The Fourteenth Year - 1993

I'm not sure I remember anything specific about the summer between 6th and 7th grade. I think that was the year we hiked Becker's Butte in the Salt River Canyon with the scouts. Shane and I were the youngest two to go; plus we invited our friend Chad Ashcraft to come too. He wasn't a scout but we all thought it'd be a fun trip anyway. Chad was a slower hiker than the rest of the group. I can't say it was a HARD hike, but it definitely wasn't easy either. We had to hike almost straight down the side of a canyon wall then up the other side of one - no trail.
The rest of the group hiked on ahead, I wanted to do the same; but since he was our friend and we invited him, Shane made me stay back and hike with Chad. We got separated from the rest of the group on our way up the other side. Chad got stabbed in the face with a Spanish Dagger and we fell even further behind the group. It wasn't long before we were lost. Okay, we couldn't get TOO lost, we could see where we needed to get to, it was just a matter of finding our way up the face of that - almost cliff - to get to the butte; and we knew we had to do it before the storm rolled in on us. Well, we never did make it to the top of the butte. A lightning storm came in and we found ourselves running to get back down and up the other side and out of the canyon before it got much worse. Fred Johnson was on the hike with us; he was carrying an external frame backpack. If you don't know Fred, Fred is probably six and a half feet tall - probably taller than that - and was lanky as ever back then. Just imagine him running up the side of a canyon in a lighting storm carrying a pack with two lighting rods sticking up off his back... it was a pretty funny site - I think it was the fastest I had ever seen him move.

Seventh grade; junior high - back to the bottom of the food chain. The best thing about that year were the science club trips. Yes, I was a science club geek. But in all honesty, the "cool kids" that weren't in the science club, really missed out on some good trips - and maybe that's what made them so good - less jerks to deal with. In seventh grade I remember two trips, one was to the Tonto Natural Bridge (the natural bridge I had been to before with my family) and to Carlsbad Caverns, NM.

Mr. Ellison (my third grade teacher's husband) was the either grade science teacher and he and Mr. Thomas (the seventh grade science teacher) always went all out for the big science club trips. They each took turns driving the bus for the trips too, and we would always love it when Big Tom (Mr. Thomas) drove, because we liked to count how many curbs he would hit. Both teachers were NOTORIOUS for really REALLY bad, super lame, jokes - some science related and some, just way lame. On the trips, we would have to fill out assignments that had to be completed before getting to eat each day. It wasn't hard stuff, but it was educational and usually relevant to both science and the particular trip we were on at the time. On the Carlsbad trip, we stopped at White Sands, NM - this is the place one of the space shuttles did an emergency landing in 1982. The sands were so much fun. We would run and jump off the tops of the dunes to see who could get the most hang time. I got burried in the sand, just like being at the beach, without the water.

We had sand EVERYWHERE when we left. Carlsbad Caverns were great too. Inside, we got to go on a special educational tour and were taken into a room where the guide shut off all the lights. It was pitch dark except for a candle lantern that I was chosen to hold. The lantern was similar to the ones that were used when the caves were first discovered and being explored. Then to understand the darkness, the candle was blown out. I remember at that moment thinking, "wow, this is so cool, I guess there's really nothing to be afraid of in caves." From that time on, being in caves didn't bother me. One of the best things about those trips were the hotels - trying to figure out how to sneak out of our rooms at night, without getting caught. Mr. Ellison and Thomas used to put tape on the outsides of the student's doors, if your tape was broken in the morning - you were in big trouble. I guess they mostly didn't want the boys getting in the girls' rooms and getting into other such shenanigans that junior high students could get into. I think our groups were pretty good for the most part, sure we tried to sneak out, and succeeded at times, but even when we did, we never did anything that would have gotten us into trouble (except for the fact that we snuck out).

The Tonto Natural Bridge trip was fun too. I don't remember much about it, other than we got to swim (play) in the water at the bottom of the hike. I'm pretty sure my parents were chaperons on all of these trips. I don't think I minded it that much, since they were never helicopter parents and treated me just like any of the other students.

Check out how high I have those shorts pulled up!

I think seventh grade was also the year I was in a school play. I don't remember what it was called but I know it was the dumbest play ever written. It was about a superhero's lawsuit trial. I don't remember the exact premise, but I know I was the prosecuting attorney. I'm sorry to anyone who had to sit through and actually watch that. Needless to say, the superhero (defense) won the case - it was rigged from the start.

I played football in seventh grade. Yes, I know, big tough me. I was a wide receiver and a free safety. The only reason I played was because there was no AYSO soccer available for my age group at the time and no jr. high team either. I think I was like third string, but I think I did actually get playing time every game. At that age, it wasn't much more than a step up from the playground football we would play in mid school - which we did a LOT of - except now, we got to wear pads, play on grass and sometimes, people actually came to watch us play. I was a scrawny little kid and hated hitting practice. Our team's cheer we used to get fired up was "want some, get some!" I made a T-shirt design with that slogan and a cool football picture on it at my parent's T-shirt shop that I tried to sell - I used to always try to come up with ideas to earn money. I think the design and idea were good, but since it came from me, and I wasn't popular, no one ever bought one. I wore the only one ever made, I think. I wonder what ever happened to it.


Art class was fun. Not because I liked the class, but because we had a deaf student in the class that sat at our table. David Todd. He had a hearing aid that came with a cordless microphone that allowed the teacher or students to talk into so he could hear (since non of us knew sign language and ADA wasn't exactly in full force in our small town. Shane and I sat across from David and had his mic. We used to gently sing Billy Joel's "River of Dreams" into David's mic. Since David was deaf he never knew how loud he was being and he would start joining in singing with us - loudly! He would always get in trouble for it (not big trouble, just told to be quite by the teacher). We thought it was so funny, and it was, and now, I can't listen to that song without thinking of that.

In English class, we read, or were supposed to read (I don't think I ever really finished it) Watership Down. Actually, I'm pretty sure I never read it - but I remember talking about it with my classmates and being interested in reading it... one of these days I will.