Van Horn and Other Friends - Freshman Year

Between my 8th and 9th grade year I must not have grown very much.  While walking the now familiar path to Van Horn I realized that I had on the same outfit I had worn the first day of school the previous year.

My Freshman year stands out only a little more than the one that had preceded it.  There were a lot of "firsts" however and some of those set the stage for developments that would follow me through my high school career and make it an enjoyable experience.

I went out football late that year.  I didn't know that there were tryouts before school started so when I was informed by one of my classmates that there was a Freshman football team I decided to give it a try.  I didn't know much about the game but talked my way on the team.  On a Monday I received my helmet and pads and on Wednesday we played Paseo's Freshman.  The coach looked around frantically grabbed me by the arm and told me to get in for the right tackle.  I had no idea what he meant or what I was supposed to do.  I looked puzzled.  "Just get in there and get the guy who has the ball!"  Luckily we were on defense or I would have jumped on the back of our own quarter back.  One of the guys on the team told me to stand where the right tackle was supposed to stand and when everyone started running around I did too and jumped on the guy with a different colored jersey making him fumble and I some how landed on the ball.  The coach was very impressed.  My reputation was made because of my good luck.  We lost the game however.

I met two girls that year, one named Susan the other Carol.  Not much developed from that.  In fact I am not sure we even had a real date.

They were starting a swim team that year so I went out for that.  I did pretty good.  I was the only one on the team that could do the butterfly with any degree of speed so I was put on the Medley Relay team swimming the butterfly leg.  I also did the Individual Medley but never won the race because I could not seem to master the breast stroke and always fell behind and could not catch up on the freestyle portion.  But I did manage to usually come in second or third.  I did well enough to earn a varsity letter that year.  I was one of the few Freshman qualified to walk around in a letter jacket.

My academics classes are a mystery to me overall.  But I do remember having Mr. Browder for Biology and Mrs White for Citizenship.

My circle of friends were growing and even though I still maintained contact with my old friends, unless they lived in my neighborhood, they seemed to drift away one by one, some never to be heard from again.  But just as some drifted away some new ones drifted towards and many would play a prominent role in the rest of my time at Van Horn and there is at least one guy I made friends with that year that is still one my best buds.