South of Boston
I only spent one year in junior high.
I’ll explain.
We moved to Brockton Massachusetts the fall after I graduated from Saltonstall School in Salem. It had been unsettled where I was to attend high school. I had been invited to check out St John’s Prep school in Danvers, a Catholic secondary school. I am not sure how the referral came about. My folks drove me out one day to visit the campus and meet with the staff and instructors. They felt a private school would be a good choice over Salem High School.
But it all became a moot point when my father’s company (General Cinema Corporation) transferred him to their new twin theater in Brockton. We were now south of Boston, instead of north. The town had been a shoe making mecca in its heyday, no vestige of which remained that I saw. It was also the hometown of boxing great Rocky Marciano. I never saw him either (he was living in Florida by that time).
The New World of Brockton
The Brockton school system was different. My ninth grade there was the “senior” year in West Junior High. So I was moving from the oldest grade in Salem to Brockton without a loss of “status.”
I was placed in the advanced class, the honor students, because of my grades. As such we were expected to take a language course this year. I chose French, for one of the scheduled times dove tailed with mine. It didn’t last long, however. One day. You see it was a second year class, and I was totally unprepared for it. How I got in, is a mystery. Instead I ended up in a first year Latin class, for which I have been eternally grateful ever since – not only because it is the root language of so many others, but also for its valuable help in thinking logically. And it deepened my understanding of English grammar and vocabulary also.
Advance Classes and their Perks
I made some friends who despite my new kid in town status took it upon themselves to show me the ropes, especially as to what extra curricular activities to sign up for, to the end of skipping class. Two of my new friends, John M and David D played tennis, so I took up that sport too.
The time out of class for tennis, didn’t hold a candle to that which came with signing up for a school play. So, I was strongly encouraged to try out for the musical L’il Abner. Thankfully it was a small part, as a Dr Krogmeyer (only one line) and I did not even have to look towards the audience. I still remember the line – “Oh, Dr. Finsdale, I don’t want to seem stupid, sir, but just precisely what is a mass spectrographic isotopic double diathermal diaphonoscope?” And I was able to recite it without tripping over my tongue. And glad that I did not have to sing it.
I had no idea at all of ever writing a musical. That would all come later. Much later.