J.A.
Those old photos got me thinking about some of the old stories that go along with them. There's one picture, of a guy waving a rebel flag in our high school parking lot. Let's call him "J.A.," cause I have no idea whatever happened to him.
J.A. was our HS token racist.
He lived across the street from a HS girl friend of mine, otherwise I doubt our paths would have ever crossed at school. While the rest of us were all peace,love,dove, ol J.A. went towards the other extreme. An early Goth and a Reb. That was a potent mix: a dracula/death fetish *and* an anti-hippie/anti-black schtick going on.
I actually found him kind of interesting. We talked a lot, after I bumped into him, over near girlfriendo's side door one day. A bright kid, well read and had smarts. But he was also seriously neglected and it definitely drove him to be anti-social. Most people probably considered him a borderline psychopath. There was something not right in his house, but he never let me in on the specifics. An only child, with parents that, from what I could see, didn't exist in his life.
He once admitted to me, after I had sworn to secrecy, that all his posing was just a game. Poor kid - he really was just trying to get some attention. He once gave me and that girlfriend (whom he had never spoken to, in all the years living across the street from her) a pair of silver goblets. As an 'anniversary' gift. I didn't even know we had been dating for 6 months, but John did! It was a little creepy - he kept calling them our 'sacrifical chalices' - but also touching too.
I lost track of him after he finally went too far. He brought a handgun to school. He had publically announced (by passing out flyers in the parking lot!) that he was going to gun down this big ol hippie, named Ralph West, the following morning. The Law had a day's notice to be prepared. Not a cry for help? Nah, of course not. They sent him to JD school for the rest of HS. Later, he headed south, to Florida. Curiosity makes me wonder what ever happened to him...but that also kills cats, I hear.
Those old photos got me thinking about some of the old stories that go along with them. There's one picture, of a guy waving a rebel flag in our high school parking lot. Let's call him "J.A.," cause I have no idea whatever happened to him.
J.A. was our HS token racist.
He lived across the street from a HS girl friend of mine, otherwise I doubt our paths would have ever crossed at school. While the rest of us were all peace,love,dove, ol J.A. went towards the other extreme. An early Goth and a Reb. That was a potent mix: a dracula/death fetish *and* an anti-hippie/anti-black schtick going on.
I actually found him kind of interesting. We talked a lot, after I bumped into him, over near girlfriendo's side door one day. A bright kid, well read and had smarts. But he was also seriously neglected and it definitely drove him to be anti-social. Most people probably considered him a borderline psychopath. There was something not right in his house, but he never let me in on the specifics. An only child, with parents that, from what I could see, didn't exist in his life.
He once admitted to me, after I had sworn to secrecy, that all his posing was just a game. Poor kid - he really was just trying to get some attention. He once gave me and that girlfriend (whom he had never spoken to, in all the years living across the street from her) a pair of silver goblets. As an 'anniversary' gift. I didn't even know we had been dating for 6 months, but John did! It was a little creepy - he kept calling them our 'sacrifical chalices' - but also touching too.
I lost track of him after he finally went too far. He brought a handgun to school. He had publically announced (by passing out flyers in the parking lot!) that he was going to gun down this big ol hippie, named Ralph West, the following morning. The Law had a day's notice to be prepared. Not a cry for help? Nah, of course not. They sent him to JD school for the rest of HS. Later, he headed south, to Florida. Curiosity makes me wonder what ever happened to him...but that also kills cats, I hear.
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