Before middle schools, there were Junior High Schools. My Jr. High, Helms, ran just 7th and 8th grade. Just long enough to get used to the school, then off to "real" high school. My entire sixth grade year I worried about what to expect once I moved up to seventh grade... Would I get beaten up? Would I be cool? Would I have to shower after PE!?
The summer before seventh grade, our parents were invited to take us to the school for an orientation tour. I couldn't wait to finally see the inside of the school that I had wondered about my entire 12 year life. It was right across the street from the El Portal Shopping Center and from the PE fields I had a perfect view of my beloved Mervyn's Department Store ("When I get my own place, I'm definitely buying my towels there! The prices are great but the quality is really there, you know?"). Things were going to be different at Helms. And, they had a soda machine -ON CAMPUS. In elementary school, it was white or chocolate milk only. Lactose-intolerant? Tough. Drink from the fountain. Jr. High would not only open my mind, but offer me a plethora of adult experiences. Soda, Mervyn's, 7-11, my favorite pet store "Wet-Pets"... I had arrived.
The morning of the tour I was excited and worried sick. I hoped to GOD the other kids were also with their mothers... What if this was the first test to see who was cool? What if the other mothers just dropped their kids off in front and wrote them off as adults? What if my mom told the staff about my bed-wetting until 11? What if I had to shower after the tour!? I was nauseated with an excited dread I'd come to know over the next 10 years of my life.
Mrs. Green was a heavy-set monster who ran the tour. She was also the campus security matron and terrifyingly in control. As it turned out, the other kids had come with their parents and to all of our relief, the parents were separated from the students right off so we could explore the campus. Mrs. Green explained the hallways and how the classrooms were numbered. She showed us the cafeteria and the line-up procedures, where to sit, where to buy peanut butter infused Rice Krispy treats ("That makes 'em healthy") and lastly, the soda machine!!!!! I could NOT wait.
Soda was my passion and it was not allowed at my elementary school. That one could purchase say, a Pepsi... well it had a certain aire of sophistication that I was yearning for. I was already planning on carrying three dollars in quarters, and that was just for the first day of school. Also, Mrs. Green informed us that due to budget cuts, towels would not be provided for showering and thus, showering after PE was optional. Hallelujah! Not a single person would EVER shower at Helms again. And that was fine by me.
The first day of school I purposely took a long path to class just in order to pass the soda machine. I know it seems bizarre but this was literally the most exciting thing about being in Jr. High (to me). Drinking a Pepsi at school, having a pimple, getting braces: these are the things that would make me a man... Unfortunately, the day before school started, the soda machine was removed. Instead, students would be able to purchase a Hawaiian Punch fruit drink at the Rice Krispy cart. I guess some Richmond Unified School District genius assumed that the word, "fruit" made Hawaiian Punch remotely nutritious. In reality, said beverage is no more nutritive than the red hummingbird sugar water people hang outside for the birds. I was crushed. Hawaiian Punched in the gut.
For the next two years I ate the only junk food available to me on campus: Peanut Butter laden Rice Krispy treats and sickeningly sweet Hawaiian Punch. It is sweet in a kind of way that leaves you with a raspy sore throat. I complained DAILY as I purchased and then inhaled the paired "goodies". Yes... I bought them... daily. It was a sacrifice, but I was a young and needed the sugar. My 7th grade year was filled with other disappointments but overall it was a success and I met my best friend Matt with whom I went to college and was post graduate roommates with. As for the soda machine, the school lost a considerable amount of money with it's removal so it was brought back to campus...the year I started high school. Luckily for my pancreas, Richmond High had MANY vending machines, all stocked with sugary crap.
1 comment:
Good words.
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