Mission Bay High

Before I start talking about Mission Bay High there's one thing I forgot to mention from Winnipeg:

During all that chaos in mid-August of 1968 I finally got to see the Beach Boys in concert and they were absolutely amazing. I was a bit disappointed that Brian Wilson wasn't touring anymore - but Bruce Johnston was an excellent substitute. They didn't do much of their early material which upset some of the audience - but they were still absolutely brilliant... Especially the a-capella stuff... BTW: One of the opening acts was the Box Tops (the band that did "The Letter") - and they sucked - some bands just shouldn't perform live....

Aside: One of the best opening acts in rock history was a psychedelic band out of Texas called "Bubble Puppy". They never made it past #14 on the Billboard charts (with "Hot Smoke and Sassafras" in 1969) despite being hugely popular in Europe. The band contends that they were grossly mishandled by their record label - and I agree. I never saw them perform live but I loved their music and people who had seen them said they were an impossible act to follow :-) But I digress...

We had arrived in San Diego right at the start of the school year and for one of the very few times during my formative years I would be attending a public school... But this was totally different from any of my prior experiences...
They asked me what kind of classes I wanted to take... I had no clue... I'd never been to a school where you got to choose... I described my prior coursework at St. Paul's and they said "Oh - that's college prep..." That filled most of my schedule. Unfortunately, all the good elective courses were already full so I ended up in French III (I had taken French in the 3rd through 5th grades at Waldron Academy) and "Drafting" - which I actually found interesting... Luckily, I didn't end up pursuing drafting as a career. During the late 70's the widespread adoption of computers dramatically lowered salaries for experienced draftsmen - they were no longer significantly more productive than new hires... But back to the topic at hand:
The idea of moving from classroom to classroom and everyone having different schedules was completely foreign to me. It was all so impersonal. There were no lockers available so I was told I'd have to find someone willing to share theirs - of course, I didn't know anyone so I just carried all my books with me all the time... It was all very disorienting...

Then there was the language barrier... At that point I spoke Canadian english, eh? But everything at my new school was gnarly, tubular, bitchen and righteous...

And my anxiety disorder was getting worse:

Getting on the right school bus in the morning was a no-brainer. It stopped on Mission Blvd a block from our condo. But when school ended the first day I walked out to the front of the school and was confronted by a sea of buses... I was afraid I'd get on the wrong one so I just walked the 2 miles home. And that's what I did every day from then on...
Next - I checked out the cafeteria but I was afraid I'd get laughed at for not knowing the "routine" - so I just never ate lunch... BTW - we weren't allowed off campus. I was told that (given the proximity to the beach) a high percentage of the students wouldn't come back :-)

Then there was P.E. class. The school district had a mandatory uniform (gray tank top and shorts) and they stenciled your name on your shirt - I suspect that's because coaches are too dumb to remember names :-)
A jock strap was required and that presented a problem for me: All the store cashiers back then were women and I simply could not bring myself to buy a jock strap from a woman - it was too embarrassing... So DJ Jeff from across the hall was kind enough to get one for me (after considerable teasing, of course)...

Yeah - anxiety was becoming an issue... When it gets out of control and isn't treated it morphs into depression, but that hadn't happened yet... Back to P.E. class:

They made us play dodge ball and climb ropes. That sucked... Oh - and this one time a student pulled his shoulder out of joint and was lying there screaming and one of the coaches grabbed his arm with both hands and said "This is going to hurt a bit" and popped it back in place... It was one of the sickest and coolest things I'd ever seen :-)

And I should note that Mission Bay High was "Drug Central" back then... After suiting up for P.E. a number of students would pass joints around waiting for the coaches to show up... One time the administration announced that the police would be checking for drugs on campus later that week and despite the advance notice they still found illegal substances in 17 lockers... And some people claim that pot doesn't affect your memory :-)

Aside: I was just searching for "Mission Bay High" and "drugs" and got 135,000 Google hits. I had not known until now that Frank Zappa went to school there - but it makes perfect sense :-)

I guess the point of all this is that I felt completely out of place... Kind of like when you're the only sober person at a wild party (you know - the kind that goes until the police break it up)... It's pretty awkward - you feel like you're really missing out...

But I did spend a lot of time on the beach - even on school days... For some reason mom didn't care anymore - and neither did I... She'd just write a note saying I was sick... A lot of the other students would be out there surfing. We always did this "Hey! - why aren't you at school?" routine... The more it happened the funnier it got :-)

You know - I didn't think I'd have too much to say about those 3 months on Mission Beach. But I can tell now that it's going to take a while... So I guess that's enough for the 2nd installment...