I'm going to take a break here

 with this post and write about a small incident that took place in high school

Joe Gama, where are you?

I pretty much hated high school and thought that an awful lot I had to deal with as a youngster was a bunch of crap, much of which didn't make sense. Little of it challenged me.

Still there were a few things I remember with little rancor and as I write I remember being brutally assaulted with a random act of kindness by an upperclassman named Joe Gama.

There was somewhat of a caste system abd maybe there still is to some extent. Sophomores hung with sophomores, Juniors with juniors and seniors were king. Eveyone pretty much dumped on freshmen.

While there was flexibility between graduating classes to a certain extent it was generally either dating, meaning a junior guy would sometimes date a spohomore or athletics. A guy that made the team was accepted by his teammates and in extension the rest of the school to be somewhat of a different breed.

Still, there was a certain degree of a caste system. For the most part I didn't speak to a whole lot of upperclassmen unless they spoke to me.

If I recall correctly Joe Gama was a senior and I was a sophomore. I knew him by name and face and that's about it. He was a big, rugged handsome guy with somewhat olive skin and jet black hair that he wore in some kind of a jellyroll. The jellyroll was somewhat of an outdated style at the time, but as I look back on things it looked good on him.

I have thought about Joe several times over the years and pictured his face in my mind and think he was right wearing his hair that way because I think that he would have looked a little odd in the Beatle hair style of the time. Whatever. It was his hair and I wasn't a Beatle, either. Mine was kept pretty short because it was practical. I never was a style chaser or a clothes horse.

I was looking for a ride downtown and there were not many seniors that either would give a lowly freshman a ride, although to tell the entire truth students with cars generally left the schoolyard full of other seniors. Still, there were a few spaces and sometime I would get lucky when I needed a ride downtown so it was worth a try.

As soon as class broke I went past the buses and headed straight to the student parking lot and saw three guys getting into a car. Joe Gama, who I only knew by name and face was getting into the back seat. I looked at him.

"Headed to the center," I said.

He looked at me like I was somebody instead of just another dopey sophomore, stuck his head in the car and said something. Then he turned to me. "Hop in'.

I got in, thanked the guys and asked them where they were heading. I was actually heading to the airport to watch Cessnas and Cubs take off and land and mentioned it. The driver said he was going past it and he'd drop me off there.

Joe looked at me and grinned. There was a sparkle in his eye. It was something special in his look to a lowly sophomore. He wasn't treating me like a peon, he was treating me like an equal. Instead of stepping down to my level it was clear he was lifting me to his. What a nobleman!

We were out of the parking lot heading toward the highway. We would have to turn left to get on the highway. To do so there were two lanes seperated by an island with nice evergreens planted on it. You had to take the right side of the island to make the turn safely becasue if you took the left side you might get hit by someone coming off of the highway. To avoid confusion there was a 'Keep Right' sign on the island.

"You're in a class with my brother, aren't you?" asked Joe.

"Yeah," I answered. "English class."

Then his face lit up. Mischief was in his sparkling eyes. He leaned forward against the back of the driver's seat like he was giving directions to someone from out of town even though the guy driving had driven the route hundreds of times.

He pointed towards the 'Keep right' sign on the island.

"Hey, Tommy," he said. "See that 'Keep Right' sign?"

"Yeah," answered Tommy.

"Turn left." he said and at that point turned to me and the pair of us laughed like fiends. Tears came to my face I was laughing so hard. I suppose the two in the front seat chuckled, but as silly as it was Joe and I laughed and laughed.

I don't know why it was so funny to this day but it still is to me as stupid as it is. Since then I have turned left at hundreds of 'Keep Right' signs over the past 45 years and almost every time I remember Joe Gama sitting next to me in the back seat of an old car heading downtown. It makes me smile.

Thank you, Joe for one of the few truly good memories I have from high school. I hope you have had a good life.


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