glory days well they'll pass you by glory days a.k.a. the pathos and humor of high school nostalgia

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cos i'm in the mood

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:33 (nineteen years ago) link

god that steely dan song rules. story: i was working on a play at my high school back in the days of yore, and after the last show, we were hanging out in the green room, getting ready to go out and get wasted, and i was blasting "hey 19" from the little boombox in the corner. this superfine girl named tracey walked in and said "oh i love this song" and started suggestively boogalooing around the room to it. a scene i will treasure in my mind 4ever.

-- amateur!!!st (---...) (webmail), September 16th, 2004 11:14 PM. (amateurist) (later) (link)

i just googled tracey and she works for the USDA! weird.

-- amateur!!!st (---...) (webmail), September 16th, 2004 11:26 PM. (amateurist) (later) (link)

(no one cares)

-- amateur!!!st (---...) (webmail), September 16th, 2004 11:26 PM. (amateurist) (later) (link)

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:33 (nineteen years ago) link

i already regret this thread.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:35 (nineteen years ago) link

There's a Peanuts strip about looking through old yearbooks and sighing that is perfect for this mood. But it's a mood I haven't felt in over a decade, I have to admit.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:36 (nineteen years ago) link

tonight i ran into the parents of someone i went to high school with, m. m. was a nerd who aspired to be a asshole. he managed to combine the worst of both worlds. i learned that he is now studying in an ultraorthodox yeshiva in jerusalem and has two kids.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:40 (nineteen years ago) link

not to denigrate the thread but the idea of school being 'glory days' gives me a rash and a migraine

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:41 (nineteen years ago) link

the idea of school being 'glory days' gives me a rash and a migraine

In my case they're just something I don't feel much connection for, regardless of whatever tastes and attitudes of mine were formed then (and many were).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Everytime I hear "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" by the Police, I still think of Christina Fiore. She was a senior, I was a freshman. She was (seemingly) perfect. I, suffice to say, was several zip codes away from being even adequate. She's went onto marry someone from the Anheuser-Busch dynasty.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:43 (nineteen years ago) link

i remember that there was one dude in my high-school we called heat miser. 'cause he had hair like heat miser!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:56 (nineteen years ago) link

and one day, "heat miser" pulled on the shower-release in our chemistry class ... he really didn't know what the fuck it was, he was all like "what's THIS for?!?" all the water came pouring out, all over my books which were on the desk directly underneath the shower nozzle. but i didn't care b/c that shit was so freaking funny that i was ROFFLING like a motherfucker.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:58 (nineteen years ago) link

a nerd who aspired to be a asshole

this is a little TOO MUCH like me ...

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:00 (nineteen years ago) link

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000026XY4.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:01 (nineteen years ago) link

barump bum ...

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Jon Williams and I used to be on crew together and hook up with drama girls!

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:09 (nineteen years ago) link

You were men of the water, manly men?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:10 (nineteen years ago) link

did jon williams jizz on the boats?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:11 (nineteen years ago) link

We started our own chapter of 2600, and actually held a bunch of meetings / went to others in Boston. I think Jon poured grits down his pants during an Eric S. Raymond speech.

------------

and possibly, but I know I did.

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:12 (nineteen years ago) link

top 100 public toilets ilxors have had a wank in

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:13 (nineteen years ago) link

somehow, i find it hard to believe that jon williams could row a crew boat ... unless he's more muscular than the pix of him that i've seen online.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Well, his wrists are probably pretty muscular.......from all that wanking.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:15 (nineteen years ago) link

err, that is 'crew' as in 'backstage crew' for drama. But to the point - Jon is weirdly strong; full of tensility like an Aryan Slim Jim.

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:16 (nineteen years ago) link

alex if that made any sense my wrists would be hell of buff

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:16 (nineteen years ago) link

not to denigrate the thread but the idea of school being 'glory days' gives me a rash and a migraine

yeah, mine weren't very glorious. i was the janeane garofalo character in romy and michelle. with a regrettable chorus-fag streak.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:16 (nineteen years ago) link

err, that is 'crew' as in 'backstage crew' for drama.

peeeeeeeeeekabooo!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:18 (nineteen years ago) link

jon williams = noise-rock billy squire!!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:19 (nineteen years ago) link

I was absurdly nostalgic for high school while it was happening - I was utterly convinced that these really were the best years of my life, that I was enjoying them hugely, etc. Then I got to uni and had, yaknow, actual fun.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:21 (nineteen years ago) link

OTM, Gravel.

Yes.

Until sophomore year I was scrawny and underdeveloped, with a prepubescent boy's voice and I was really fascinated by Dali, marijuana, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, French movies, Dave Matthews Band, girls who played soccer.

Summer before junior year I went through puberty in the course of a week, freaked out at the fact that I was actually a decently attractive person, threw on black nail polish, bowler hat, salvation army suits, and listened to the cure; also I had a skeezy hookup with another guy, and fucked around with a lot of really trashy loose girls. I continued the obsession with marijuana, moved on to German movies, the Cure, and girls who were on swim team.

Senior year I decided that I'd begin swimming myself, and I gave up the dope in exchange for cigarettes, the Cure for Barenaked Ladies (WHAT THE FUCK WAS WRONG WITH ME, JESUS FUCKING ROBERT SMITH!) also I whined a lot about not getting laid and thusly didn't get laid, and fell in love with a lot of very skinny girls who were heavy drug users.

So fuck glory days.

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:22 (nineteen years ago) link

(That was damn funny, Alex. Er, the "what's that for" thing, just for clarification.)

I have love/hate feelings toward my high school days. I loved that I was able to take advantage of a lot that the school had to offer, but I hated about 75% of the people in my high school class, because they were ruthless, conniving, just plain evil people, and I could not stand them one bit. But the 28 other individuals in my class who weren't that way seemed to make up for it. And I really have no complaints about most of my senior year teachers -- only one teacher there I could complain about, and that's because she did what was at the time a major pet peeve of mine, i.e. played favorites and had obvious "teacher's pets".

I do remember studying for the last round of finals I'd ever take for high school, though, and that at that time Madonna's "Frozen" and Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" were hugely popular, so anytime I'd listen to the radio while poring over the books and notes, I'd invariably hear both of those songs. From then on, both of those songs make me think of being stressed out.

― Many Coloured Halo (Dee the Lurker), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:24 (nineteen years ago) link

also I had a skeezy hookup with another guy

i'm biting my tongue ...

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:25 (nineteen years ago) link

It wasn't Jon Williams, Jesus Christ!

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:27 (nineteen years ago) link

high school was fun. i found it weird and annoying that when i got to college everyone was like "oh everyone in my high school was so lame now i'm finally freeeee."

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:34 (nineteen years ago) link

i was on stage crew too. once we watched helplessly as our faculty advisor cut the tip of his middle off on the circular saw, tripped on the way to the first aid kit, hit his head on the ground and was knocked unconscious.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:36 (nineteen years ago) link

middle FINGER

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I get nostalgic for high school (or nostalgic for having no real responsibilities) but have very few concrete memories. It's just a lot of minor things - Fridays when everyone I knew met at the same BBQ place for lunch (a group picture is still hanging up), my friend Andrea blocking air hockey pucks with her breasts and then breaking her finger she was so aggressive, getting dragged to seeing my friends' bands, lots of arguments about God for some reason, my group buying a Senior Spirit blow-up doll and putting it in a cheerleader's uniform for the last football game of high-school (and only one I ever went to). And watching Dazed & Confused at least a dozen times.

We had our prom at the Texas Motor Speedway, which still sounds bizarre. We had our prom at a NASCAR track! I got kicked out with most of my friends (and my 21 y/o date) for finding the service elevator and going to the private club downstairs to take a cigarette break.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:36 (nineteen years ago) link

my prom was on a boat

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:38 (nineteen years ago) link

That's half-decent. Mine was tremendously disappointing. I remember (publically) making fun of really drunk rich girls and (privately) hoping they'd decide to hook up with me.

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:42 (nineteen years ago) link

We had breathalyzers entering and exiting the prom and at the casino after-party.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:43 (nineteen years ago) link

I still sorta miss Coors beers, bonfires, bottlerockets, and open tailgates. I don't miss them so much that I'm all that nostalgic for them, though.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:43 (nineteen years ago) link

my prom was on a boat.

Ours was at The Water Club, which is on the East River....kinda like a boat. They played "The Rappin' Duke" during dinner.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:44 (nineteen years ago) link

...falls into place.

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:45 (nineteen years ago) link

We had "Time of Your Life" as our senior song, a year after it was 'cool.' A-town hip as ever.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:45 (nineteen years ago) link

each level of the boat had a different dj and a different kind of food. actually the boat was the "after-party." the prom itself was held in a hotel. i don't remember very much from the boat part, strangely enough.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:45 (nineteen years ago) link

you people are young.

at my prom the dj played 'blue monday' and nearly all the black people left the dance floor. he also played a bunch of really raunchy shabba ranks records and my date blushed.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:46 (nineteen years ago) link

i didn't go to my prom. i bet "smells like teen spirit" was played though.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:47 (nineteen years ago) link

you people are young.

alex had "the rappin' duke" at his prom!

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Did anyone have an actual band for prom, or does that only exist in movies?

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:49 (nineteen years ago) link

only in movies

i wore a tux with a green cumberbund

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:49 (nineteen years ago) link

our prom song was "follow you, follow me." i understand that this was pretty common at our high school throughout the 80s.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:50 (nineteen years ago) link

that's a great song

we didn't have a "prom song"

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:50 (nineteen years ago) link

I wore a gold vest, tux, and a leopard-print bathrobe.

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 04:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 17 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Or else I start threads like this.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link

my date was over a foot shorter than me and her dress didn't give her much leg room so if I wasn't paying attention while walking I'd be eight feet ahead of her in two seconds.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link

High school was awful, especially jnr. and snr. years. Really the worst time of my life. I pretty much block that whole era from my memory. First two years of HS were ok, some fun stuff but a lot of anxieties and weirdness. College was about a billion billion times better than high school for me.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link

I remember the summer after I graduated from high school I was majorly nostalgic for it. I made a series of crossword puzzles (!) that contained all sorts of inside jokes about our teachers and cliques.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:50 (nineteen years ago) link

I was a total gossip in high school.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh man, I just remembered dancing the Macarena at prom!!

How the fuck did I miss that?!!
I think I left after only an hour or two, cause there's only so long I can be at a party that doesn't serve booze.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:52 (nineteen years ago) link

dude we should take over this thread.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:53 (nineteen years ago) link

My Big Secret-I am a loser who did not go to prom-My date ditched me for his cousin's Bar Mitzvah! (He apologised though, and found out from his parents that is moving back into town next week and I haven't seen him in 6 years after we got into a fight about politics and god that will be weird when I do) I moved back to my hometown after being away for more or less 6 years, and in the past two weeks, I have run into several people I knew in high school and haven't seen in donkey's years, and it's been quite good fun, reminiscing and stuff, but it's not the same as the "Coors beers, bonfires, bottlerockets" listed above. And no Dance-offs anymore either. And one of my friends is to be a daddy, which I just can't quite believe.
I loved college. I miss it and I shoot envious looks at the students merrily tromping to class every day as I shuffle upstairs to order their library materials.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:53 (nineteen years ago) link

I've had more than one dream featuring Doug B3av3r recently.
Oh and the new BHS opened!! The old one is now Brooks Middle School. I saw some teenybopper at Jewel wearing a BHS track shirt and the colors were blue and white!!!

― oops (Oops), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:54 (nineteen years ago) link

OMG WTF! MY WORLD HAS EXPLODED!!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:56 (nineteen years ago) link

I actually went to prom freshman and sophomore years because my school then was so small that everyone in the HS was invited. Both years I took girls that I was "friends" with but of course I had massive crushes on. Freshman year sucked, I had to go home early. Sophomore year was better as I got to stay out late and go clubbin' with everyone. I went to senior prom solo and left after about an hour.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Who did you go to prom with, Oops?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 15:58 (nineteen years ago) link

M3redith Cl@rk. I still talk to her and see her when she's in town or I'm in LA.
I didn't get any action that night. Hotel room was too crowded.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:00 (nineteen years ago) link

There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of high school and my classmates. We were such a motley bunch. The teachers didn't know what in the fuck to do with us. We were far and away the most zany, loopy young women ever to grace the school.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I forget sometimes how "safe" my high-school years were -- I didn't drink until the end of my junior year of COLLEGE, and I certainly didn't rent any hotel rooms after prom. (I think we hung out on the back porch of my parents' house.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I think maybe I met M3r3dith at a party at Car0lyn M@rr's house? Is that possible?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:06 (nineteen years ago) link

@ *&#^~14!!! #00!! ROFFLE!!!

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link

One of my high school tormentors bought one of my favorite restaurants, so now I can't eat there anymore. My idea of high school nostalgia involves thinking "those Columbine kids had the right idea."

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 17 September 2004 19:35 (nineteen years ago) link

that's a really disgusting thought. i wish you hadn't expressed it.

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 19:46 (nineteen years ago) link

My life changed so drastically after high school ... that I sometimes feel like my high school days happened to someone else entirely ... there's a strange sense of disconnect, as though I wasn't actually there. I can't reconcile who I am now with who I was back then.

thank you for perfectly expressing this, so i didn't have to fumble around for the words myself.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Right, well, that's why I don't indulge in high school nostalgia.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link

It's illegal.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link

can't you be nostalgic for the you you once were?

― amateur!!st, Friday, 17 September 2004 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Not without remembering what was done to that edition of me.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:29 (nineteen years ago) link

i got into a fight almost every fucking day. i hated it.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:38 (nineteen years ago) link

the teachers were often assholes, and many of the students were spoiled thick rugby twats but school was ok.

as I say I mainly hated the authority aspects of it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:43 (nineteen years ago) link

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-3/666351/depressingprom.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-3/666351/gothyoungins.jpg

ihttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-3/666351/seniorpicyuck.jpg

― Towelette Pettatucci (Homosexual II), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:43 (nineteen years ago) link

I'll third the "strange sense of disconnect" sentiment.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:46 (nineteen years ago) link

I won't hold anything someone did before the age of 20 against them.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:47 (nineteen years ago) link

I'll fourth it.

― Towelette Pettatucci (Homosexual II), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:48 (nineteen years ago) link

every regret I've heard anyone bring up in regards to high school usually involves someone they could have nailed.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:53 (nineteen years ago) link

I miss living near my best friend and that I lived somewhere where the seasons actually changed, that's really about it.

(My senior prom song was 'Cool Change.' I still hate that song).

― luna (luna.c), Friday, 17 September 2004 20:56 (nineteen years ago) link

oh high school, you're so fresh in my mind...

the first few years of HS sucked, when I went to public school. then i went to crazy hippy alternative school and shit was way better--I got to take JAWESOME classes about shakespeare & greek lit/history & rock n roll history instead of lame classes like TYPING and "HONORS ENGLISH" wherein we read total crap out of 20 lb textbooks. At hippy school, I used to get stoned all the time at lunch, especially senior year. I wrecked my car by chasing the Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile while high and on the snack prowl. I did not return to school that day.

The saddest HS nostalgia, I guess, is ye olde high school sweet heart. Alas. She called me a while back but i opted not to hang out with her cause I tend to feel like shit whenever I do. But hey, I've still got Astral Weeks and her copy of the first Arab on Radar album!

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Did your hippie school provide you with outdated, crappy lender bongs if you forgot yours?

― oops (Oops), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:26 (nineteen years ago) link

No, they just provided us with self-esteem and taught us respect for others :D

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Well it'd be a lot cooler if they did. /wooderson

― oops (Oops), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Though I did get high with a few of my teachers after I graduated. That was pretty fun.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I saw my young/hot creative writing and lit mag teacher in a bar the fall after graduation and did shots with her.

Does anyone not feel a disconnect between their high school self and post-high school self? It seems almost impossible not, unless someone never changed after the age of 17-18.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:43 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't think I've changed THAT much, but I also can't remember what my thought processes were like back then at all.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link

I wish I'd gone to the Alternative Ed. program instead of the normal high school in town. I would have met a lot of my friends a lot sooner. Though regrets like this are always tempered by the realization that such changes would probably have been wasted on my high school self.

Yeah, it's the thought processes that are the most inexplicable now. If I try to figure them out I just get depressed.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Well.. I know I'm different now than I was in HS, and I expect the difference will grow as I get older. But I'm still pretty much the same guy as I was two years ago, save a little more bitter and angry and with better taste in music.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Ian, get jon to find HS picz of us!

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link

regrets like this are always tempered by the realization that such changes would probably have been wasted on my high school self.

I feel that way about my early college days. If I could go back in time, I would confront 19-year-old me and smack him upside the head.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 17 September 2004 21:55 (nineteen years ago) link

jer: i don't want pics of my long-haired gangly ass self floating around the modern interwebbernet!

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 17 September 2004 22:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Ah, but we do.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 September 2004 23:27 (nineteen years ago) link

I'll blur you out, Ian! I just want the superhero phr34kz0ring ones in the alley off Thayer!

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Saturday, 18 September 2004 00:36 (nineteen years ago) link

yo, if i can get it from jon i will hook it up as long as you blur me at least publicly.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Paste Damon Albarn's face over Ian's.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Hott!

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Wow, that second picture of Mandee looks spookily like my best friend at that age.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Saturday, 18 September 2004 01:13 (nineteen years ago) link

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