Summer School

Now that the 4th of July weekend is over, I am reminded of Gates-Chili summer school which was a mini-industry of the summers during high school. Kids went there for driver's education, to make up classes they didn't pass the previous year or to take new classes. The latter were in the minority but in the days before you could get a work permit (at age 16) this gave you something to do and it included a social aspect.

Summer school at G-C was another world for the Catholic School crowd. A chance to see what it was like to go to school in "regular" clothes and not have the ever present reminders of the church around school - kind of refreshing if you ask me. Oh, and the most exciting thing....to go to school with girls!!! On the other hand, I do remember how boring it was studying old regents exams in preparation for the Geometry exam at the end of the summer. My coolest class was a French II class which, after the first-half make-up portion, had a second class in which there were only two students and the teacher. Seems like a pretty amazing educational opportunity in retrospect....and that class vastly improved my French grades for the rest of high school.

The strangest thing about summer school was the library/librarian. I had a study hall between my two french classes and I spent it in the library, usually trying to do crossword puzzles. The librarian seemed just plain weird. He would tell me about parties he went to in NYC where people did "daisy chains" (whatever they were) and he would persistently ask me to come to his house for a massage. Now I was only 15 and very naive, but it all seemed strange at the time.  What is interesting to me now is that in those days when you met "strange characters" they were just that and it was up to you to watch out for them. The same thing supposedly happened in the men's room at the Rundell Library downtown.....you just learned how to take care of yourself. In any case, such characters do leave impressions.

Another thing about G-C summer school is that we often walked home. The walk was about 3 miles and on some hot summer days this could seem long. I remember one such walk where we all (we were a group of maybe 5 or 6) tried to make ourselves faint while walking down the Pixley Road. Someone had shared the technique of taking several deep breaths and then squeezing oneself to go faint...yeah, it works.

I suppose summer school was less fun for those with the pressure of making up a failed course, but as I remember it, it was sort of a fun social diversion during those carefree days of early teenhood.