Never the Same IC#6

Never the Same IC#6

A Story by Neal
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Continuing the evolution of Kirk's young teen life, we now read the influences he experienced in high school that affected him later in life.

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Cue: “The Futures So Bright, I Gotta’ Wear Shades”  https://youtu.be/65YIlwxBuvM

Sunshine, blue skies and butterflies

Let’s move on to the second half of Kirk’s high school days. After a terrible, discouraging childhood and a distressing preteen period, things were looking up for the young teen Kirk and high school might prove a game changer for him in mind, soul, and future outlook aspects. He surely was never the same after all the turbulent changes and the daunting challenges he went through in his young life, but he had gumption and loads of drive, so as they say, the world could become his oyster. We will see.

 To set the time period for Kirk’s high school, we’ll provide some background. Hormones ran rampant back then at those ages and during those particular years of free love and the hippie life style being set front and center it was tough for those in his age group to restrain themselves. In high school, it proved to be the golden age of hot teachers with young, handsome women straight out of college wearing short tight dresses called miniskirts, colorful leggings called tights, and plunging necklines called cleavage display. The young boys definitely noticed. Undoubtedly, this was more than young hormone-driven boys could handle, but even Kirk noticed too though girl craziness hadn’t kicked in yet.  A classmate of Kirk’s claimed carnal knowledge with his steady girlfriend in her presence so it had to be true. Kirk wasn’t anywhere near that and in fact couldn’t quite figure out what the term meant…

Cue: “Feelin’ Groovy” https://youtu.be/FSqVtmfDDFg

As he ate healthier and exercised more, the slim teen Kirk became a sharp dresser by even sewing his own special neckties that he began wearing every day except for the short period when he wore a Nehru jacket. Ta-Da! Nehru jackets became popular for a very short time driven by the Mod styles of the Beatles and The Monkees after they visited the various popular Indian gurus. The jackets’ popularity died off pretty quick and after that Kirk’s Nehru hung in the closet gathering dust never to see the light of day again.

Like his orthodontist had predicted, with straight teeth, a slim profile and the added benefit of clean living, his popularity grew in a sort of offhand way of midstream circles though not really gaining any real friends. He began slowly finding his way with girls. Very slowly, very cautiously. We will explore his interactions with girls in the section “the women Kirk knew and loved” but Kirk needed to mature a bit more than those other boys his age who were ‘making the moves’ on the girls. But first, Kirk had to get down to the tedious business of school.

The annual trips to the guidance counselor always seemed a worthless waste of time in Kirk's POV. The counselor, a squat, chubby bald Italian man, would always hem and haw over Kirk’s record while making suggestions on subject areas where the slacking student should show some additional efforts and improvement. That was pretty much everything except for Earth Science. For some reason it interested and suited him though he didn’t at the time think of any possible role Earth Science of all subjects may have on his future. On the other hand, most of the time, he barely passed Algebra and Geometry. Kirk blamed it, not to the counselor that is, but to himself that it was Dee Dee’s fault or perhaps the latest car he was working on that took up all his spare time. Study? Why? He wasn’t going to college isn’t that the only reason those Brainiacs studied so hard?

Realistically Kirk couldn’t concentrate on something as abstract as higher mathematics when he had a girl in the wings�"or a neat car either for that matter. More on Dee Dee and the cars in his life, but he doodled Dee Dee’s name on every square inch of paperwork he owned much to the disdain of the teachers.

The school year played out excruciatingly slow with summer vacation the big payoff sometime in his distant future and there, the numerous chances to cut loose and wreak havoc. All teens dreamt of the mythological endless summer, but summer vacation always went by exceedingly quick. Truthfully, summers weren’t all that fun for Kirk. At home, there was farm crop management and now that Kirk was a bit older and stronger his father had some live-in slave labor.

One year, his father planted massive amounts of sweet corn. Every evening, Kirk and his father would lug heavy, corn-laden burlap bags of corn up and down the rows picking the ears and stuffing the heavy bags into the family station wagon to run and sell to the local supermarkets. Then, between his tenth and eleventh grade, his father decided the whole farm was going to be hay, hay, and more hay! This meant Kirk spent a lot of time on the tractor, more than he wanted even though he still liked driving the old ‘pum, pum, pum’ tractor around. There he cruised the big fields to tractor mow, rake into windrows, and finally bale it. They made a gazillion bales until the huge, old barn seemingly burst at the seams, so to speak. It was fun scaling the huge piles of hay, but when the big trucks came to take delivery of said hay, Kirk would have to handle those bales again. He developed calluses on top of old calluses on the inside of his fingers. 

Of course, spending all that time making hay there would be times when the weather would sour and become volatile. Being mid-summer when you baled hay thunderstorms occasionally popped up now and then. Kirk would be out there on the tractor prepping the hay as black storm clouds approached and with any luck moseyed on past the farm without rain.  Kirk would eye the storms in their strength and beauty wondering the dynamics going on as the huge cumulonimbus buildups shot out bolts of strident lightning and the sky darkened, the clouds swollen with rain. In those times, rain proved a miss when the hay stayed dry or a hit when rain spoiled the hay.

 As he tractored around and around in the field, Kirk would watch the weather process unfold while at the same time noticing his head was the tallest thing out in the middle of the hay field. Should he take cover? Go back home? Was he a potential lightning rod? Would the tractor implement make a good enough ground connection for the lighting to be attracted and strike him or was the rubber-tired tractor good enough to insulate him from certain crispy critter demise?

Over the few times of threatening storms, some lightning strikes ended up being close calls hitting trees within a mile, but Kirk lived to tell the tale here and now though when it happened the lightning and thunder would be enough to weaken Kirk’s knees. Interesting how these younger thoughts and contemplation on the weather would come around to become a factor later in Kirk’s relatively uninteresting life as a young person.  This weather fascination would become a factor in Kirk’s life that no one, not Kirk, not his family nor anyone else could ever imagine. Stay tuned to this story of Kirk.

During his freshman summer, one of his sometime friends who lived out in the boonies in Kirk’s general direction signed up for Driver Education along with Kirk, so they could get their driver’s license earlier. Kirk and his friend would ride their bicycles to meet up at an intersection and then ride several more miles to school.

 Kirk flaunted a little swagger in this driving endeavor because he had some experience behind the wheel in old discarded cars “field cars” that he drove around in the fallow fields.  He’d make believe he was racing on dirt tracks while listening to the Rock stations on the radio. The oldie “Rock around the Clock” stuck in his memory along with the roar of the engine and the smell of dust that wafted through the open windows as he drove around and around. Anyway, Driver Education went well for the teen and he learned the rules of the road because he could handle the car’s maneuvering just that easy. Every day after class, he’d part ways with his friend and car mates to hang out with Babe who babysat not far from the school. More on that affair later on in the section about Kirk and women.  

So, like so many summers, the same old county fair would break the spell of the wishful endless summer, but he’d have more fun there at the fair than back when he was threatened with the specter of a health building or there at the fair while marching with the school band in a leg-bruising parade. Still, he garnered that feeling of impending doom of school in the anticipation of the sickening sweet smell of fresh sneaker rubber while collecting a copious supply of pencils, paper, and other miscellaneous school supplies.  Later on after graduation, he’d have a great visit at the fair with a fair young woman who’ll remain nameless at this juncture.

School days yet again

Again early in the new school year, Kirk made his semi-annual visit to the guidance counselor. This time there was no hemming or hawing by the counselor, only straight to the point.  What did Kirk want to do after graduating from school? Kirk, in his typical methods of answering, just shrugged his shoulders with a mumbled I dunno, haven’t thought much about it. Which led to the counselor asking, well, what are your interests, your hobbies? Again, the shoulder shrugs because Kirk wasn’t really paying any attention assuming nothing would ever become of the meeting. The counselor, without looking at Kirk’s records, knew Kirk wouldn’t go far with neither sports nor academics. You need to think about your future young man, the counselor said rather brusquely. You must have some real interests, the man inquired. What do you read, what do you do in your spare time? 

This goaded Kirk a bit into thinking about the questions. He eventually got around to answering, I work on cars. Fixing cars up, that sort of thing, getting them to run, ya’ know? The counselor seemed relieved to get an answer from one of the many more uncooperative students. Have your heard of the BOCES vocational program? Kirk looked at him blankly. Apparently not, so BOCES stands for Board of Cooperative Educational Service. Still blank. Okay, it’s a place where you learn vocation skills such as for becoming chefs, hair stylists, and in your case, auto mechanics. Now, he had Kirk’s attention. He thought a moment�"or two.

But do I have to move away? Live somewhere else? Kirk worried. No, no it’s a part time program, the counselor said. You ride the bus from here. Two days there and three days here. You still have the required courses to take here, but you learn a skill that you can utilize after you graduate. What do you think? Kirk considered another moment or two. Sounds like a good deal, I’ll take it. So, in one small step for Kirk, he made one huge positive step for a future job and career that he thought he’d like to partake.

So, the vocational school turned out to be a good idea and a good time. Kirk could learn more about what he seemed to love at the time. There at BOCES, he excelled in the classroom with automotive mechanical theory, facts and figures, but he remained a bit fumbly in the fingers due to that curse of poor hand/eye coordination. Along the way, he managed many greasy hands, split knuckles and broken fingernails. The bus ride to and from the school proved to be always a good time, and it was there Kirk made some real friends�"at least friends during his school days. There at BOCES he again became the teachers’ pet with his eager to listen and take part in class attitude coupled with a good recall and reliable accurate test taking.

Kirk especially enjoyed the automotive body and paint section. Taught by the big, black, friendly, happy Mister Kinkle who shared all the tricks of the trade he knew. Kirk learned about banging and pulling out dents in cars’ metal bodywork, applying, shaping and smoothing Bondo (body filler), and it smelled good, too, and the especially fun and artistic task of spray painting a car’s finish. There he turned out works of automotive art, all smooth and shiny with a spankin’ new paint job. All in all, truth be told, auto body ended up more of an art form to Kirk than a tedious occupation, and he loved it.

On the other hand, Kirk really didn’t enjoy the greasy, dirty, knuckle-busting part of being a mechanic. Way too late he figured out that he’d be a better mechanical teacher than an actual mechanic. You know what they say, “those who can’t do, teach” but of course, Kirk didn’t know this saying back then.

Anyway, before the very end of his vocational school stint, the teacher informed the class that there was a troubleshooting contest sponsored by Plymouth. Because of his consistently high grades, Kirk and his friend were selected to represent that particular BOCES School. Kirk should have turned the offer down because of his poor coordination and his not so great ability of thinking on his feet under pressure along with his poor hands-on mechanical ability.

The event began right off the bat to be a nerve-wracking experience with a prospect of twelve identical cars lined up on the hot tarmac of the local raceway. The already sweating teams were expected to find out why the cars would not start. When they identified a defective part whether it was in the starting system, the fuel system or electrical system the teams would have to go to a competition team minder to get the replacement part. If they diagnosed incorrectly the minder just wouldn’t have the replacement part.

The Contest

A gunshot started the competition. So, at first, the two boys attempted this and that using tried and true checking methods on the ignition system, starter system, and fuel system, and when they found something defective, they ran back and forth to their minder for the parts. For several minutes, they pressed on nervous, sweating, and frustrated in the mind-boggling, stressful exercise and began investigating anything and everything in a frantic shotgun sort of approach.

Nevertheless, the competition seemingly ended quite quickly and downright surprisingly to the pair. Probably in the heat of competition they didn’t know how much time had actually passed, but they couldn’t believe how fast the winning team of competitors had finished proudly standing next to their smooth running car. Kirk and his friend hardly had a handle on the remaining problems on the engine let alone fix them all! They lost by a couple unresolved problems when they were revealed. Kirk and his teammate wondered to one another if the winning team somehow knew what had to be repaired before the contest even began. Always a conspiracy…

The pair went home with their participation trophies, drank a beer and looked forward to their future after graduation whatever that may be in each young man’s case because no one wanted to talk about their future! Heaven forbid.

So, still not having any kind of a handle on his future plans, Kirk, for some unknown reason, decided he wanted to be in yet another classroom situation despite all the fun (sarcasm) he had in high school. What?! He didn’t know why he signed up for the one year diesel heavy equipment course instead of the regular automotive course, but there he was.

Kirk rented a room in the college town with a stuffy elderly couple and spent a year more or less away from home. Kirk learned all about diesel fuel injection systems while hanging out in the dust-free positive pressure room that even sported an airlock believe it or not! He learned other technical heavy equipment aspects and passed just well enough, and just so quickly forgot it all as soon as he graduated.  He just didn’t like working on heavy equipment at all. He did have a good time partying, smoked some Weed because, after all it was college, and�"and he entered into a relationship with an older woman! More on that later. But here he was again, where would he go, what would he do with no direction to go? But a side note first.

While attending college, he paid an unsolicited, non-required visit to his old high school guidance counselor. Why he went, Kirk didn’t know. Maybe he wanted to reminiscence about the good old days. Maybe he was checking up on his main squeeze from high school. Anyway, the counselor seemed happy to see him. Kirk sat back down in the dank, dark office that seemed a whole lot less intimidating than just a year before because there were no possible repercussions on what he had said or had done in the year past nor would there be any discussions about his future.

 Blowing Kirk right away off the bat, the counselor told the young man Kirk that he truly proved an inspiration for those other students following him up through the grades. He said those were the students who might want to take the easy way out and quit after failing time after time. The counselor went on without interruption.  Kirk was dumbfounded. The counselor went on. And he added that Kirk had proved over and over to be the epitome of perseverance right up to his graduation. Kirk thought, huh? Really?

To drive his point home and being redundant, the counselor told Kirk that he shined as an example to those who might want to quit just because quitting was easy and life at school wasn’t always easy and that others should take his example and follow it while enduring failure and defeat like Kirk had over and over. Kirk was taken aback at first not knowing what the counselor was referring to, but then the counselor clarified Kirk’s high school sports participation. Oh!

Anyway, over the past year away from the rigors of high school, Kirk began to feel pretty good about himself.  And so, young man Kirk might have felt a bit bolstered by those comments the counselor told him despite no one had ever said anything along those lines during those grueling four years, not the coaches, not any teachers, nor the counselors, not the wimpy nerds, nor the many, many teammates, and especially not the girls. No one ever gave him a pat on the shoulder and said one single ‘atta boy, Kirk, what an effort you put in and stuck with it!

Though, literally, Kirk had soldiered on in every single practice and showed up for every single sports meet whether home or away, so he always thought that somehow his enduring commitment counted for something.  In fact, looking back on all this, he wonders if Babe or Dee Dee actually cared how hard he worked and pressed on regardless in sports or were they embarrassed by the fact that Kirk was less than impressive in his participation and achievement in high school sports.

Maybe tall, fun Babe just overlooked the facts of the matter and Dee Dee didn’t actually feel any honest affection for him all along. We’ll explore those possibilities in the next sections covering the women Kirk knew and loved and Kirk’s sports days.

 Kirk imagined that perhaps somehow, sometime he’ll gain a bit of glory from those long years, but after the little time he visited the school and his younger school mates and being back around town after the short absence no one ever came up to him and told him, man, you are a real inspiration for me, so I try to be just like you every day. Young man Kirk wasn’t sure if he felt better or worse after visiting the counselor, but he continued on just the same after that less than illuminating visit. Read the short story, “My First Five Minutes of Fame” for a bit more insight.

Cue: “Steal my Sunshine” https://youtu.be/E1fzJ_AYajA

Overall, you might think that Kirk was in a really good place, and he should feel pretty good about himself. Well, he did. Kirk made out pretty good up to this point, overcoming his shortfalls and meeting challenges head on and coming out, more or less on top, well at least average�"in the middle of the pack. Though looking back to his final hurrah of high school in his class graduation after all those years with many of the same, jaded individuals, Kirk bitterly remembers the special recognition given to him by the glorious pompous leaders of his class for his perseverance in the face of failure and doing pretty darn good despite the facts. That special recognition, just for him, was his selection as, wait for it, “the person least likely to succeed.” Wasn’t that just so friggin’ thoughtful  of them?  Well, we will see about that prediction!

After those grueling years of hard work, Kirk would never be the same after high school. 

Cue: “School’s Out” https://youtu.be/CXFsWAkLoXQ

Well Alice, school’s not really out forever, at least for Kirk.

Next chapter we'll explore how Kirk did with sports and how they influenced him. That ought to be a hoot!

© 2021 Neal


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You’re writing this like a report, and providing data, not excitement. But readers are seeking excitement. They don’t care about the factors that made the character what he is at the time the story takes place. They want you to make THEM feel as if they ARE the protagonist, living the scene as-it-happens. They want you to make THEM react to what happens because to them it feels as if it is happening around them.

When you read a horror story, do you want to learn that the protagonist feels terror, or have the writing terrorize you? THAT’S where the joy of reading lies—in emotion, not facts.

But…all those reports you were assigned in school taught you to write reports, not fiction, which is a profession. And professional knowledge is acquired in-addition to our school-day skills.

That’s my point. To write fiction you need additional writing skills, which you can find in the library’s fiction-writing section.

So give it a try. You’ll find the learning filled with, “So that’s how it’s done.” And while you work on that, hang in there, and kee-on-writing.

Posted 2 Years Ago


0 of 1 people found this review constructive.


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Added on July 26, 2021
Last Updated on July 26, 2021

Author

Neal
Neal

Castile, NY



About
I am retired Air Force with a wife, two dogs, three horses on a little New York farm. Besides writing, I bicycle, garden, and keep up with the farm work. I have a son who lives in Alaska with his wife.. more..

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