Journals : 1979
Introduction:
1979. The end of my days at Allen jr. High and the beginning of my time at Smith High School. If these early entries seem a little unsophisticated and lacking in depth, that's because I was just learning and hadn't yet developed the literary-style tendency to over-analyze. This would come later. There are also more pictures later on...
Notations in grey are "editorial comments" from the present; other than that everything is quoted directly. This stuff is heavily excerpted from a couple hundred pages of handwritten notes.
SOME NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED!!
Soundtrack:
Doors, Beatles, Elvis Costello, Supertramp, The Knack, Todd Rundgren, Earth Wind and Fire, The Police, Blondie, Styx, The Cars, Foreigner, Rickie Lee Jones, Dire Straits, Flash and the Pan.
4 January 1979:
Smoked in the darkroom with Stacy. Didn't get caught. Smoked in the bathroom. Did. 2000-word theme due next Thursday.
8-9 January 1979:
Parents got letter today. Promised them no more smoking...Smoked in bathroom at lunch...Skipped fourth period...Theme due tomorrow.
19 January 1979:
Got caught smoking...Brilliant scheme: told dad I was in bathroom, someone else was smoking. Said I thought I could work it out. Dad said OK...I'm in a hell of a mess.
29 January 1979:
Spent most of day in detention...smoked behind gym at lunch. (What was I thinking?)
8 February 1979:
Smoked a joint with Barry.
25 February 1979:
Thinking back: Around the second or third month of school, someone started a rumor that I was gay. It soon spread like wildfire and I lost almost all the friends I already had...
12 March 1979:
Hyatt says one of my teachers thinks I've been using drugs. I told dad. He's mad as hell...Talked to Maguire...says she's just concerned about my "change in attitude"
22 March 1979:
Getting real close to Polly...she'd never go with me...Really like her.
23 April 1979:
Thinking back: The few friends I had were in about the same boat I was in. They were brains too. They didn't have many friends either. And they never got in trouble. The one exception was Keith...a cool kid in Geometry. He hung around me a little, even when everyone else was calling me a "queer"...I started smoking at school...I slowly and surely began to win friends. The strange thing: the people that were my worst enemies last year became my best friends this year.
30 April 1979:
Y'know, Pat's pretty cool. I could see getting along with him. We're pretty good friends but only at school...But after today, I got the idea we might start hanging around AFTER school...If mom and dad met him, they'd hate his guts after one look. Do I care?
15 July 1979:
Watched Jimmy Carter speech.
13 September 1979:
OK...I've been at Smith almost three weeks now and I'm doing OK...I'm proud of myself because I think I've overcome the shyness, and it's about fucking time. I think it's the cigarettes. (This is truly frightening and I actually believed it...)
3 November 1979:
Had KKK fight this morning near Dudley. This might start something big. There was a curfew tonight. (This was the famous KKK-CWP bloodbath later immortalized by tons of documentaries and a song by OMD.)
29 November 1979:
M----l and I decided to skip the rest of the day and visit Allen Jr. High...The new assistant principal saw us...We said we'd leave. Just as we were leaving, two police cars drove up. We kept going...We figured we could outrun them if they came after us. Unfortunately we forgot that cops can drive on grass....We all crowded into the cop car...The officer decided not to take us in...He took me home. My dad wasn't there and I didn't have my key so he just talked to me some outside. I apologized and I don't really think I'll hear any more about it. (Strangely enough, I didn't.)
12 December 1979:
I never heard anything else about it. Mandel and I are planning to head over there again during exams.
13 December 1979:
Took Primatene tablets...they're damn good. Never had anything quite like it. Put me in a very good mood.
31 December 1979:
Took more Primatenes...went out with Barry and his girlfriend...to get drunk and see "Rocky Horror". Met Mandel and Jesse at Fast Fare. we ended up getting drunk as shit...I decided to walk home. Dad caught me.