The "H"

Mother Nature has certainly messed with us this week. The weather has been absolutely wonderful. It makes it hard to go back to work after lunch with the temps in the 80s.

I drove by the high school during lunch on Wednesday and it struck me odd that there were no students lingering around the "H". For those of you who attended JHS you know exactly what I'm talking about. We whiled away the majority of our lunch break at the "H". Freshmen tended to hang out around the "J" but I don't recall anybody hanging around the "S". Guess I was just too busy at the "H".

I was a country kid so I ate lunch at the cafeteria well into my sophomore year. Mama would let me eat at The Little Store once in a while where $1.50 bought a burrito, a soda and a package of Fun Dip. Remember those? Red sugar powder in one pouch and purple in the other one. And a funky looking white dip stick that you used as a spoon. Can you say "sugar overload"? Never leaving campus ensured a good butt-parking spot on the "H". The best spot was where you could sit and lean against the pecan tree.

I have fond memories of hanging out with my friends and fellow classmates as we waited for the 5th period bell to signal our return to class. "Hazing" wasn't a big deal during my tenure at JHS. But every once in a while we would be entertained by an upper classman excercising the right to pick on an under classman. I can't remember who it was but one poor freshman had to push a penny with his nose along the sidewalk. It wasn't in us to be cruel so the pranks were relatively harmless. I think the majority of pranks took place during the athletic class. Dodgeball was the worst game of all when the upper classmen ganged up on a freshman or sophomore. It was survival of the fittest!

I don't think I've seen anything akin to our "J", "H" and "S" at any other school. It was sad to see the concrete benches empty when I drove by the school. But it was nice to go down memory lane if only for a few minutes.