AK-47. Officer was not amused. We also went on tour of Germany, staying in youth Hostels, great time; downstairs were the boys and upstairs the Girl Scouts, with the stairs being heavily guarded (dang!). The most memorable one was to Italy on the train, four of us were playing poker, and I had just enough to buy a few souvenirs. I learned my lesson that if I lose 3 hands in a row, walk away because the cards are not in my favor. Lost everything to a good friend of mine Stan. He bought a Dashiki with the money I lost, I bought a patch.
Baseball was great; this is where I met the Holt brothers. Steve who was my age, tall about 6 or so and short hair. Met him during basketball and he was the cause of my sprained ankle (going for a lay up and he shoved me to block, and came sown on my ankle – ouch) and his brother John (probably around 5’4 or so, a junior with long hair to the waist). Steve played third and John was a pitcher. John would tuck his hair under his hat. Every once in a while he would throw with a force and jerk that the hat would come off and his pony tail would head towards the plate and psych the batter out (lol). Keith Showell played first base (he is what we call an afro-american today), and he was great couldn’t get anything paste him. He would pull the hat down over to the top of his eyes. We used to joke when it was getting dark to smile so we could see him and this big white smile would break out underneath the brim of the hat. God I miss Keith, he taught me a lot about the drums, you see both Keith and John played drum, but not in a school band but a rock band. I remember John’s band was Baar Soup. I need to explain here so no one gets the wrong idea of me or how it was on an army base. There was never a problem with the “N word” it came out quite frequently as I have been called a redneck, cracker, honky, wasp and even “n” lol. That is the way it was, we didn’t hate each other and never ever took it personal, but let someone that was not a brat (our term for the military dependents) and he would soon find himself against all of us, that is the way it was. Today it would probably be different, but my friends would still be the same, the color of the rainbow, wide and diverse I love them and miss them but hopefully will see some of them next summer (2009).
I worked for the army this summer, mowing lawns on a riding lawnmower (we had lawnmower races, lol) the red was faster than the blue. Old Man Fritz (a German national in charge of the gardener’s) had a cucumber garden at the shop (where we kept all the tools). Lunch consisted of a loaf of French bread we got from the PX (Post Exchange for the non-military) for 25 cents and one of Fritz’s cucumbers (he would always pick them himself) with salt and a coke. No wonder I was so skinny (lol). Between that, baseball and swimming, I kept mighty busy.
On a different note, ran for Freshman Class President against my friend Stan and lost of course, but we had fun.
MUSIC:
Songs to come out: Dram On (Aerosmith), Elected, No More Mr. Nice Guy (Alice Cooper), Rambling Man (The Allman Brothers), Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (Bette Midler), Me and Mrs. Jones (Billy Paul), Will It Go Round In Circles (Billy Preston), Let It Ride (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Pride), Feeling Stronger Everyday (Chicago), The Jean Genie (David Bowie), Smoke On The Water (Deep Purple), China Grove (The Doobie Brothers), Right Place Wrong Time (Dr. John), Tequila Sunrise (Eagles), Daniel, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Saturday Nights’ Alright For Fighting (Elton John), Ain’t No Woman Like The One I Love (The Four Tops),Mid Night Train To Georgia (Gladys Knight and the Pips), We’re An American Band (Grand Funk Railroad), Delta Dawn (Helen Reddy), Bad Bad Leroy Brown, I’ve Got A Name, Time In A Bottle (Jim Croce), Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh), D’yer Mak’er (Led Zeppelin), Let’s Get It On (Marvin Gaye), The Morning After (Maureen McGovern), I’m Just A Singer IN A Rock And Roll Band (The Moody Blues), Let Me Be There (Olivia Newton-John), Helen Wheels, Hi Hi Hi, My Love, Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney and Wings), Kodachrome, Loves Me Like A Rock (Paul Simon), Money, Time (Pink Floyd), Killing Me Softly With His Song (Roberta Flack), Angie (The Rolling Stones), Do It Again (Steely Dan), Stuck In The Middle With You (Stealers Wheel), The Joker (The Steve Miller Band), You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (Stevie Wonder), Ballroom Blitz (The Sweet), Tie A Yellow Ribbon Around The Old Oak Tree (Tony Orlando and Dawn), The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia (Vicki Lawrence) and Cisco Kid (War).
The Albums: Aerosmith (Aerosmith), Billion Dollar Babies (Alice Cooper), Bachman-Turner Overdrive Bachman-Turner Overdrive II (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), Beatles 1962-1966 and Beatles 1967-1970 (The Beatles), Piano Man (Billy Joel), Los Cochinos (Cheech Y Chong), Desperado (The Eagles), Don’t Shoot ME I’m Only The Piano Player and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John), Foghat (Foghat), We’re An American Band (Grand Funk Railroad), Houses Of The Holy (Led Zeppelin), Dixie Chicken (Little Feat), Lynyrd Skynard [Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd] (Lynyrd Skynard), Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield), Band On The Run (Paul McCartney and Wings), The Dark Side Of The Moon (Pink Floyd), Queen (Queen), Riding The Storm Out (REO Speedwagon), The Joker (The Steve Miller Band), Styx II (Styx), Quadrophenia (The Who), Live And Let Die (Wings) and Tres Hombres (ZZ Top).
MOVIES: American Graffiti (Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Wolfman Jack and the Blonde in the TBird – Suzanne Somers), Bang The Drum Slowly (Robert De Niro), Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (Roddy McDowall), Brother Sun, Sister Moon (Graham Faulkner), Cahill, US Marshall (John Wayne), Charlotte’s Web, The Day Of The Jackal (Edward Fox), Enter The Dragon, Return Of The Dragon and Way Of The Dragon (The Dragon Himself – Bruce Lee), The Exorcist (Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow), High Plains Drifter and Magnum Force (Clint Eastwood), Jesus Christ Superstar (Ted Neely, Yvonne Ellerman), The Legend Of Hell House (Roddy McDowall, Pamela Franklin), The Paper Chase (John Houseman, Lindsay Wagner), Paper Moon (Ryan and Tatum O’Neal), Serpico (Al Pacino), Soylent Green (Charlton Heston – The Secret Of Soylent Green Is People – IT”S PEOPLE), The Sting (Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan), Walking Tall (Joe Don Baker), Westworld (Yul Brenner) and last but not least Live And Let Die (Roger Moore, Jane ‘God She is a Fox’ Seymour).
EVENTS: Watergate Trial Begins, Bruce Lee dies, Eddie Rickenbacker (WWI Flying Ace The Ace of Aces, George Foreman beats Joe Frazier by TKO in the 2nd, Roe vs Wade legalizes abortions, JRR Tolkien Lyndon Johnson and Pablo Picasso die, Hagar the Horrible is created, American Indian Movement (AIM) occupy Wounded Knee, Chicago Sears Tower is finished, The Rocky Horror Picture Show opens in London, Skylab is launched, Billy Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Match of the Sexes, The Yom Kippur War, VP Spiro Agnew resigns after pleading no contest to tax evasion charges, Gerald Ford replaces Spiro Agnew, maximum speed limit is reduced to 55 MPH and Secretariat wins the Triple Crown of horseracing.
CARTOONS: Yogi’s Gang, Addams Family, Super Friends, Lassies Rescue Rangers, Star Trek, Jeanie and everyone’s favorite, come and sing along – School House Rock (still remember most of the words to most of the songs, lol).
TV SHOWS: Barnaby Jones, The Young and the Restless, The Midnight Special. Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In signs off for the last time.
