I'm gonna burn in hell for this.....

....but I just had to do it. I just got back from having dinner with my parents, and they unloaded two more boxes of my old stuff for me to bring home with me. I just got home and have spent the last couple of hours going through one of the boxes. And I ran across some of the funniest things....things I'd forgotten I'd kept. I promised myself I'd limit myself to one post per day or every couple of days. But my wife and daughter are out of town, and I don't have anything better to do, so I've been consumed with going through all of these things. And I ran across one just now, and I just had to post it.

The year is 1985 or 1986...not sure which one, but it was when we were in the 9th grade. We were sitting in Coach Wood's biology class, and Kelly Glenn pulls some pictures out of her purse. I guess she'd had some modeling shots taken or something, and she made the mistake of pulling them out of her purse to sort through in class. Of course, we (Brett, Weston, Chad Potts, John Bell, and a few others) really wanted to see them, but she wouldn't show them to us and put them back in her purse. I won't take full credit for this slick move, simply because I don't remember who exactly reached into her purse. Either way, SOMEONE did, and he grabbed the pack of pictures without her knowing. They got passed around the room, and finally into my possession. Kelly finally realized what was going on, and came over to me and snatched them out of my hands. But she was too late...I had found my favorite and stuck it in my book for safe keeping.

To be honest with you, I've often thought about this picture and this entire ordeal as one of the most covert operations we pulled off in our entire CHS student careers. But I honestly thought I'd lost this picture or perhaps even that Kelly somehow got it back and disposed of it. But not 10 minutes ago, as I was going through a stack of old pictures in the box....this one finally rose from the dead. And Kelly....I know I'm going to burn in hell for this, but I just had to post it. You might not want to dance with me at the Charity Ball in a few weeks now. But I promise I'll make it up to you....



I can already feel my skin starting to get a little crisp.....

I've got you covered...

How many of you remember the process of getting the yellow book covers each year and then folding and taping them around our books? At the beginning of each school year, our teachers would issue our books, and then they'd have a stack of the book covers usually sitting on the table next to the books. We'd each get a book cover and either take it home with us or do it right there on the spot. Not exactly an easy task, but well worth it simply because we now not only had our books "protected," but we also had a great doodle area. So no matter where we were - in class, on the bus, wherever - we could doodle, leave each other notes, and all that. It was also fun to see how long your cover could last. Sometimes they'd last the entire year...sometimes they'd only last a few weeks.

It just so happens that I, for whatever reasons, kept some of my covers. I found a few that I had in the 6th grade...in Mr. Calvery's room. Take a look at this one, in particular:



Take the front shot, for example. Here you'll see that this was the cover for my Spelling book in Mr. Calvery's class. I had fun trying to figure out a cool way to write "Jake" and combine the letters into one weird looking letter (to the left of the warrior head). You'll also see where Jennifer Pace left me a little note: Jennifer -wuz- here. Hilarious! And lastly, you'll see where I once had written "Jake + Ashley" but I had scratched out her name. Why? You'll see when you look at the back cover...

On the back cover, I profess my love (or like) for Kristen Lorentz. You can also see where I tried to start writing it on the left hand side, but I guess I quickly realized I'd run out of room. I even figured out a cool way to incorporate the "S" logo for Security Bank into KriSten's name. I had a crush on Kristen for so many years....sorry Ashley and Melinda....but that's just how it was.

Anyway, I hope this brought back some fun memories...and there's more to come, so don't worry!!!