To me, High School was a higher level of socialization as well as a higher level of education

Summer has barely begun and already kids are heading back to school. And with that comes some memories.

To those of you who have ever owned a boat you know that the two best days in your life as a boat owner is the day you buy the boat and the day you sell the boat. I think the same thing stands true for going to high school. Obviously, the last day of school speaks for itself. But the first day of the school year, well now that's a wonderful day as well.

For me at Fairview High School in Dayton, Ohio there were three criteria that would determine how successful my school year would be and the needed steps would line up like the the stars at night depending on how each fell into place. Hopefully in complete harmony.

First: The classes that I had signed up for.

I was in what was referred to as the College Prep program. Coming from a parochial school, Our Lady of Mercy, apparently my counselor, Mrs. Culp, gave me much more credit for being smarter than I was. Each year I was plagued with having to take hard courses like Advanced Biology, Chemistry and German. Dang people, I was in high school to have fun not learn anything. I think they added a sub-division to the College Prep curriculum after I graduated and called it College Prep/CYA. That stood for Cover Your Ass, which was what I would have to do each subsequent year by taking more General Education classes just so I wouldn't get sent back a year.

So, as each school year began, I would get my schedule and estimate just how much I would have to put into it. I always set my sites on a "C", that way I figured I could get by without doing anything including homework and if I applied myself even the slightest I would look like potential National Honor Society material.

Second: Who was in my class.

Each year's social season is based on how many people you could see in one day either in the hallways or classroom. The first class of the day was Homeroom. It's purpose was to ....um....er....hmm, let's see. The purpose of the Homeroom was to...well, I guess it was where the first attendance was taken for the day. Most of the time, I barely got into my seat by the time the first bell rang. About all I can remember about Homeroom was that I stared at the back of Scott Kelso's head for four years and John Kimmel stared at the back of mine for four years, always asking me what  was I doing the next weekend.

For the rest of the classes tho, it was always exciting to see who was going to be in your class. Most of the time it gave you a chance to meet and get to know more people; ergo. the Socialization part of learning, Sometimes tho, if you were in the same class of someone you had recently had a falling-out with, known as "breakup", you were screwed because you would have to suffer stares and glares for a whole semester.
In addition to being in the same class, proper seating locations was just as important. Usually you got stuck behind that same head you had already been staring at during Homeroom. The classroom was the center point for catching up on any news that had occurred in just the previous hour. You have to remember, we didn't have texting back then and there were only two ways of passing along important stuff like who is dating who. Either you sent it by folded up notes or left a note in someone's locker through the little vent hole. And that leads me to the third criteria.

Third: Locker Assignments.

I have no idea and maybe some of my friends who later became teachers can help me......Who in the heck assigns lockers in a school?

In four years of high school, I had two of the best locations and two of the worst locations. Fortunately, my senior year was one of my best locations. It was very near to the area we referred to as "Third and Main". It was the center point for traffic as people when back and forth to class. You could see friends, you could pass messages, you could exchange homework in split seconds. You could arrange dates, heck you could even "break-up" as in the fore mentioned situation. The downside of that specific location was that it was near the Offices and you weren't allowed a lot of horseplay. One of the worst locker locations was down in the Shop area where you were completely shutoff from conversation with the opposite sex.  And as I said, that was the whole purpose of High School....It was about Socialization.

 Yes, the first day of school was terrific. And, each following day was almost as much fun. Would I have been a better person had I spent more time at  academic education?  Perhaps. But then I wouldn't have had as many fun stories to tell.

Have a great day and have some great memories.