Touching High School

Yes! I am cheating! I'm posting the same thing I posted on my high school classes website! I've been busy, campout plans and all, keeping the little woman happy, golfing with Ivan. It is time consuming being Firebear! Now just read and enjoy, damn it!

I was just getting to that age where I was thinking Pittsford Mendon High could not possibly be as bad as I remembered it. Now I know for sure. Yes! PMHS was awful! Actually I must be getting old, I still keep thinking it wasn’t as bad as I made it. Those brick windowsills that we used to sit on during lunch and look out into the court yard. Those were just cool. And the prop room by the stage, where you could jimmy the lock and sneak back there for, um well, yea, it wasn’t all bad.

It is interesting that so many of us, different friends, clicks, activities, were going through the same growing pains at the same time. Guess we had a lot more in common then we thought.

I left PMHS early. The beginning of our senior year. This was done with my parents’ blessing and was not done for academic reasons. I just had to get out of there. I did not feel wanted there. That my classmates could care less what I did. I had more friends in the classes of ’88 and ’90 then my own. I did not even want to claim a connection with the Rochester, New York area. There are a lot of I reasons, and I know now that it was me, not anyone else.

I talked to several people and some professionals about this and was not sure what to do. Dropping out of high school was the one thing we were told never to do. The ultimate dead-end. It was Mr. Sherman, the health teacher, who talked to me frank about it. I still don’t know if he even realized how much it helped.

“Larry,” he said to me, “Sometimes it is just time to leave high school.”

That meant a great deal to me. The okay to make a choice. So I did. Hardly anyone knew, just a few close friends who I trusted. Of course how do you announce that you are dropping out?

I scored very high on the ASVAB, the military entrance exam, and so even without a GED I was placed in the US Navy. Yes, I had always had a problem dealing with authority I decided that I would go to the one place where I could never get away from it.
When the rest of the class was graduating, I was in boot camp in Orlando.

I was eventually put on the USS Santa Barbara, based in Charleston, SC, as an Electronic Warfare Tech. Meet some life time friends there. Got my GED, which was one of my goals. In the navy I saw lots of Europe. Both the grand and the pits. Makes me glad I live in the United States.

The months in the Red Sea during Desert Shield/Storm were intense. Waiting for that missile to hit you. Knowing that any second, whether asleep or awake you could be finished. It helped sort out your thoughts, your life, your past. When I got my tour jacket instead of putting Tampa or Charleston as a home town, I had them put Pittsford, NY.

When I got out I relocated to Lansing, Michigan. My parents, sister and brother lived there. Adjusted to being a civilian again. Had growing pains. Seen good times and bad. Never quite learned how to be that quit person in the corner.

A couple years back my whole family moved away, leaving me here. That’s ok, I am doing well. I was glad my brother moved back a year ago, did miss him even if we hardly ever have a chance to talk.

Still writing, or should say, I’m writing again. Though I don’t plan on writing “The New Adventures of Redneck Roy” anytime soon.

I have gone on enough here today. On the web you can find some of my writing and rants at http://www.thefirebear.blogspot.com. There you can also see that I haven’t changed that much. My music taste is still stuck in the 80’s and I still own a Rocky Horror Picture Show T-shirt. I was thrilled to find an old Genesis cassette for sale for $1. Now if I can remember how it fits in the cassette player…

I am glad to hear how everyone is doing. We are a diverse group, for some our only connection is that we occupied the same area for a couple years. That is good enough in today’s world. Best wishes.
- Larry