Junior High School started off very slow for me and didn't improve much by graduation three years later. I knew before graduating from grammar school that most of my friends would be attending another school, recess was to be abolished, and playing old kid games would be out of the question. But the greatest injustice was told to me by my best friend Joe Palmer. He was a rough kind of a guy that you could tell had been around; he wasn't very academically minded so he picked me [someone more academically minded] to run around with. Every day he would tell us of the terrible things that ninth graders would do to unsuspecting seventh graders. Things like pushing pennies with your nose on the floor, making them carry books, flushing their hair down the toilets, and beating them up if they complained or told on them. Although he wasn't very smart, Joe sure could tell a detailed and graphic story. He could have us trembling after a story about one of his friends who had suffered so. With that preparation, I entered Junior High very hesitantly. The first few weeks I would take the shortest path to my next class hoping to avoid any of those dreaded ninth graders. I was paranoid and fearful of everyone; so much [so] that I kept to myself and made very few new friends.
Years earlier Mom had told us that if we wanted to play any musical instruments we would have to play a keyboard instrument for at least one year. One Christmas I received a small accordion and a note saying that lessons were arranged, [and] that I would take from Mr. Eggington. I played for a few years after that and even cried when I quit. I had already lost interest and was looking at other types of instruments without keyboards [my parents got tired of paying for the rental and lessons when I was not taking it seriously]. Bountiful Junior Hight School had a band, and after asking around we decided to pick trombone as a starting point. We rented one [a trombone] until Dad found one we could afford. It was shiny and mine which inspired me to practice and improve. By eighth grade, I was in concert band playing first trombone and making friends. In my other classes, I was still quiet and careful but band offered me a place where I could be myself and be accepted.
About that time, I started to notice that the girls we had avoided before were somehow looking better. I wanted to look good for them and worried about my weight. Gym made me nervous because the guys could see the excess baggage I carried around. Dances made me more nervous because I wanted to dance but didn't know how. To improve my appearance, my clothes became more expense. I [also] started working for the Davis County Clipper to support my habit of spending money. I worked there a few years and often until early in the morning. The Stahles would order chicken or hamburgers and allow us thieves [workers that were not members of the Stahle family] to eat the leftovers, cold. They kept us busy preparing negatives, addressing papers, and delivering [them]. All so we could keep up with the other children who thrived on allowance and wardrobe money.
Junior High was a big step up, but I started catching up from my slow start. I found that new friends and social status weren't needed to succeed, so I moved on without it. I served on the yearbook staff as artist, competed with Noel on the tennis team in its first year, excelled academically, and all without peer recognition. Bountiful was the kind of place where everyone was part of a click, and ours didn't seem like much to others but it was more than enough for us. We [the click] consisted of two boys (Noel and I) and three girls (Kaye Burningham, Lorna Peterson, and Diane Flint). We also happened to be in the same ward, in an area heavily populated with grandparents and widows. It was [part of] the Bountiful Sixth Ward. Having so few youth often made it difficult but we survived. Next Page
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