Friday the 13th, 1980

Well-my last day of H.S. It's so unbelievable. We watched French projects in French (my last class in French) then during gym, I went with Wayne to Pakula's-he had to get cookies for a teacher (an inside joke) then during lunch-at 11:05 A.M., the cafeteria broke out with flying food, it was all planned, what a freak out-teachers got pizza in their face, girls got milk on them, the cafeteria was a mass of food. It was hysterical. During Study Hall (It was in the gym because of the cafeteria) I talked to Larry up in the Home Ec room. We had our last test in Physics. The regents is Wednesday. School was so strange today. After school (me and Peggy took the bus for the last time) I went to Caldors, the bank, and tonight I ate at McD's. We had cabaret tonight. It went well. I said goodbye to Mr. Austin, He's such a great man, then Doobies and me, Bruce, Sarah, and Megan went to see The Shining, a freak movie. It was good. We went to Sarah's afterwards. well-13 years down. 4 to go.

What can I even start to say with this one? First of all, I completely remember the food fight. It was scary and weird and kind of epic. The pizzas that flew were actually pizza buns--melted plastic type white cheese and sauce on hamburger rolls. They were served on Fridays. A total treat...both in the culinary and projectile arts. I remember chocolate milk flying out of the cafeteria into the hallway and covering Gail Abraham's creamy white, long, pleated skirt. In general, Suffern High School was actually a pretty tame place. This thing was a huge surprise, obviously spurred on by Animal House. So I guess movies can make you do awful things. The main office went into lockdown.

In French, I remember the valedictorian of our class, Susan Golden, doing a verbal report on New Wave Music--La Nouvelle Vague. She even hopped up and down as if on a pogo stick. Brilliant. If it was this day, I don't know. But I think it was.

I remember a bunch of the Lipson-Gibson gang, which were mostly good, smart kids, of which I was a member in the final year of high school, used to hang out with this Home Ec. teacher who was like some sort of Student Council guru. It was all really nerdy and all really sweet. Most of the members of this gang are happy, successful adults. Larry was our class president and I thought he was a great guy and I was really sad we weren't closer friends in high school...but I always assumed when someone wasn't friends with me it was because I was a "faggot." Years later, at a high school reunion, he told me he was a bit intimidated by me and my gang(not the Lipson-Gibson gang, but my steadies)...which he referred to as "the beautiful people."--- What that particular gang was, was, the smart, gorgeous girls with really good hair and very bright personalities that I was friends with in High School. I was their skinny little gay pet, a role I took on gladly after being their skinny little gay boyfriend, just one girl at a time, in Junior High.

I did love Mr. Austin. He was a great man. And besides being the cabaret guy, I usually sat near him in study hall and yacked away...because he directed most of the school plays and he tried to be an actor in his twenties and he used to give me all this life advice, like, "Make sure you drive across the country when you're young. You have to really experience the world." And on the subject of acting, "It didn't work out for me. It's a hard business."

The cabaret thing.... It was sort of a somber goodbye situation with low attendance. We often met on Friday nights and did skits and improv things and we were just the total diehard drama kids. I guess we went to the movie after cabaret.

Sarah and Bruce were a year older than Megan and I. They were back from college. We used to always hang out at Sarah Schultz's house because her parents didn't care if we smoked or drank. And when her parents went out, which they always did, all the bedrooms became dens of torrid teenaged sex...except maybe one of them, if Sarah was locked inside because she was going to kill herself with the huge carving knife from the kitchen because Kevin Kern wouldn't leave his girlfriend for her which he should have done because the sex with Sarah was definitely so much better and Sarah was, obviously, the one he should be with.

The Shining? Explains itself. I can't believe that movie is that old.

I got a 100% on the Physics Regents. First kid to do that in sixteen years. I was extremely proud of myself. I loved Science. I remember when I got the score, two of my very close aforementioned fabulous girlfriends were with me and I was so happy and they were so jealous and just had nothing to say to me, sort of looked the other way and changed the subject. Nasty. But I still love them to this day.

I got all my styling clothes at Caldors. For the West Coast: that's Target, but just a little worse. And certainly no groovy commercials.

Doobies: I know a guy on the lot at CBS-Radford who totally still calls them Doobies. Hilarious.

High School...it did end.