T.C. Williams 2.0
http://www.acps.k12.va.us/news2008/nr2007092101.php
As I type this, the city is knocking down my old high school. All I can say is that the demolition crews are probably enjoying a contact high unmatched anywhere this side of a Cheech & Chong movie. As with so much else of importance in my life, I have very mixed feeling about TC. On the one hand, I truly believed I received a stellar education there - both academically as well as socially and including a healthy dose of "street smarts". The time and the place could not be matched for thrills and chills, seriousness and inanity, and challenges both academic and criminal. What a ride!
On the other hand, I couldn't wait to get out and never saw any great reason to focus on that part of my past, (I'm not one of the dudes you'll see hanging out at Classmates.com or going to class reunions). It was just something to get through while waiting for the much neater activities of college and adulthood to begin. There's always a bit of childishness in high school, and we knew it, even then - in the old neighborhood it was not uncommon to caution someone being immature by accusing them of acting "high school".
I was one of the nerds amongst the faceless masses there; there are no sports victories, dates with cheerleaders, or magic nights at the prom pulling on my tattered mind. But there was the excitement of racial, social and political turmoil and challenges, of a core group of teachers who really did help make things interesting, (some of whom are mini-legends in NoVa folklore), and a cast of characters combining every strata, strain and subgroup in our society at that time. A fascinating mixing bowl of intellectuals, jocks, drug addicts, thugs, subversives, drones, nerds, poets, Jesus freaks, occultists, musicians, creeps, pervs, clowns, hippies, stoners, kooks, earth freaks and prophets. The lunch-time cafeteria resembled the cantina scene from Star Wars - and there was always something weird, strange, violent, illegal, funny, fascinating or downright stupid going on. Many of us were smart asses, -, but unlike now, the emphasis was on BOTH words. There was a heavy strain of discordian humor running through my years at TC: people staring and laughing at the ceiling to see who would follow suit; surreal demands (One group demanded, and got after much lobbying, a room set aside each lunch period for showing 3 Stooges films. The same people then formed a group that began lobbying to shut the 3 Stooges activity down...); and clubs and activities for every notion - we had two literary journals, an official school paper and at least SIX underground newspapers my last two years there, (I am not making this up). The administration was outmaneuvered and frequently cowed by the times and the people that represented them. The petty tyranny of earlier days fell apart amidst an onslaught of rapier-like political attacks and some good old fashion criminality, (hall passes could be obtained for a buck in any hall my freshman year, by junior year they had been done away with and we were on an open campus; the same evolution occurred with the dress code and other regulations).
It is somewhat ironic that the city has decided to tear down and replace the newest school in the system with another, (why couldn't they take down that faux-deco mausoleum - George Washington?), but so be it.
I would end this with the usual "If walls could talk", but any alumni would just figure I'd found that stash of brown acid they'd left in the C-Hall locker bay. I'll just repeat that it was an interesting ride - one I'm glad I went on, and one I'm glad is long over. I may well go to the new opening, the first time I've been in an Alexandria high school in 30+ years, just to see the new digs. But I suspect I'm heading for a little disappointment...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj9Rs56u8YY
As I type this, the city is knocking down my old high school. All I can say is that the demolition crews are probably enjoying a contact high unmatched anywhere this side of a Cheech & Chong movie. As with so much else of importance in my life, I have very mixed feeling about TC. On the one hand, I truly believed I received a stellar education there - both academically as well as socially and including a healthy dose of "street smarts". The time and the place could not be matched for thrills and chills, seriousness and inanity, and challenges both academic and criminal. What a ride!
On the other hand, I couldn't wait to get out and never saw any great reason to focus on that part of my past, (I'm not one of the dudes you'll see hanging out at Classmates.com or going to class reunions). It was just something to get through while waiting for the much neater activities of college and adulthood to begin. There's always a bit of childishness in high school, and we knew it, even then - in the old neighborhood it was not uncommon to caution someone being immature by accusing them of acting "high school".
I was one of the nerds amongst the faceless masses there; there are no sports victories, dates with cheerleaders, or magic nights at the prom pulling on my tattered mind. But there was the excitement of racial, social and political turmoil and challenges, of a core group of teachers who really did help make things interesting, (some of whom are mini-legends in NoVa folklore), and a cast of characters combining every strata, strain and subgroup in our society at that time. A fascinating mixing bowl of intellectuals, jocks, drug addicts, thugs, subversives, drones, nerds, poets, Jesus freaks, occultists, musicians, creeps, pervs, clowns, hippies, stoners, kooks, earth freaks and prophets. The lunch-time cafeteria resembled the cantina scene from Star Wars - and there was always something weird, strange, violent, illegal, funny, fascinating or downright stupid going on. Many of us were smart asses, -, but unlike now, the emphasis was on BOTH words. There was a heavy strain of discordian humor running through my years at TC: people staring and laughing at the ceiling to see who would follow suit; surreal demands (One group demanded, and got after much lobbying, a room set aside each lunch period for showing 3 Stooges films. The same people then formed a group that began lobbying to shut the 3 Stooges activity down...); and clubs and activities for every notion - we had two literary journals, an official school paper and at least SIX underground newspapers my last two years there, (I am not making this up). The administration was outmaneuvered and frequently cowed by the times and the people that represented them. The petty tyranny of earlier days fell apart amidst an onslaught of rapier-like political attacks and some good old fashion criminality, (hall passes could be obtained for a buck in any hall my freshman year, by junior year they had been done away with and we were on an open campus; the same evolution occurred with the dress code and other regulations).
It is somewhat ironic that the city has decided to tear down and replace the newest school in the system with another, (why couldn't they take down that faux-deco mausoleum - George Washington?), but so be it.
I would end this with the usual "If walls could talk", but any alumni would just figure I'd found that stash of brown acid they'd left in the C-Hall locker bay. I'll just repeat that it was an interesting ride - one I'm glad I went on, and one I'm glad is long over. I may well go to the new opening, the first time I've been in an Alexandria high school in 30+ years, just to see the new digs. But I suspect I'm heading for a little disappointment...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj9Rs56u8YY
posted by mendip at
12:23 PM
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