My High School Journey Begins – 1962 – Memoir Continued

Admiral King High School in Lorain OH. It was brand new and opened the year before I started. So ours would be the 2nd class to graduate, completing all four years there, the class of 1966.

I took Algebra in summer school so that I wouldn’t have to take in ninth grade… and to get me out of working with Dad as much as possible. Summer school didn’t get me completely out of it, but it certainly helped (my sanity). Having to work with Dad, the uber perfectionist, almost ‘broke’ me.

Orchestra rehearsal was the first period every day throughout my four years of high school. The orchestra director and soon to become Guy’s and my violin teacher was Mr. Donald Codey. We took lessons from him on Saturdays at Driscol’s Music Store on Broadway, downtown Lorain.

My next crush hit me out of the blue, Rosalin Spesatto. She sat first chair violin. She was a senior (so I didn’t have a chance), beautiful, a bit more mature than Antoinette, and an excellent violinist. What was it with me and crushes on girls who sat first chair violin?

I also took a programed-learning English class in ninth grade to get me out of regular English and into what they called College English, which gave me more credits toward graduation than regular English would have. My teacher was Mr. Fitzgerald, who was impressed with my recitation of the Rubaiyat from memory. I progressed to Advanced Writing class by my senior year. The rest of my classes aren’t worth talking about, boring, mundane, snooze-worthy, etc.

That year, Dad picked up a Charles Atlas course for me from one of his customers whose son had joined the military and no longer needed it. Yes, I was a skinny, gauky 15 year old. So, I read the lessons and worked hard on the ‘dynamic tension’ exercises. That was his method, which he claimed he developed after watching jungle cats at the zoo. It worked pretty well for me, and I did get stronger and more filled out. I also had tried to do wrestling at the Y, but the coach told me I was too uncoordinated and I’d never learn it. Eventually, Judo proved that to be a load of BS from a lazy coach.

When the school year ended, I had to work for Dad. I had been working for him most weekends during the school year anyway. Even when he didn’t take me to or send me with one of his installers to a job, he’d have me, and sometimes Guy too, removing bent nails from all the lumber (piled in the backyard) he brought back from various jobs that he thought he could salvage and use.

To be Continued

–LE