As I think back to the year of seventh grade at Ankeney Junior High, most of my memories turn toward my new friend Jeff Flinn (or Jeffrey as I knew him at first). Eric Welch had been my best friend in sixth grade and we had a wonderful and memorable trip to Florida during the Summer of ’84, but things went sour following that trip and we eventually parted ways during the seventh grade year. I think the clincher was when he was running for class president early in the school year, and I, obviously jealous of the popularity this would bring him, wore the button supporting his rival Mindy Roney. So for the remainder of the year, we were relegated to being friendly acquaintances – although he did come to my birthday party in October of ’84.
So anyway, that brings me to the latter part of the school year, and some of the pleasantries I recall from that time period – like…
…I used to bring in my new autographs that I was receiving in the mail during the Spring of ’85 and share them with my science teacher Mr. Seilhamer. Jeff and I would stand at the front of the room at his desk and show them to him and encourage a lively discussion of actors from the past. After a while this became a game to us, to see just how long we could delay class. It worked like a charm.
…I had the same teacher, Mrs. Schmidt, for both 2nd and 7th period English and Reading. In fact, everyone in the class was the same. It was the first class I can recall where we sat at tables instead of desks, kind of in a horseshoe shape around the room. During the latter part of the year, I sat with Jason Pappas, Vicki Cameron, and Amy Lupini. Because Jason reminded us of a chipmunk (we called him “Chippy”), we referred to our table as The Chimpmunks: Alvin, Simon, Chippy, and Theodore. Earlier in the year, before we rearragned, our table consisted of Me, Jeff, Nikki Fiely, and Chuck Edmonson – so being with Jeff brought a category of mischief all its own.
…Mr. Vinson’s class. I realized very early on that I could not mess with Mr. Vinson because he was (at times unreasonalby) strict. Therefore, I clammed up in that class – although I would often try and crack up Mike Sparks across the room without being noticed. At the end of the year, Mr. Vinson signed my yearbooks “To a quiet person.” I, in turn, signed his with something to the effect of: “I’m not really quiet. I just knew how to handle you.”
…Diagramming, diagramming, and more diagramming of sentences in English class. At one point, we were even assigned to diagram the dialogue of a TV show. I diagrammed the “Love Letters” episode of It’s Your Move. Then for extra credit, I did Laurel and Hardy’s Academy Award winning short The Music Box. Not a lot of dialogue to diagram there. Heave…Ho…Heave…Ho…
…reading “Oliver Twist” in class. I never read the chapters I was supposed to until we got over midway through the book. I still need to go back and read that someday. One of the oral book reports I gave was on 3-D, which I found fascinating at the time. I wasn’t really adept at speaking in front of a crowd, though. Mrs. Schmidt told me that everyone could’ve gotten up and left the room, and I wouldn’t have noticed with my head buried in my notecards.
Below is my report card for the year. My grades and attitude seemed to improve in the latter part of the year as Mr. Seilhamer took me from “Working Below Ability” to “Courteous and Cooperative” (maybe it was the autograph sharing). In any case, I missed quite a few days that year, particularly in the last quarter.
And here are the signatures in my yearbook. No, I wouldn’t say I was the most popular kid in school, but definitely one of the weirdest – especially as the girls were concerned. Nothing has changed.
In a non-school event memory of this time period, I brought Jeff with me to a function with the district Church of the Brethren youth. I can’t recall where it was, but I do remember that I saw my one-week girlfriend Jill Geaslen from camp the previous summer. She had written to me before the event, wanting to get back together. For some reason I was against this idea and attempted to set up Jeff with her. But the only memory of the event that I can recall in detail was that there was an indented, open section of wall (perhaps that had served as a closet, or some storage area) that was about three feet wide. I was able to wedge myself between the two walls and literally climb to the top of the high ceilings. The girls were impressed. I’m thinking the adults probably weren’t.
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