My Senior

   My Senior Year

My senior year in high school was from February1963 till January 24,1964.  Back in those days the Los Angeles City School District had winter and summer graduations.  Winter classes were always a small class, mine was about 120 students where as the summer class had between 600 and 700 students.  So from Dana Junior High until we graduate we knew each other pretty good since we were such a small class.  We picked our class name “Centennials” because we were going to be the 100’s class to graduate from San Pedro High School.   1963 ended up being a very eventful time in my life.  Ron Haller and I were good friends since the fifth grade at Cabrillo Avenue School.  He was a Christian and he kept inviting me to come and try out his church but I always has a excuse and turned him down.  I was raised in a Catholic family though I never went to catechism my sister did but for some reason or another my parents never sent me.  As a family we went to church only a few times usually Easter and Christmas and back in those days in the Catholic Church the priest did their sermons in Latin and I had no idea what was going on.

      In March {on my 18th  birthday} Ron invited me to his youth group social where they were going to go to a ice hockey game.  He was telling me about a new girl in his youth group, Donna who was the pastors daughter and he had a crush on her.  And to entice me to go to the ice hockey game he told me about this other girl in his youth group who he thought I might really like, her name was Sheri . Well this time I said yes I wanted to meet Sheri and also Donna. I never had a girlfriend all through school I was very shy about asking a girl out from junior high to my senior year I had a very bad case acme and I was always self-conscious about what I look like.

     We met at church (Rolling Hills Covenant) and I met Donna and she was a knockout and very friendly but Sheri was like the last one to arrive and when we carpool to the ice hockey game to the LA Sports Arena she was in another car.  We parked about five blocks from the Sports Arena and as we were walking to the arena  Ron introduced me to Sheri.  Well I really believe at that moment I fell in love with her.  She was gorgeous, friendly and seemed to enjoy my company.  Sheri was a sophomore at Palos Verdes High School and Donna was a senior at Torrance High School.  The four of us sat together at the ice hockey game and have a good time talking with each other.  This time on the ride back to church Sheri was in the car with us so I got to spend more time getting to know her.  Besides Sheri and Donna I met Larry Johnston who was in charge of the youth group.  The other kids in the group were really friendly to me and I felt very welcome.  They invited me to  come to church the next day and I just couldn't turn them down so I went to church for the first time at Rolling Hills Covenant Church.  This turn out to be my best birthday ever.

     The next day at church I met Donna’s father who was the pastor and his wife.  Everyone met in the sanctuary and sang songs and had little games and did some fun things and after that everybody was dismissed to their Sunday School classes so I went with the high school group.  I enjoy the Sunday School class this was like the first time I did any study of the Bible and everything was pretty fascinating to me after Sunday School then everybody met in the sanctuary and we had the worship service.  This was quite different from my Catholic experience I could understand what the pastor was saying and I enjoyed the songs we were singing.  I remember the very first song that I ever sang at church it was (Were marching to Zion).  After the service quite a few people came up to me because they could tell I was a new person visiting and I couldn't believe how friendly everyone was not only the young people but the adults I didn't have any adult friends and this was a new experience and I was enjoying it.

     I started going to church every Sunday and every weekend I was involved with whatever activities the youth group was doing.  Once a month we went to Long Beach for a Youth for Christ Rally.  Several schools had Christian clubs which were called Youth for Christ on their campus but at San Pedro High we did not have one but we still went to the rallies once a month it was a lot of fun.  At the rallies they always had someone give their testimony of how they accepted Christ into their life and at the end of the rallies they would always give an invitation for anyone who wanted to receive Christ to come forward to ask Christ into their life.  On May 4, at a Youth For Christ Rally I went forward and asked Christ into my life and became a Christian.  I didn't feel any fireworks or any special feelings but I knew that things were different.  One thing that the Lord made very evident to me is that he took away the filthy mouth that I had.  From that day to today I have not said a cuss word and that's after going two years in the army.

     My friends at school notice a difference right away, one I was not cussing anymore, two I seem to be talking about my church life, and three I was carrying a Bible around everywhere I went.  

     Mr. Johnson became a very good friend.  Anytime I needed any help with anything or have any questions about anything he was right there ready to assist me.  I join the churches slow pitch league and again I became friendly with all the adults that were on the team I was the only youth on the team.   These guys came from all walks of life somewhere doctors somewhere teachers somewhere lawyers, there was a lot of business owners, others were just hard workers and they all treated me as one of the guys.

     I was one of those kids that did not have a drivers license at 18.  When I was 15 1/2 I had a permit.  I was pulling out of a driveway and nick a car and from that point on my mother never let me drive again until after I graduated.  So getting to church and going out on dates Ron who had a car we would double date a lot that first year.  Sheri live in Rolling Hills and I would walk to her house which was about 6 miles but I was 18 and I was in good shape so that never bothers me.  Our first the double date was the day before Easter we went bowling and then went out for pizza. The next double date we did I was a Little League umpire and Ron and Donna and Sheri came and watch the game I did at the Boys Club in San Pedro and after the game we went to Marineland. 

     Summer came and Mr. Johnson got a job at Stanford University building a 2 mile long Electronic Accelerator.  He was a famous scientist he was involved with making the atomic bomb and he is the only person that witness the first three bombs, the test one in New Mexico and two over Japan.  He invited us to come up to Stanford and visit him for a week and we did and had a great time, this is a first time I had left Southern California.

     Next we had Vacation Bible School.  Back in those days the whole church was involved with the Vacation Bible School the oldest adult to the youngest child.  One night during Vacation Bible School I was horsing around and a piano I was moving too fast to another location tipped over and fell on my arm.  One of the members at church Dr. Robinson immediately took me to his office and took an x-ray of the arm to see if it was broken which it was not he wrapped it and said it will be okay in a day or two. 

     Then came Church Camp. We went to Blue Jay which was where the Covenant Church Bible Camp was.  I had a great time there. There was basketball, swimming ,water polo and just  setting around singing by the campfire it was a great time.  I met a lot of new friends and I remember our chaperone in our cabin an elderly man who I became really quite fond of.  He gave me some advice about when I get married to be totally committed to my wife and any commitment you made to your wife is a commitment you make for life.  A bunch of the kids were from Eagle Rock Covenant Church and a month later when I was back in school on the basketball team we were playing their high school in Eagle Rock and they were all cheering for me, it was kind of fun having a cheering section from the opponents student body.

     The four of us did a lot of double dating going to the beach, Pacific Ocean Park, Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm.  This by far was the most memorable summer I ever had growing up.

     Summer was over it was time to get back to school to start my final six months of high school as A-12.  B-12 was the first six months of your senior year.  There was only a couple things I liked about school one was sports, being on the basketball team, two was my friends.  Like I said before we had a small class so we were quite friendly with each other since Dana Junior High and now we were in our last six months of being together.  In my homeroom my class elected me to be the representative for Boys League.  That experience was quite educational for me it was the first time in high school that I had been elected to an office.  Besides the basketball team this was the only time that I served or was on any committees or clubs in high school.  The one activity we did in Boys League that I remember was being really involved with the Car Show we put on it was quite successful and I felt good about my involvement setting that up.  The teacher that was our sponsor for Boys League (I cannot remember his name) but he selected me along with two other boys and we represented our high school at a special banquet at the LA Police Academy and John Wooden was the guess speaker.  From then on I became a big fan of Coach Wooden and followed UCLA Basketball to this day because of that banquet I attended.

    At school I would tell my classmate’s about the activities I did that weekend with my church group, talk about Sheri and sports.  I love playing basketball, on my free time I would be at the school gym playing basketball.   I was second string on the team my job was to get in there and give the starters a break every few minutes now and then.  The one game I remember the most we were playing Jordan High School in LA  they were rank number one team in the state and number ten in the country.  Before the game started our tallest guy who was 6’5 and he could dunk the ball now and then and Jordan had seven guys during warm-ups that dunk the ball and their crowd was going crazy every time they did.  But during the game there was not one single dunk by either team.  In the second-quarter our center was having problems guarding their center who was making a lot of easy baskets on him.  Our coach look down the bench and said: “Barbre get in there for Stout.”  I jumped up and started to head for the scores table then I took a couple steps backs to the coach and said: “did you say Stout?” and he said; “yes.”  Stout was our center at 6’5 and I was 5’11 and played guard. The guy I ended guarding was 6’7 and had this big smile on his face when he saw that I was going to be the one guarding him.  My teammates also had a shocked look on their faces when they saw I was going in for Stout.  One of the skills I was good at was screaming out the opponent keeping him from getting a rebound, which I was able to do on this guy that was 8 inches taller than me.  He got two fouls trying to push me out of the way with in a minute that I was in there.  The coach gave Stout a little pep talk and got him backed in there after about five minutes and he play the rest of the game at his position and did an outstanding job.  We lost just by five points it was a very close game and we almost knocked off the number one team in the state in their home court but we just fell a little short.

     I was a poor student in school academically.  I was already a year behind I had failed A-3 and a B-5 back at Cabrillo Avenue School.  Back in the third grade I remember my mother taking me to the special clinic in LA where they were trying to figure out what my problem was.  They said I was a daydreamer and had to concentrate more.  What I found out years later when it was diagnosed as a disability was that I had dyslexia.  I struggle all through school I was always put in remedial classes in junior high and high school.  Even if I got a good grades on my report card because I was in a remedial class they would put a big red R next year grade it was very demeaning.  My first semester in high school I got all A's I wanted to work my way out of the remedial classes.  My counselor looked at my grades and said that was pretty good but I don't think you're ready to be moved up yet and let's pick out a major for you,  I liked my Science Class that is what I wanted for my major, buy my counselor said no way let's pick out something else I think you should have Electronics for your major.  So I went along with my counselor, I really didn't like electronics but I thought he was the counselor he knew best.  

     Our final six months of school was a lot of fun.  We got to wear our class sweaters, we got to be in the senior court, and we were look up by the other students as the top dogs.  On the basketball team anytime we were playing an away game we got out of fifth period class so anytime I could get out of a class I was happy camper.   It was actually more fun playing away games than at home because we would play to a thousand students in the stands were at our home games maybe only 50 people came because of the size of our gym and we were a football school.  In fact if you asked the average student who was on the basketball team most likely they would have no idea but if you ask them who was on the football team they could probably tell you all 40 players. That's the way it was at Pedro High.

     It seem like Christmas came upon us in a flash. This Christmas was very special as I was now a Christian and have a better understanding of the Christmas story.  I had a girlfriend, and only one month to go of school, it was the best of times.  

     After New Year's we are back in school for last 17 school days.   My classmates were talking about what college they were going to attend as for me I knew college would never work for me since high school was a total disaster.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do probably try to find a job or go into the Navy.

     January 24 came it was time to graduate.  Because our class was so small they were able to fit us into the school auditorium.  It seem to take forever to hand out all the diplomas but finally it was finished my 12 years of education was now behind me.  After graduation Ron, Donna and Sheri and I were planning to go out to eat to a fancy restaurant.  Ron and I thought we play a joke on the girls and we pulled into McDonald’s.  When we ask the girls what they wanted to eat they said nothing you could see their anger in their eyes.  Ron and I walked up to the counter while the girls stayed in the car and I said I think we taken this far enough they look pretty angry we better tell them the truth that we're taking them to the Jumping Jack Restaurant.  The girls anger quickly faded when we took them to the Jumping Jack.  The next day we spend at Disneyland and had a great time.

     So my senior year turned out to be one of the best years of my life.  I met Sheri, I became a Christian, I met a lot of friends at church, got to travel up to Stanford, had fun camping, and a good year on the basketball team.  Because of all those new relationships I believe I really matured as a person and becoming the man I am today.  Just had my 50th Class Reunion this pass May and what a joy it was to see all my old classmates once again after all these years.  It brought back a lot of great memories and why I decided to write down while I still have the mindset to do it.