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School memories -
• I guess the first thing is - the first day in high school. I don't remember it at all.
• I remember I used to get my books on the very first day allowed, read them all before school started - and then never carry them again.
• Since I really didn't belong there at school at all (and I was reminded of this over and over again), it never really made an impact on me.
• No physical examination - so no sports. Never have had a birth certificate - hmmm?
• Oh, the day I got glasses - a girl said "you don't wear glasses" - and smacked me up side my head, knocking them to the sidewalk. Put a chip directly in the center of both lenses. After Mrs. Robertson's English class.
• Wonder what ever happened to Peggy Connelly? ('66') Just wondering.
• I wonder who all remembers Janice Hughes (would've been CHHS 66). Still married after all these years and still local too, with 22 grandchildren to boot!
• Let's see, Mrs. Overton was my counselor (and my sister's several years later). And with what they gave them for ideas - well, it's like a crap shoot. Never did get to take what I wanted. The school kept trying to send me away (began after 6th grade!) - and my parents nixing those ideas at every turn.
• I do remember Chemistry class. I was distinctly not interested in being there - but was interested in the person on my right, with a crush that lasted for many many years - so I did her homework ... and never my own. Six 'Fs' but flew through the finals - damn, we can't fail him.
• Finally got so fed up with school that I just worked - and blew off the scholarships to MIT or Art Center - bright move - and joined the Army. Should've accepted one and then joined the Army. Parents take note - or is that Grandparents take note. :-)
• Does anyone remember the Summer that some of us were kidnapped? - It just seemed like it - to work picking melons in the fields South of Yuma - in July! This was the first Summer after the end of the Bracero program. I dragged a long burlap bag down eighth-mile long rows of canteloupes to empty them into boxed flat bed trucks. Thought I was doing well - not a chance. Could not believe I missed so many melons of THAT diameter. Get up at 3:30 am, breakfast of umm, all I remember is the runny refritos and carton of milk, on to the old school bus and off to the fields. Well, it was a profitable two weeks that I lasted. I came home with seven dollars - ? If anyone doesn't appreciate where you get the fruit and veggies you buy - shame on you.
• I came home and got work at the El Rancho market with a few other miscreants - Ron Woods, Roger Kloeppel ('66'), and Ralph Destrini ( Maryvale 66 ) for a whopping 30 cents an hour. I had to have the entire price of a car, any repairs it needed, and a years insurance, before I could buy one. Saved $700 in six months - how? - dunno. Got the old '59 Ford wagon everyone made fun of - but carried everyone to the lake. Got rear-ended in that car - with taillights a foot in diameter! - by a '62 Corvette. It was while sitting a the light at 59th and Indian School at about 2am - with Larry Kuhn and Ralph Destrini in the car. My car didn't budge - the Corvette was destroyed. The drunk driver got nine citations and got off - 'cause I was in the service and couldn't make the hearing. Wasn't even his car either!
• Cars - ah, this was the time to be alive. Regor Tejmar's 55 Chevy, Tom Brawner's white '55 Nomad (later), Aaron Parrish's bright orange 1958 Impala (377 ci I think, with the front wheels a foot off the ground in the school parking lot!), Larry Leister's '54 Ford sleeper with a 390. And the car accident at 35th & McDowell, with the wife of a CHHS teacher that took Bobby Guzman. Larry Hunt's ('65') 348 '59 Chevy (and changing the clutch plates every week or so). Doug Linkey's gorgeous yellow 2-door 1928 Ford Model-A sedan. And these are just a few of the great cars running around in those years.
• John Loper's mechanic lived across the street from Ron Woods - and the Lil Hoss Anglia, beautiful in solid black paint, was sitting there quite often.
• Don't forget Ray Elliot and his cars - I remember he had a 390 Fairlane - but he did build that great 1923 T-bucket with lots of 24k gold plating on it. Made it into Hot Rod Magazine too. I'd like to find a photo he took one night with us holding the new body over a bare chassis.
• What the heck was the name of the mechanic down at the Union 76 at Van Buren? Classmate? But he had a Studebaker that was supercharged - what a wild ride!
• Can't forget Frank Oviedo's ('65?) 1957 Ariel Square Four rigid-framed candy purple chopper.
• I bought a new 350ci SuperSport / Rally Sport Camaro after I got home from my first year in Vietnam. Vernon bought a Camaro too. But I went on to a 427 Corvette and a 396 El Camino - oh yeah, these were great investments. (but great fun). Mom loved the Camaro - floated all the valves hot rodding with that four-speed tranny.
• Sunday ... Sunday ... Sunday - Beeline Dragway. This was actually the last commercial I did (as an emergency fill-in announcer when I was at KUPD, and by then pretty much fed up with radio, and doing mostly engineering work.
• I also won a small transistor radio in 1963 (yes, it was a big deal then) for the closest guess for the fastest speed on the very first weekend race at the drag strip way out Grand Avenue. Name is forgotten now. 179.63 was the top speed, my guess was 179.60! Slow compared to today's speeds of 300+ mph in the quarter mile, and under 5 seconds.
• I did ride a Honda Dream for a little while too. White, full fenders, great fun. Nothing like that Ariel chopper though. Parents. Learned to ride on giant police Harleys but . . . not the chop.
• Trips to Lake Pleasant, Saguaro and Apache lakes. Tony Vargas ('66) was lost our senior year. And Eddie Patterson's ('66) red Triumph Spitfire convertible - in the lake - at Saguaro.
• My first trip to the Grand Canyon in 1955 was truly memorable - no railings, just camping. The trip up was in the back of an open Chevy pickup with my Dad and a friend and another kid my age. We went up through the old roads through Sedona of that time. Camped frequently back then. Drive out into the desert and toss a blanket on the sand. Not now - have you seen what is crawling around there?
• Let's see, a trip to the Snow Bowl was great fun. I wonder if Linda Durschmidt ('66) remembers our trip down a snow covered hill on a garbage can lid? I remember it well - and I wasn't the one whose fingers were squished between the bottom of the lid and the ground! Pulled all four fingers on one of her hands - and felt greatly on the bus ride home.
• Where were you? This question is asked over-and-over again. The day that President Kennedy was assassinated. I was walking from American History with Mr. Maser.
• Nearing graduation, and by then only a ghost at school, after I got my cap and gown I was called into the office, and told that if I didn't cut my hair (gee, it was actually short) I could not walk at graduation. The next day I brought my cap & gown back in - and they relented. A few years ago I got my first haircut in twelve years, reached from palm to palm with arms outstretched. Where is that guy now?
• Does anyone, by any chance, have a copy of the infamous 1966 graduation special edition of our very own Hayden Headlights? Take note - not the Hayden Highlights newspaper.
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