Middlesex Junior High and 1966-67 and student body treasurer and social life and darien connecticut

Junior High is such an awkward time of one's life. You are dissatisfied with your body, no matter how sculpted you are; afraid of the opposite sex; vulnerable to the taunts of the "cool kids"; and fearful of teacher and coach alike. Then there was the real spirit in the air, or at least I picked it up from somewhere, that if I didn't "succeed" in my work at school I was consigning myself to a lifetime of failure.

But I did develop lots of friendships and considered myself fortunate to be able to mingle both with the pocket-protector-wearing science nerds as well as the short-skirt-wearing cheerleaders. I was not, however, simply a jock or a nerd or the most popular kid in the school, but I mingled characteristics of all three. In the past year I struck up a brief email correspondence with Christine, an old classmate; she described me as "fun" and "smart as a tack" from those days. There must be a word we could come up with that would capture this binatarian or trinitarian reality. Three areas I would like to explore briefly in these final two essays are my student government life, my social life and my athletic aspirations.

Student Body Treasurer

At my brother's urging (he was two years older than I), I ran for and won the office of student body treasurer for 1966-67. If there was one thing in which my family especially excelled, it was in adding numbers; I figured I would be a natural for the position. I didn't know that we had little money and less authority, but I had fun devising a campaign with my brother's help. Rick, being a junior in high school and interested in girls, decided I should run a campaign with all kinds of veiled sexual innuendos in my posters. Instead of the regular posters, with a head shot of a person washing his hair in the shower with a possible caption of "Come clean, Vote Long," he guided me to rather seductive pictures of women from various magazines, with captions underneath that we would compose such as "Lay down the law and vote Long." I had only a vague notion of what Rick meant by this, but he seemed to be quite happy with himself as he promoted my campaign. In fact, he told me to hang the posters up at least 7' above the ground, since the counselor who monitored the "cleanness" of the ads, Mr. Willoughby, was only about 5'3" and wouldn't be able to reach them to take them down. Sure enough, a few days later I received a missive from Mr. Willoughby telling me to take down some questionable posters. I think it took me a while to respond to him, and by that time I had won the election though, come to think of it, I never laid down any law to anyone after being elected.

So, this began my political career, which really didn't end until 1990. I was Student Body Treasurer of my high school (Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, CA) in 1969-70, became President of the Brown Christian Fellowship (1972-73), President of the Student Body at theological seminary (1976-77), and, finally, Board Member of Portland Community College (1985-90, chair in 1986-87). Actually, at one point I thought I was destined to a political future, but six years in Kansas (1990-96) gradually eroded that ambition.

Social Life

I did manage, for the first and only time in my life, to begin to hang out with a crowd who would have bi-monthly parties on a Friday or Saturday night at the girls' houses. There were about 12 or 14 of us, and I think we were sort of "coupled," even as I don't remember much about the girl I was supposed to be with. I do know, however, that there was one girl who was terribly interested in me as he year progressed. Margery was her name. Actually, she was very cute and smart. She lazered in on me, I think, because I was almost the tallest guy in the school (I was 6'1" in 9th grade) and she was either 5'11" or 6 feet tall. This was before the days where it was cool for girls to be tall. Time after time she would give me invitations to do things with her; on each occasion, for some unknown reason, I would decline. It was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made with girls, I think, not to respond to her overtures. Nevertheless, I became part of this group of about 14 9th graders who would sing, dance, listen to music, play pool, eat, and talk at the various very nice Darien homes of my friends. We were all good kids--there was no drinking or drugs at the parties, even though some of the couples would seemingly be curiously absent for some time during the parties.

I was popular enough by the end of 9th grade to be a major figure in a drama composed by the editors of the 9th grade yearbook. Since the show "Batman" was popular at the time, the yearbook story of our class included a "Batman-type" scenario of supposed danger and rescue. However, the person rescuing the alluring beauty in our class drama was "Fatman"--which was my nickname. I don't recall how I got the name, and I certainly wasn't fat in 9th grade, but because I don't think I was emaciated, my friends jokingly referred to me as "Fatman." So, "Fatman" saved the day in our yearbook. I wish I still had a copy of it. And, oh, in the same 9th grade yearbook drama, Margery was the elevator operator. Opposite the reference to her in the story she wrote the following words in my yearbook (I still recall them): "Bill, if you ever want to get high..."

I guess the wells of nostalgia are gushing today, and I will need one more essay to finish.

1873