An Artist

I remember ... .

The candy sale!

The buns they sold during morning break; round white buns toasty from the cafeteria ovens with that little cavern of melted American cheese in the middle.

The blue gym suits for girls' PE, with snaps up the front.

Green apples in the vending machine outside B Wing for 10 cents. You'd hold onto the stem and twist the apple, counting A ... B ... C ... When the stem twisted loose, that was the first letter of your boyfriend's name.

Big hair, teased hair, ratted hair, rollers the size of cans to sleep on at night, tiny little bows on clippies, the thick, toxic atmosphere of hairspray in the girls' bathrooms.

The huge plaster painted sports mascot Baldwin.

" What class are you out of now?" asks Mr. Enemark. The art rooms with Mr E. and Mr Big ... watercolor and silkscreen, drawing with charcoal, Mr. E's signature cartoon guys with droopy eyes and wide chins. Erv Clark adopted them too.

When the first Beatles tune hit the charts, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", we overheard seniors saying "They'll never be as popular as Elvis."

Fumbling with the combination for your locker.

Your boyfriend's class ring on a chain around your neck.

Shakey's pizza parlor. A and W root beer floats. All the secret parking spots for late late Friday nights.

The rumor, nay legend, among the physiology students, that Dave Lendrum one day set up a complex demonstration for Mr. Bell with a genuine rubber tied on to one end of a glass tube, innocently collecting whatever emission the experiment was generating (David, did you really do that?)

Girls wearing skirts always, every day, no jeans, no slacks allowed. Mini skirts and granny dresses.

White shoe polish to touch up scuff marks on white tennis shoes ... clear nail polish to stop runs in nylons.

Dark, dark eye makeup, pale lipstick.

The cafeteria at Capwells in Walnut Creek ... cruising the Park 'n Shop ... Cowell was actually a separate town, Clayton too.

Getting called in to Miss Warren's office, the girls' dean, my mom too. The dean saying "We have compared the signatures on absence notes and there seems to be a distinct change in recent months, We suspect that you might be writing absence notes for yourself ... ". My mom coming to bat for me, replying "I have authorized my daughter to sign notes herself ... as a secretary will sign routine letters for her boss." Then later, at home, grounded for weeks.

The announcement on the intercom the day JFK was killed ... the classroom you were in, the moment etched in time.

The Beatles, the Supremes, the Righteous Brothers, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Peter Paul and Mary, Ray Charles.

Watching, or at least listening to, movies at the drive in. (personal record, The Dirty Dozen, five consecutive weekends, I seem to recall, without once actually watching the film. Sigh)

A tuff, boss, cherry, bitchen', groovy time to be alive. All a small part of being cool.

An Erv Clark cartoon	The physiology lab

Cheerleaders at the Powder Puff Game.
From left to right: Jim Underwood, Bob Pemberton, Steve Stump, Jack Woodhead, Doug Perez, Norm Van Brocklin and Mel Hassenplug.