Not a typical classroom to be sure.
So, I sit down alphabetically right behind Fonzie from Happy Days. His name was Russel C. and he was wearing Chucks, blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve. I swear he looked and talked just like the Fonz! Russ was talking to a friend right behind me, talking about stealing cars over the summer and other less than legal activities he had participated in during the summer break. The move from a Catholic High School, where we wore uniforms and lived under very strict rules, to a big city public high school was quite a shock! As different as it was, I loved it! I participated and lettered in multiple sports at Peary HS including football, wrestling and golf. I never started in any of the sports, I was always on the team but always second string. It was actually great, I got to be a part of the excitement and comradeship but I would only play football when John Cornett got too tired or when someone on the golf team got sick. Wrestling was different. I weighed 165 pounds when I wrestled. Ahead of me in skill level was State Champ Brian Baker and future Marine Corps officer, Dennis Judge. Both were great wrestlers. Brian wrestled 165, Dennis wrestled 175 and they had me wrestle 185 with this simple instruction from Coach Burlas he said “try not to get pinned”. Behind me was the heavy weight and my dear friend, Tim Marble. If we were in the match and I could keep from giving up 5 points by not getting pinned then Tim would pin his man (99% of the time) and we would win the match thanks to my not getting
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