January 7, 2012 - Part V 1985-1986

Ok, I have no idea if anyone is reading my journals or I am wasting my time.  Im doing this for myself.  I am enjoying reliving this. 
After my Junior year in high school, 1984 - my mother took it upon herself to get me and my sister a job at the company she works for.  The company makes radio equipment, parts, and tower installations.  We were hired as inventory clerks, making catalogs from 3 ring binders.  All the components were in little trays and we were to follow left to right.  It was pretty boring but for 3.35 an hour we were getting paid (that was minimum wage back in 1984).  My sister got bored fast so I stuck with it.  She wound up spending her summer working for a taco place down by the lake.  Everyone seemed pretty nice.  The inventory room was such a cubby hole back then.  I had a counter and a stool.  I really got to know the literature and #'s - as soon as someone came down - all they had to do was tell me the # of the form and I was get it to them in seconds.  My boss was my aunt joni.  we did have a good working relationship.  We kept out working and personal lives separate.  I enjoyed it there because it was great to see my mother (who worked in HR) and my aunt.  The hard part of working in a "family" type business is that I was never really myself.  I tried to be friends with a few of the other female workers but they were too afraid to be my friend.  Whenever my cousin Patti or my other cousins would come and visit, she would turn into a different person but the minute she left - she was fine.  In some ways, she did show me how to be a good employee but in other reasons "no" she was terrible (I will get to that later).  I spend all summer working there.  No beach time, no down time. 
During my senior year, I remained an employee there and worked all through the school year part time from 2 until 5 each day.  It was a perfect little job for me, I didn't have to get greasy and dirty working at some restaurant or fast food joint.  Aunt Joni arranged for the bus to take me from school to work.  It was a different bus with different kids who lived out that way.  Dropped me off at the end, walked the 1/2 mile dirt road leading to the building.  Worked out great. Then at 5, I would go home with mom.  My senior year was pretty uneventful.  I finally was the head honcho!  How exciting.  Dawn and I agreed that I would be 1st chair in Band and she would be 1st chair in Orchestra.  We did that alright.  The Orchestra director must have caught wind about our plans because the 1st day of orchestra, dawn sat in the 1st seat, I was in the 2nd and 2 sophomores, Brian and John were 3rd and 4th.  What he did was moved Dawn and I to 2nd clarinet and switched seats then decided to play.  Brian and John were horrible on 1st so he stopped the group, had Dawn and I move to the left.  Guess what, I was 1st chair in orchestra, there was nothing that Dawn can do about it.  She was so pissed but  it wasn't my decision.  There wasn't much that I did as the principle clarinet player, had a few duos with the flute and oboe players and a little solo in the fall concert but that was the end of my solos  in both band and orchestra all year.  Whatever....We weren't that great of a band and most of the players were pretty mediocre at best (not like these kids in todays time, they win awards and get into great music schools, they had instructors who believed in them!).  I was happy to be 1st chair in both band and orchestra.  It was a great experience.  I did take private lessons from this young lady who lives in the next town north of me.  She was really good and believed in my playing - we played a lot of hard duets.  I felt as though I applied myself fully.  Dawn - she was still playing too loud and out of tune.  Drove me crazy.  During the school year, I had gotten sick a few times and called in at school.  One time it was on an orchestra day, didn't ya know the orchestra director called the truent officer to see if I was actually sick?  Beeped the horn over and over again but I would never answer. Very distracting because I was trying to sleep.    I couldn't believe it.  He was the school teacher drunk too - drank in school, had a bottle in his desk drawer and drank daily.  In my senior year book, they honored him as "school teacher of the year".  Crazy huh.  This was 1985, I guess they overlooked him because he was a 30 year teacher.
By my senior year, school was just so so.  I excelled academically in all my classes in my junior year (averaging an 85 and an honor roll student all 4 quarters).  My senior year classes mostly was math, music theory, and english.  The rest was study hall.  I think I had 3 studyhalls scheduled in both semesters, that including band and orchestra.  I went to the band room on a permenant pass so I didn't have to sit around.  No one cared if I did that because I was a senior.  Math was very easy by then, Intermediate Algebra. Since that god awful summer school teacher scared the living shit out of me I actually did very well in class.  I was the only senior in the junior class (actually the school yearbook editor was in class with me but withdrawed after a few weeks).  Mrs hurley was older than dirt and drouled on the overhead as she taught.  yuck.  I was to her left in the front so I didn't get a lot of her spit but some of the other kids in class did.  I took Music theory my senior year.  Mr Ieda, the choral director taught it.  He taught music theory like we were a bunch of 2nd year college kids.  He really made it difficult and barely made it all 4 quarters.  I did agree to babysit his 3 very immature and very unruly kids.  These kids were bright and ultra talented but they were bad kids.  I was hoping that he would give me extra credit for watching them (he should have offered it but it wasn't on the books - my mistake).  When it came to push and shove, I lost my music theory book and he failed me.  So...i didn't major in music.  (later I saw him while we were boating as a family and I wouldn't even look at him - my sister said hello to him).    English was super easy and a joke.  Nothing more to say about that. 
In band, I started to see Brian romantically.  Not sure if he felt the same way but I did like him.  We both made googly eyes at eachother during band.  We went to a lot of school dances together and the senior prom.  I broke his heart because I started to see a classmate of his, Dan - right after graduation.  I enjoyed his company but in some ways, he was only 16 and whenever we went out to do stuff, his mother would take us because he didn't drive.   I guess I learned my lesson, it was ok that I was 16 and seeing a 19 year old because he drove but its not good the other way around.  He was the nicest guy anyone can meet.  I borrowed his clarinet during pit orchestra rehersals when I had mine in the shop (we played oklahoma!).   In some ways, I wish it worked out differently so we would be at least "friends" but I was being totally honest with him about Dan.  He didn't deserve me sneaking around his back.  I saw him years later at some computer shop he was working at.  He didn't even want to be friends with me.  Oh well.  I tried to make amends but I guess it was years too late.  I look at Brian as my senior year boyfriend. 
Anyways, nothing exciting happened during my senior year.  Which was a good thing.  The night I graduated, a bunch of girls in my class decided to get together and hang out one last time.   I never really hung out socially with these girls but we hung out in school in the same circles.  There was this disability camp along the lake that had all these flags along the property near the road (flag day was the week before).  We decided to get out of her truck, and scoop out as many flags as possible before the cops caught us.  We got out of there in a pinch.  The next day, I arrived at work and my aunt joni look at me suspiciously and said "yeah, there was a bunch of girls who took flags from the cradle beach camp".  I told her, I don't know what she was talking about.  At night, Aunt Joni had her scanner near her chair at home and listens to it every night.  She knew a lot so it was difficult to get into trouble in the town of evans, including my "almost" ticket.  I was driving my parents truck (my only mode of transportation before I got my 79 chevette).  The odometer must have been off about 5 mph before the cops started to follow me.  I was too afraid to stop so he said forget it.  Didn't ya know my parents found out about it because my aunt joni decided to call them.  I told them about the truck and sure enough something was wrong with the truck and got it fixed.  Learned my lesson, go 5 miles under the speed limit on that road. 
I loved my aunt joni but she was such a blabbermouth.  Nothing was kept a secret in the family.  Didn't take long for something juicy to happen (today, I hear nothing and no one will talk about stuff now that she's gone).
I continued to work at the company full time and got full benefits - this time I was paid 4.50 an hr (got a huge merit increase).  worked 9-5.  This time, they constructed a new state of the art literature room that was much nicer and larger.  I even had my own desk finally, but hardly sat it it because I was continuously supplying everyone with packets and catalogs for the company.  my job also branched out as sales receptionist to cover my aunt while she was at lunch or breaks.  I liked doing that because it got me away from the office for alittle bit.  Again, I tried to be friends with a few female co workers but they refused to associate with me.  Mostly due to the fact that I was the HR manager's daughter and they were afraid to associate me because they were afraid that I would say something.  By 1986, my brother started to work in the assembly shop but the workers didn't bother him - he seemed to thrive there and everyone liked him and wanted to be his friend.  He worked there part time after school and on holidays and summer breaks.  Beach was suddenly overwith but at least we had our boat and went cruising around as a family on it.  That seemed to help us.
Fall 1985, my sister moved out and went to Utica College to start her bachelors degree program in PR and journalism.  She was always a great writer and excelled in school.  I went to ECC.  Back in my last semester of school, I never got together with my guidence counselor to fill out applications for college.  My mother had to call the school and do you know what the guidence counselor's response to that was "Jennifer isn't college material so I didn't contact her".  Pissed my parents right off and went into school to get an application for Erie Community college, I filled it  (you and I know about dad's temper, he was so mad he almost had a stroke) out and mailed it.  The nerve of him (he is in my uncles church, I wouldn't even look at him when I went to the church functions there).  I was able to start in Sept 1985.  Took the pre testing prior to graduating in June and got accepted in the accelerated Algebra/trignometry class but remedial reading and writing (just the 1 semester).  I think I did extremely well in the math section because it was about 2 days before I took my final.  What the college should have done was had us take it in August, then signed up for classes.  Anyways, I fell into college life in full force.  Taking a lot of my social science classes.  I met a lot of great people and became friends with about 5 people, Nancy, Paul, John, Scott, Joanne.  I was also special friends with Dan (not the dan that I met after Brian - Dan was still in HS).  He was about 6 years older than me.  We met the 2nd day of school, I was outside of this matchbox racecar track club sitting on the bench and Dan comes out and we started to talk.  He was 25 and a returning student majoring in electronic technology.  6 years between us.  He lived a long life prior to going back to school. He lived in Texas and worked out there.  Came home when he lost his job.  We became peas and carrots..doing things with the group, hanging out going to the movies and different things.  In someways, people we hung out with thought we would be a great item but I refused to get involved with him and wanted to be his friend.  I supported him during his relationships and girlfriends, he did the same.  His out of school friends told him to marry me but I was still living and felt I was too young.  I didn't feel that way about him.  In someways, I was too afraid to take it to the next level because I didn't want to lose him as a friend.  The minute I get romantically involved with him, all bets are off and it wouldn't be the same ever again. 
All through my 1st year at ECC, 1986.  It went ok.  Classes were so so.  Dated a lot of losers and winners.  There was this one macho guy Bill who thought he was too good for me.  We got along famously and had alot in common.  The only issue with him was that he was such a party animal.  Introduced me to the bar scene and the bar that I hung out at.  He had this hot, tough exterior about him.  We only dated about a month until he took me home one night and said that "we should end it, you feel differently than I do".  Oh yeah!  How does he know.  I can't tell you how many times I've hear that in the years.  It was further of the truth.  He smoked so it made me sick to my stomach when he tasted like an ashtray.  I was thinking of dumping the guy anyways (about 7 years ago, while I worked at the VNA, I was a unit secretary and he had to call one of the nurses on a case (he was a medical social worker for the state).  he was married with 4 kids and a recovering alcoholic.  Wished him well and wrote a message to give to the nurse).  After that, I met another brian (this guy was from a town east of me). He was cute in a way, short, smaller statue.  Was he smart and talked very intellegent.  He was a year older than me.  We hit it off pretty good.  Drove at first until his car blew up so I had to drive everywhere (that was my first taste of being a taxi).  We went to Crystal beach in Ontario Canada (loved it there!) a lot and hung out by the water.  We generally had a good relationship.  He transfered to the city college and lived with a bunch of guys in this rooming house.  I really got sick of driving to see him, now that he was gonna be in the city - that ment more miles on my car.  so, I broke up with him before It got too far.  Yes, I broke his heart and he wouldn't talk to me afterwards (why is it that it isn't ok to break up with a guy but when he breaks up with me, he wants to be friends).  More to come later. I dated him 6 months.  I heard later that Brian got a job at Tops in their frozen foods section as a delivery guy, married some girl and living in the city.  I don't think he finished his bachelors degree program in the city college.
In the summer of 1986, my friend Peggy (from social studies class) and I went to Toronto Ontario Canada quite often.  We liked to stay at the hotel by the airport and hung out at the bar downstairs a lot.  I met some real losers.  I found canadian guys were extremely stuck on themselves (not you dusty - your the exception).  So it was difficult to really meet a decent guy from canada.  I tried and tried but it wasn't so. I think I spent more time in the room alone because Peggy, met this really arrogant and obnoxious guy and visited with him all the time we were there.  I personally didn't like him because he was so demanding of Peggy's time.  I met up with one of his friends who was involved in a long term relationship for a good time.  The next time we had come down there, we were at a canadian party and he demanded that I come with him so his friend can see me again.  I refused to go and he left with peggy in a huff.  What an arrogant Jerk.  She liked him and I think that jerk was her 1st.  Peggy was much better than that.  The last time I went down there, Peggy couldn't go so I went with another college friend Robin.  We had fun - the canadians had another group party at some hall.  Met a really nice guy, the 1st one and last one.  We talked a few times after I got home but it immediately fizzled out.  Oh well.  We did this for a few summers.  Of course, I drove all the time.  She drove once.  Everytime I approached her about her driving, she always said her mother wouldn't let her take her car to canada. It was her car!  I highly doubt that her mother said that.  I got use to driving and felt more in control as far as transportation.  I wasn't gonna get stuck somewhere without a car. 
During the 1st semester at school, I did get involved with my music.  The music professor involved me in the ECC jazz ensumble.  I got to play my alto sax again, this time on a regular basis.  the 1st night was fun, met a nice guy by the name of Dan (I know, lots of dans).  We had a passionate affair for about 3 months.  I went to florida to visit my grandparents in Ft Myers for the winter break for 17 days and missed him terribly.  We made it through that and a few months afterwards.  He broke it off with me.  I sent him a dear john letter but it wasn't good enough.  I was so heartbroken and it took me about 3-4 months to get over him.  I fell for him hard and fast.  anyways, the ECC Jazz ensaumble was fun.  During xmas, we went to the city and played for the festivals out there.  That was my 1st taste of playing out outside of school (the band and orchestra directors in hs didn't take us anywhere).  I was featured soloist in the Jazz ensaumble on one song "how deep is your love".  I did ok.  alto sax isn't my main instrument but I did good (I was told that by my music ensaumble peers and I agreed with them - maybe they thought I was gonna tell them differently, I was a clarinet player).  The music professor was an elderly man, ready for retirement and was my professor and friend.   He also was very hard of hearing too.  we had our classes in the auditorium.  During class, he would show us filmstrips of composers,  he would have the volume up so high that you'd be able to hear it in the cafe down the hall.  Forget trying to get in tune with him, you'd be sharp or flat and he would say "ok, your good"  LOL!  Loved Mr Schmidt.  He was a positive part of my life back in the ECC years in the late 1980's. 
At the tail end of 1986 (December), my hs friend Mary and I got together to go to the show and then get something to eat (she was a senior in hs and not old enough to drink).  We went to the show, that was fun.  we were on McKinley Parkway and decided to grab something cheap at McDonalds.   We saw this guy walking down the street and thought he was cute.  We got our food and wouldn't you know it, he comes walking in.  1st off, is was about 15 degrees out.  We definitely locked eyes and came over to introduce himself to us.  We sat together and ate.  His name was Tom, airforce sargeant on leave and family and friends lived in the town.  Didn't have a car but walked everywhere and was at a friends house, walking home.  After we ate, I offered him a ride back to his mothers apartment (she lived by the lake).  We exchanged phone #'s and said he would call me the next day.  Well....he called alright, we were inseparable.  Saw him everynight while he was on leave, some 14 days straight.  Took me out, met his family and friends.   I had to be a taxi for him but he paid for everything.  I was on a whirlwind romance with an airforce sargeant on leave.  No, we never slept together but he treated me like gold and we both enjoyed eachothers company.  Lets just say, if he were out of the airforce, my life probably would have changed and be married to him.  It was that fast.  I did know it was gonna end because a day or two before new years, he had to leave back to Austin TX.  More about him later, there is more, lots more.
anyways, I've typed enough for 1985 and 1986.  Next installment will be 1987-1990.  The 1990's will be grouped together in one journal because it becomes more of the same old same old.