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October 1980. My Birthday. Out cruising around in the Torino GT with R Smith, T Noll & S Spain. Everybody forgot my Bday so as a present they had me pull into a stop & go mini-mart. It is October so there are cheap little trick-or-treat masks for-sale. You know, the cheap plastic ones with 2 eye holes and a rubber-band stapled on to them. They 'obtained' a casper, cinderella and a spider-man. We then proceeded to the Donatos pizza place on N. High St. If you remember, hiking boots with untied red shoe strings were cool at that time. The Donatos was designed with large double glass doors on each side of the lobby and counter. It was a packed place serving a ton of pizza to after the football game crowds from several area schools. They had me pull up to the south side entrance. They removed all their clothes. Totally naked with the exception of the masks and the hiking boots. They jumped out and I sped around to the north entrance. All I saw was the south doors burst open...casper, cinderella and spider man...units bouncing and hiking boots...it was like slow motion...people jumping out of the way as they streaked through headed to my car just outside the north doors.
As the North doors burst open I could not help myself. I punched the gas and burnded rubber as I sped out of the parking lot leaving the naked cinderella, spiderman and casper standing outside the north entrance cursing and giving me the bird. I did a 180' in the middle of N High St and pulled back in...they appeared from behind landscaping and parked cars and dove through the windows of the Torino cursing me out the whole time...funny as crap...great Bday present.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last day of school, 1981. R Smith, G Wenneker & I stayed out way past lunch. We were in my International Scout 4x4 truck mudding around in the 315 & School entrance construction areas. We came flying onto the front school grounds with the muddy Scout, airborne from a muddy construction dip, and landed with a thump right infront of the main entrance and Dr Cavanaughs office...inches from his little red Fiat sportscar. The Scout stalled and G Wenneker was all bruised up from riding in the seat and seat-beltless metal rear bench. Suddenly we heard yelling and looked up at the upper floor windows to see our fellow students and Mr Stietz, teacher of the class we were supposed to be in, shouting for us to get our butts up there asap! We arrived just as John Stietz was passing out test scores. He saved ours for last and he had changed our grades to big red 'F's which he announced out-loud as he handed them to us. R Smith, being the artist he was...is...whipped up a sketch of John Stietz dressed as Santa w/o pants. (Do not get me wrong...J Stietz was one of my favorite teachers and we both enjoyed vintage airplanes etc...) John Stietz siezed the drawing, cracked a smile, and placed it in his lunch box. Years later, after he retired, I had lunch at his house and he still had the drawing! R Smith and I even visited his home once to look at some of his airplane stuff he was parting out with. He was a great guy. I remember he used to drive a real old Barracuda with the huge rear window, one of the real early small mopars. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Open-lunch story (there are many) T Noll and I went to McDonalds on N High Street (The one near Bob Kiem Ford just south of worthington) We were driving his green 1970 Camaro. The entire Whetstone foot ball team was behind us filling the bed of two pick-up trucks. I do not recall why words were exchanged but Tim & I wound up giving them the bird. The light to pull onto High Street turned red but there was no traffic...I looked in the side rear-view mirror and definitely saw objects that looked huge and way closer then they appeared. The were piling out of the pick-up trucks and headed for us. There was no traffic and I yelled for Timbo to hit the gas...but we did'nt. They surrounded the car and one of them kicked or hit the car or something and Timbo started to open the door...I felt like Magnum PI as I pleaded with Tim not to exit the car and just run the light but we did'nt. And Tim got out. Well, my buddy is now in a bad situation so i took a deep breath and exited the car. No sooner did I have my second foot on the ground...I saw four huge knuckles with a class ring in slow-motion...heading for me... WAHMMO! I fell back into the car... See part 2 below... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following Saturday we were out cruising High Street; R smith, T Noll, S Spain & me. At the entrance to the Graceland shopping Center there was a Ponderosa or Bonanza steak house. Parked out front were the two Whetstone Pick-Up trucks!!! We snuck up and let the air out of all eight of those big tires. Then I went to the window, got their attention and gave'em the bird. As they came out in a trot they saw me dive into the rear of S Spains car. As we took off they headed for their trucks but stopped dead looking at all their tires...as a safety precaution for us I yelled 'Bishop Watterson Rules!!!' and we took off. I hope nobody at watterson had a car like Gonzo (S Spain) had! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Teacher Tim Hartzler: Speech class: A required course that I delayed until my senior year (I was the only senior in it) Final speech for the final grade. I inserted a video tape of M Bartley & I as the blues brothers singing and dancing in a tape required for his schooling at the Fort hayes Career Center. I hit play..the class watched and laughed. Afterwords Mr Hartzler said 'what is that?' I said 'a video tape' he said 'for your final speech?' I said 'yes' he said 'I can see that...A+' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Science class...Bob Hill teacher. He used to have weekly tests and self grading. I remember he would ask each person what their score was... guess the rest of that story. Bob Hill was a real nice guy. A few years after High School, maybe 1984 or so, he had already retired. M Bartley and I looked him up and dropped by his home. He had tears in his eyes and told us that no former students had ever visited him! I was one of his worst students ever. But he knew something about me. I had a lot of trouble with school work, science, math etc... did not really click into place until the mid 1980s for me. He had a student teacher for a while. A cocky guy named Ted Fuss. Ted always said he was going to be a Naval Aviator. He used to yell at me in total shaken confusion as to why I did'nt understand or retain his science lessons. One day, just for fun, he was doing a slide-show on old Navy airplanes. Each slide I identified each type and model number, even correcting him on several occassions. he flipped out and started yelling something about how could I have a learnig disability but retain and know all that detailed information...he was really freaking out...I'll bet he went to some other profession instead of teaching...he may be thanking me to this day for that. 1986...I was at Veterans Memorial..armed guard for a gem & stone show. Mr. Hill was in the line to come and look at his passion...rocks and stones...I got him out of line and snuck him in the security entrance bypassing the $15 entry fee!
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