Chapter Seven- Summer 1973

So the die was cast and no matter what I did for the rest of the year I was going to SMA. I took it easy, didn't stress, even did a little better in my classes. My parents decided to move to Alexandria, VA, so Dad could be closer to his office in Maryland. Dianne and I had a nice summer together, with me constantly wondering just how far we would go. Some heavy smooching and nothing more. Sigh. I got a job working at Burger Chef. That place was so typical of the exploitative work environment so many teenagers have had to deal with for generations. My boss was a middle aged guy who rarely ventured out of his office except to tell us it was closing time and then go over to the time clock and punch us all out. That's right, he would collect all our time cards and wait for the clock to hit 10PM, then dutifully punch us out. It didn't matter that there were closing chores to do that kept us there well past 11. He used to tell us that if we wanted to leave at 10 we had to be done by 10. Tough to do when we closed at 10. I would see him in his dull, unadorned office, sitting at his desk with his head in his hands. There next to him was his small black trash can, empty of trash but for a single piece of paper neatly folded and placed over a bottle of Old Grandad. I made enough dough to put some allowance money in my school account and I learned some things about how not to manage people.

I also got my driver's license. My folks had denied that privilege because of my poor grades but they felt I would need it on my trips home from school. I showed what a great decision that was by getting into my first car accident three days later. It wasn't my fault! Fortunately that was mostly true, and the guy who hit me was a psycho who called the house and threatened my Dad. The damage to the car was minor and the weirdo never called back, so I dodged that bullet.

There was a swimming hole not far from the new house and I used to go up there to smoke cigarettes and cool off. The greatest thing about that place was the mud pits. You could wade out into these clay pits that would just coat you completely in bright orange goo. And there was this neighbor girl would really intrigued me. She was funny and so very cool. She dated older guys and talked about stuff like Tantric sex like I wasn't some horny teenage maniac. No. Not me. I drove over to Vienna to see my old friends and tried to deny that September was coming fast. Mom and Dad got all the supplies together that the school told us I'd need. We went to the barbershop to get the official military haircut. Oh man, I am not ready for this. Somebody, help!

All together now: Dum de dum dum.....dum de dum dum dummmmmmmmmm