School Days: Continued

My high school friend Catherine Hendricks had a heart of gold. She was always doing good deeds for others. Loved dogs. Hers was named Bilbo Baggins, after the literary character. Once in science she brough dog biscuits for everyone to try. I passed. Catherine was one of a group of kids who lived near Mercer. Their parents taught there. One afternoon I had gym class, and was standing in the only doorway looking out on the parking lot. The door was the only feature on that side of the building, so it was the only thing to look at. As I looked out the door, wearing shorts and sneakers but no t-shirt, Catherine and our friend Bob Brewster were walking past the gym. I waved. They waved back. Catherine swears she looked away after that. That’s when marty Drawhorn snuck up and pulled down my gym shorts, exposing my tighty whitey underwear. Bob said it was the funniest thing he ever saw. Catherine swears she didn’t see it. I quickly stepped out of the doorway.

As a senior I was Catherine’s campaign manager for her homecoming queen campaign. I made posters and gave a speech. Everyone loved Catherine. She won. Though pretty, she was far from the beauty queen stereotype. More of the 4-H, gets your hands dirty type. Not sure what all the other girls thought about her win. To celebrate I took Catherine to dinner at Beall’s 1960, a fancy restaurant on College Street. It was our only “date”.

A year or two later her younger sister Barbara Jean won homecoming queen. Barbara Jean was later homecoming queen at Mercer. Now Catherine is the head librarian at West Georgia College. Bill Teem knew her from when they both taught at a small college in Videlia. Bob Brewster had been one of my first friends in junior high. Now he’s a veterinarian in Athens. Marty Drawhorn just passed away last year, after a long career for the Bibb County Board of Education.

Back in the 1970’s one of my favorite singers was Jim Stafford. He was like Ray Stevens. Had several funny hits, like “I Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes” and Wildwood Flower”.

In college when I was home for the summer I went out a few times with a girl from church. Our families knew each other well. One summer afternoon a thunderstorm hit, knocking out the phone lines. I had previously mentioned to this girl about a Saturday night date, but we hadn’t finalized our plans. I couldn’t call, so I just drove over to her house. She was happy to go, but had to get ready. Not sure if this was the same night, but we had to drive to the other side of town to go to the movies. I was low on gas, and didn’t quite make it to the gas station. Had to push the car the last little bit. Made for an adventurous evening.

During my single days, the Huberts were the directors of the singles department. David taught, and Mary was like mom to all of us. Every Monday night we’d have covered dish supper at the Huberts. In the fall of 1984 two girls started attending, both recent Tech grads. Amy went out with David Hurt a few times. Amy and her roommate Marty lived near me in Midtown / Virginia Highland. They lived on Adair Ave. I lived on Greenwood Ave, in the tiny rundown apartment we called the Hubcap.

I was working for Jim Suggs in Doraville, just outside 285 on Oakcliff Road (near where Dock grew up). Marty worked off the same exit. We started carpooling, which was fun. A couple of years ago I was going through my old scrapbook calendars making a list of sporting events I’d been to, and discovered that Marty and I had gone to a few GT basketball games together in 1985. She’d also gone to a comedy show with me and Hurt and Don Head. I’d forgotten about those. Those her the days when Tech had a good basketball team. Bobby Cremins. I did remember a big Friday night game in late Feb / early March wasn’t being shown on TV in Atlanta. On a lark, Marty and I decided to drive down to Macon and watch the game with my parents. We spent the night and drove home the next day. Spending time with her was fun.

Marty liked to tease me, which at the time I wasn’t sure I liked. I didn’t realize it was her way of showing interest in me. We did stuff together almost more like friends than as dates. At least that’s what I thought. I was too dumb to figure out that she might be interested in me. I was so bad at meaningful conversations back then (still am). We’d talk about “stuff” – but I never asked Marty about her family, her earlier life, her time at Tech, what she did at night. She was good at asking about me. A few years later I ran into Marty on a Saturday morning while we getting our cars serviced at a Goodyear in Decatur.

I do have an old wood box with lots of old stuff from high school and college. That’s where I found that old mighty mite photo od Elizabeth Flack. Old church news, Camp SPdL, and choir tour stuff.