- Calling all cars, calling all cars...
Be on the lookout for a tall, skinny brother with pimples
Wearing a brown Kangol, t-shirt, Nokia phone and sneakers
Last seen stranded on the Dallas Tollway
Alias Ladies Love Cool Femi
He's bad...
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA
No blogger can blog quite like this jerk
I'll take a horn-rimmed nerd and throw his face in the dirt!
- We are now in the year 2006. According to my research, that means that 10 years have passed since 1996. That fact was recently confirmed for me when I started receiving emails from fellow Class of 1996 Panthers as we prepare to congregate for our 10 year reunion. And the one thing that I'm thinking is: "When did this happen?" Meaning, when did I grow up? Has it really been a full decade since I've seen most of these people? It sure doesn't seem like it but then I started thinking about everything that has transpired since Sunday, May 12th, 1996. And I realized that lot actually has happened.
I went to college and graduated. I got engaged twice (to the same girl) and had her break it off both times. I spent 11 months in Toronto while trying to figure out my citizenship status. I had a kidney operation. I tried to start a record label, had it fail miserably and had to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I would have been on the losing end of a civil suit if the person suing me hadn't had to drop the case due to a serious illness. I became an uncle. I appeared in three different commercials that were shown nationwide.
Ok, everything in that previous paragraph after the word "graduated" is a lie. My life is nowhere near that interesting. But nevertheless, time has passed, things have occurred, life has happened. I have been out of high school for over twice as long as I was actually in it. And now people are wanting to reunite so they can see which good looking people are no longer so good looking, which ugly people became beautiful and who's gained the most weight.
My initial reaction was: "Why the crap do I want to go to a Paschal High School reunion? It's just going to be a gathering of the now-grown offspring of Fort Worth's Caucasian elite, none of whom are going to remember me." And I said as much. I clicked "reply all" and said, "Look here, you wealthy white folk. Leave me alone. I spent four years being your token black friend and I refuse to do it again! None of you even remembers who I am." Well, not really, but it would have been funny if I had. But I did send an email inquiring if people even remembered me and I got several responses. And here I present a few of them to you.
"You know, dear Femi, that I remember who you are!"
This one was from Shelly. She's not one of the people I was referring to. As a matter of fact, before QD discovered me here on MySpace last year, she was the only member of my graduating class with whom I kept in semi-regular contact. Actually, that's not true. She kept in contact with me (I am the WORST person at calling anyone back). I met Shelly our junior year in high school in Mrs. Philps AP American History class. We were also both on the track team. After Paschal we both went to Baylor together and ended up graduating at the same time (Shelly's leg was in a cast and she had to hobble across stage to accept her diploma from President Sloan). After that, she moved to the east coast where she got a Master's and is currently working on a JD. Freaking overachiever. In a couple of years I'll probably be asking her for money.
"I always thought that you were such a courageous kid in high school."
From Kendra. I remember her as being extremely cool and carefree. I'm not sure what to make of this statement though. Maybe she thought I was a special education student. 
Um...let's move on...
"Are you kidding? I remember you. I still have a picture of you and me from when we were all studying for some final and had to go to Kathryn's dad's office to make copies or something."
This is Courtney S. I only had a couple of classes with her but I remember two things very distinctly. One is her smile. The other is that her mother was the teacher whose car Eddie and Alejandro snuck into. They hid in the back seat and when Mrs. S came she just got in and started driving. When she was almost home she was nearly frightened to death when she heard voices say, "Hey, it's kinda hot back here. Could you turn the air up?"
I also remember that final she's talking about. It was our very last semester and the class was AP Government which was being taught for the very first time by some coach. It is from that class that I was kicked out due to the teacher and I having a disagreement over whether or not it was proper for me to engage the use of a video camera in note taking (to be fair to him, I probably should have asked before starting to record). Anyway, the night before the final a bunch of us met up at the aforementioned office to share notes and study. Well, that was the plan anyway. I think we ended up doing a lot more goofing around and picture taking with a Polaroid (I'm pretty sure Thomas started that). But hey, I got an A in the class.
"I do, bro! I do! But do YOU remember who I am?"
I sure do. Like QD, I actually met Justin way back in '89 at Morningside. He was one of the few grains of salt in a shaker that was full of black pepper. We never thought about it at the time but in retrospect I can't help but wonder what some parents were thinking by allowing their kids to go to that school. Sure the academic aspect of the Pre-International Baccalaureate program was both rigorous and well-renowned. But could they not see where the school was? I don't know if I could send my kids to a junior high that had a liquor store right across the street and had SWAT teams stopping by on a weekly basis.
Anyway, in corresponding with all these people, I realize that there are a lot of them that I would really like to see again. High school is an experience that almost everyone goes through but everyone's recollection is different. I think it'll be a lot of fun to relive some of those moments.
TITLE TAKEN
Pigeon John; "High School Reunion"
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