Junior Senior

Eleventh grade would bring a lot of change. I met Nacho on the school bus. I’m not sure why I was riding the bus. It could have been after I rear-ended my VW bug into some crazy chick, driving in what I thought was fog but turned out to be a broken defroster. Or maybe it was just because that piece of junk didn’t start half the time. I frequently got rides to marching band in Scott’s Camaro with a bass you could hear from two blocks away and to jazz band with Jason Ruddy, who is my uncle’s grandson.

Regardless, Nacho was a Catalan living in Madrid, which he attempted to elucidate the significance of. He told me about futbol, and gave me a shirt that said futbol, but it would be until years later that I’d discover Ronaldinho and finally realize what he’d been trying to explain. Because his host family had to move and he didn’t want to change schools again, Nacho ended up moving in and living with us for the school year.

Before Nacho could even speak English, we went to Hardee’s with Faith and Charity Abuhl, where it was revealed that both of them were interested in dating me. (Not at the same time, obviously.) Charity was more audacious but Faith was prettier and my age, so I went with her. Her parents had a rule that we could only go on two dates a week, which we probably thought was criminally cruel at the time, but was actually a good idea. She introduced me to tennis. We ate a lot of fast food and saw a bunch of movies. Honestly, we didn’t have that much in common, and anyway we were too naive to know what our interests were or what to do with our time.

After I wrecked the bug, my brother gave me his Ford Festiva. A group of seniors would amuse themselves by picking it up and carrying it to random places in the school lot. I wrecked the Festiva, too, by running a yield sign in front on the school and getting sideswiped by a Camaro.

My drum instructor finally succeeded in convincing me to start actually listening to jazz music. Max Roach’s Drums Unlimited completely changed my views of what was possible on the drumset, and soon I was buying up every jazz CD that was recommended to me. Also around this time, I got into Jimi Hendrix and Erik introduced me to all manner of gangsta rap. I watched Star Trek: Next Generation and Northern Exposure religiously. I also read a lot of classic literature. I became close friends with a kid at my church named Michael Gossen, and we hung out on most Sunday afternoons. Clay Scarborough would come over not infrequently to escape his rough home life and we’d spend the evenings watching anime, Godzilla, kung-fu, samurai and camp (B) movies. I don’t know how Clay knew so much so early in life, except that he was more perceptive than anyone I’d ever met. I’d also wander over to Dave Shultz’s house and get beat at ping pong. Most of what I remember about school itself involves screwing around with Dave- seeing how close we could get to getting in trouble without actually getting in trouble. I spent a lot of time in detention for trifles so hackneyed I doubt they even bothered to tell my parents.

Larry Cory and Andrew Larsen would continuously harass me to let them cheat off my tests in Mrs. Christensen’s class, the content of which I don’t even remember. Jeremy Wicks and I dissected a cat in Advanced Biology. We watched Ken Burn’s Civil War series in Mr. Taylor’s class, during which this kid sat behind me and drew me pictures. He was another kid that got picked on, and I only remember that everyone called him “Doorstop.” I hope that kid turned out alright….

During the summer between eleventh and twelfth grades, I worked during the day at a concession stand on the ninth hole of the Ankeny Golf & Country Club golf course. This young kid who lived across the street would join me. We’d listen to Adam Sandler and serve extremely strong mixed drinks to well-tipping golfers while helping ourselves to candy bars. I can’t fathom why I was allowed to do that job unsupervised.

A waitress named Kristin Gamble, who’s twin sister had been there all along, started working at the AG&CC restaurant, where I worked in the evenings washing dishes until I was promoted to making salads. I exerted a lot of energy playing practical jokes on Kristin.

I got good enough at tennis that I’d routinely go to the courts by the library and defeat the kids that were actually on the North Polk tennis team, which would make them extremely pissed, much to my amusement.

My senior year of high school was basically more of the same. Josh Kortbein introduced me to Nirvana. Cory Webb introduced me to Soundgarden. Beth Dudley tried to introduce me to Brooks and Dunn. I somehow discovered Smashing Pumpkins and Blind Melon. Dave and I spent way to much time making a computer game called Clue II. We took a class trip to Washington DC. My most vivid memory of that is being alone in a hotel room listening to a Tony Williams CD and having the guys I was rooming with come running in to telling me to join then at the pool because Erin Bequeaith was wearing a skimpy bikini. I didn’t care, and continued listening to the CD.

I spent my last summer before college still working at the AG&CC restaurant, and the person I’d miss the most when I went away to college with Faith was Kristin.