"Settle down, my wart, er WARD. He's just in the 80s again. Not quite ready for his final caper."
Yes indeed, it is time for another trip into the 80s. We have come a long way so far, from a constantly moving family to being firmly established in a house and school district and parents firmly in their jobs. A far cry from the 1970s for the Moores. With that, we head into...
1986
This year was actually a bit bizarre compared to the past few before this. On the homefront, my dad had been called away to another far-off job site, this time in Berkeley, California, for long periods of time.
During the end of the Christmas break, I had found a show on USA late at night that I had caught a few times before that in previous years: The Edge of Night. This was a soap opera that revolved around crime and mystery. I started to record it nightly, sometimes thwarted by a parent or sister who took the VCR program off. The Edge of Night was important to me because it got me wanting to write my own stories. Whew, how THAT has evolved over time!
Also soon into this year, my sister's year and a half romance with Chris had come to an end, and she found a new guy soon after that, a quieter one named Rob. He was ok, I liked him, but he wasn't as outgoing as Chris.
At school, I was getting used to the rigors of junior high, lugging my stuff around instead of locker stops, but that's what worked for me. As there were only 3 main classroom corridors plus P.E. in the north end and art and shop on the west hallway, Wilson Central was easy to navigate.
Lunchtime was pretty fun. Unlike the elementary school offerings, we tended to have more of a choice of what we could have, plus a salad bar. If I recall correctly, there seemed to be an overorder of meat by the district, because we had a lot of choices for protein by year's end. I generally sat with a good set of friends: Mike Eisenhower, A.J. Geiss, Jez Lickter, and Derek Coller. I had known Derek since the third grade, but hadn't hung with him much. Starting in 7th grade, I was hanging with him a little more often, and by high school we were good buds.
For Valentine's Day, the school had an interesting sale going: carnations to a potential sweetie or established sweetie, with varying colors denoting levels of sweetie-ness. There were also surveys that found potential matches. I seem to recall lying my ass off on those, which resulted in matches I couldn't quite believe....but then I assume others lied as well. I can't imagine these things happen anymore (the surveys, not lying).
Before I knew it, the climax of the year was upon us and I was about to experience the rituals of final exams for the first time. I had notebooks for every major class with extensive notes in each, so I had some cram sessions before each test. Generally how it worked was, we went into a room like the gym or cafeteria and took a multi-page test, often filling in the answers on a scantron sheet. Oh, those were the days! After we were done, we'd go hang out someplace like outside the school. We weren't all that supervised after finishing a test, just on the honor system, knowing full well attendance was taken in the PM as well.
And then, it was summer! An unsually LONG one at that, but I'll get into that soon. I went to one last session of scout camp at Hawk Mountain. It was pretty good, I knew how things worked and had a great time. In July, my dad decided to take my sister and I on another trip, this time to California. Even though I was cooped up with my sister again, I enjoyed this trip a bit more. The Bay Area was a lot more fun to explore when my dad was off of work. At the end, he took us on a brief jaunt to Yosemite...I learned a new meaning to being rushed....I wrote about this one previously: https://bitethismapquest.blogspot.com/2011/08/yosemitein-less-than-day.html
At the end of that trip, my dad and I flew back to Pennsylvania while my sister spent some time with my aunt and family in San Diego. My dad returned to Berekley soon after that.
Apart from that, the summer of 1986 consisted of riding bikes with my friends, watching Edge, and staying up late followed by massive sleep-ins, sometimes until after noon! Movies seen included Big Trouble in Little China, The Money Pit, Back to School, Ruthless People, and Karate Kid part 2.
Our cable system was also upgraded from the old system of just a cord in the TV to a cord connected to a decoder box on the TV to the VCR and finally to the TV set. With the box came a little remote and we now had access to even more channels we didn't watch, though Nick at Nite was a fun one for old shows. Because of this new setup, the cable box had to be left on USA for Edge to tape. Many episodes were not seen due to the box being on the wrong channel (lukcily I have them all on disc and accessible on Youtube now).
But trouble was brewing in our lives. As the school year's beginning should have commenced, there was the famous Wilson teacher's strike! Lots of kids found themselves dangerously unsupervised for an extra month, me included. Well, for me that was not exactly true. Having a mom who worked in a college library meant having a mom who could find things to keep my brain occupied with something other than unattainable girls! She found me some math books to read and do practice from. She also had me watch a historical movie or 2 and write reports on them.
As October came, the strike came to a close and we started the 8th grade late...and with a lot of time to catch up on. The 8th grade line-up was as follows:
Physical Science: Mr Guisewite, an older character we had fun with....often at his expense.
8th grade advanced English with Ms Stephanie Brok, probably the coolest junior high teacher I can remember...the strike had not affected her fun attitude with the class.
Math with Mr. Schweigert again, same old same old.
Writing with Dr. Skinkus...Doc, as he allowed me to call him. He could be seen as stuffy at times, but I got along with him fine.
Shop was more focused on architectural design this year while Home Ec was Home Ec. And again one part of the year was art while the other part was music. PE was always PE.
Social studies was in the form of world history with Ms Steigerwalt.
And then there was French I with Mademoiselle Judith Williams. Ah the joy of conjugating French verbs and counting to 20...looking back, that was a fun class. We got to give ourselves French names....I went with Damian at first but after some teasing I switched to Gabriel...which drew more teasing. I seemed to attract it, nerd I was! I was generally referred to as "Gabby" that year in AND out of French class. The joys of early teenhood.
With a new year came a few new acquaintances, some I had met briefly in 7th but got to know better in 8th: Heather Peterson, Robyn Stauffer( a gorgeous redhead), and Megan Varndell, all in my science class; Corey Chick, an upbeat fun girl; Brian Krupa in English and study hall; JJ Suk; Mary Panos in my homeroom; Dave Hoffman, a wacky new friend who became part of our gang. Along with them I saw a lot of Whitfield alumni liem Kevin Fehr, Joe Lenart, Bill Gillmore, Zach Hunchar, Derek Coller, Mike Eisenhower, Kim Schroll, Karen Wiley, Pete Coldren, James Cooke, Jez Likter, and A.J. (those 2 had a fun banter!). Jeremy Bitz was finaly in 7th, though he was hanging more with Ed Kern than me...and Mike Stout had had trouble in 7th so he was held back and not seen much anymore. Ah, alliances at those ages are definitely more fluid.
Shortly after the school year began, I went with my folks on a weekend trip to Michigan to attend a Michigan State homecoming game. During that trip, I experienced a Moore men round of golf: my dad, Bompa Moore, and my Uncle Chris. We had breakfast at the Red Run Country Club before playing...well, I didn't play, but I saw some muted tempers after a bad shot...hell, I was happy just to hit the ball at the driving range. This would turn out to be the last time I saw Bompa Moore as well as spend time in the Fitzmorris house on Alicia Court. 😢
Christmas break was a bit abbreviated as we had time to catch up on at school, and attended a few days between Christmas and New Year, though we got the afternoon of New Year's Eve off. My grandparents came, and notably it was the last Christmas I would spend with Grandpa Fitz.😢
1987
Not so much upheaval this year aside from a major loss and an interest change (not financial!). Not much happened in January. My dad seemed to be at home more now, riding his exercise bike regularly. Kristin was still with Rob, and my mom was still happy at Kutztown.
In February, my Bompa Moore had a fall and he was taken to the hospital. We talked to him on the phone on his 75th birthday...and the next day he had died. I remember it vividly. I was sitting in science class when the call came to come to the office. My dad was there and I knew. It took a bit to track down my sister (in P.E. I think), but once the clan was togehter, we made for Michigan, getting there at about 10p.m. My Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Chris were at the Moore house looking after Bompa's wife Phyllis. I slept on the couch in the den. During that sad trip, I spent some time with my mom's folks, who had moved from their house in Royal Oak to an apartment in Troy. I was missing the bar and ping pong table in the old basement, but the new place was very birght and cheerful. I cried a lot at the viewing, it was my first exposure to real death as a teenager and I wasn't handling it well. I fared a bit better at the funeral. In that trip I also saw some of my Aunt Terry and cousin Erica who happened to be in town. We along wiith Terry's friend Marilyn went for a visit to Greenfield Village and the henry Ford Museum in Dearborn one day...it was a welcome repsite from the sad occasion.
A few weeks later, my dad and I took a rented truck back to Michigan and, with Uncles Chris and Harvey, got a lot of Bompa's stuff, including the majority of his Lionel trains and his bar. We also took some things to Uncle Chris's house in Ferndale. Before leaving, we had breakfast with Uncle Chris and Uncle Harvey....a pleasant Bon Voyage before the long trek home.
Somehow that whole experience sort of dragged my mood down for the rest of the school year. Granted I was 14 and fairly moody and hormonal anyway, so it wasn't a stretch. My interest in schoolwork had decreased a bit, resulting in decreased grades.
Meanwhile, my dad set about remodeling our basement into a 2part room. One part was laundry and tools while the other part was a newly carpeted and foam-tiled ceiling with the bar, shelves with the trains, and some furniture to make the room more amenable to hanging out in.A nice riase in property value!
By June, my sister was graduating from high school. My mom's folks came out for the occasion. For me, it was another killer session of finals, going well into the last part of June.
Soon afterward, we took a fmaily vacation to Yosemite, this time not so rushed. A limo service driver took us to Newark where we stayed at a strange hotel called the Franklin Inn (I believe because it was cheap and close to the airport). We didn't touch much and got some room service. Next morning, we flew into Reno and took the eastern approach, which was more scenic. We stayed in a motel in Bridgeport, California, then crossed into the park the next morning, staying in the motel we'd stayed at the previous year, the Yosemite View Inn in metro El Portal. As it was only a place to sleep, it worked. Aside from horseback riding, we hiked and drove. A very fun trip! On the way home, we got to Minneapolis ok, but our plane to Newark was canceled, so we had to grab a flight to O'Hare on one airline (American) and then to Newark on another (Continental). Luckily, our limo service driver was waiting at the baggage claim in Newark so our ride home was safe...we got home at 3a.m.
Later that summer, I resigned my commission in the Boy Scouts (3 years did it for me) and I began taking Tae Kwon Do classes, getting into good shape. In August, I flew by myself to Michigan to spend time with my mom's folks and Erica,who was also visiting. We spent some good time together and even had an early birthday party for my grandfather's 69th.
Movies seen: 3 Men and a Baby, Stakeout, The Untouchables, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Dragnet, and Summer School.
Come September, it was time to begin the 9th grade, and ON TIME with happier teachers. I generally saw pretty much the same people in terms of classmates and friends. Classes were as follows:
-Earth and Space with Carolyn Houtz...Dave Hoffman and I goofed around a lot in there, and my grades showed it!
-Advanced English with Doc Skinkus...this one was fun with Jez Likter and Brian Krupa and other fun folks. A decent amount of Shakespeare in there among other titles.
-French with Madame Nancy Fisher...for this one, Stacie Matchicka and I walked up to the high school. We were with generally high schoolers, sort of out of our league but it made for exercise anyway.
-Algebra with Mr. Zimmerman...Dave was with me in here too, we had some fun but also helped each other with the new math system.
-U.S. (part 1) History with Mr Harry Miller, we had fun in here with Jez, Casie, Mary, Jessica, and Jack.
-Art and music halvsies again. I enjoyed music a bit more since there was a rock focus.
-Home Ec and Shop halvsies again. I remember slicing a finger just a tad in shop...oops. I self-healed there without a tetanus shot. In Home Ec, Corey Chick and I seemed to make a pretty good team in the cooking part of the class.
-General Business with Reggie Weiss...really some good sense stuff when it came to money management. Jez and Zach and A.J. were in that class along with an older girl named Candy Strasser who had experienced a teenage pregnancy and was playing catch-up. What I remember here is Reggie Weiss telling Zach, "Stop being an asshole," when he kept messing around.
-And then there was P.E. Somehow in a scheduling mix up I got out of swimming that year and got put with a bunch of the athletes in the weightlifting program. Something else new for me...Mr Ruth really helped me to set goals and by the year's end I had a little tone going.
Kyle Kline had been one of my major teasers for a while, but by the middle of the year we were getting along pretty well...we were even partners on a rainy muddy relay day Mr Ruth had impending for us.
For my 15th birthday, I had a sleepover with a bunch of buddies...one of whom brought a "blue" VHS tape, if you get my drift. Ah memories!
At Christmas, I got a brand new computer desk...you know, a big old set of particle board with a fake wood finish. It took my dad almost all day, but I finally had a new place to play and write. I was also in an early form of "online", with a modem calling 'bulletin board systems" to post messages and download games, some that worked, others didn't. That was a pretty good Christmas as I recall! Shortly after, my parents went to pasadena for the Rose Bowl, since Michigan State was in it...meaning my sister and I were by ourselves (she was home for the holidays anyway). We mostly stayed out of each others' way, even on New Year's Eve, when she had some friends over to party. Jez and I roamed the neighborhoods visiting people and spent the night at my house.
1987 started off sadly, but ended on a better note!
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