Monday, October 22, 2007

Dirty Little Secrets: Go RHS Eagles!

In 1984, I graduated from Richardson High School ("RHS") located in Richardson, Texas. Notable alums include Anne Rice (the novelist) and Jay Johnson (the creepy ventriloquist). RHS, however, is probably best known, without being really known, as the school where, in January 1991, Jeremy Delle (the inspiration for the Pearl Jam song Jeremy) blew his head off in front of his second period English class. One of my favorite English teachers, Faye Barnett, was teaching at the time; she deserved better.

Here's the secret: my senior class elected me as Mr. Spirit. That's right -- not Mr. RHS (that was Doug Miller), not Class Funniest (that was Ben Beckham) and not Most Likely To Succeed (that was Scott Miller). Mr. Spirit. As Captain of the Eagle Guard, which was the bell crew that rang the bell and ran the field each time the football team scored, I was a shoe-in. It was the closest thing to being a cheerleader without having to put your hands up some bitchy girl's skirt. I now realize that the title of Mr. Spirit was actually the de facto name for the title of Most Gay.

I'm not quite ready to discuss this any further, but there it is. There it is indeed.

1 comment:

Cali said...

Ya know... you could choose to see this as a badge of honor rather than a shameful thing.

See, it was nineteen-eighty-fucking-four! Not only were you voted class something or another (most kids aren't, you know) but you managed to be accepted for who you were, even if you didn't imagine it at the time. Obviously the boys weren't threatened by you or you wouldn't have won. That was a big deal in 1984-- and in TEXAS no less!

Last, but not least, I hope you had a great turkey day and that the remainder of the weekend is wonderful, too.

*smoochies*
Cali