Ah, sophomore year. What can I say about the 10th grade at Patrick Henry High? No... really... what can I say about it?
I don't remember much. So this post may come off as kind of vague. I did attempt to e-mail a friend to help me fill in the gaps, but I never heard back from her. Maybe we've had a falling out that I didn't know about. I guess it happens. I hope not, but until I know for sure, I'm left alone with my scattered memories.
During that sophomore year, I was still in those Center classes of a sort of advanced English and social studies variety. That year meant World Literature with Mr. Foard and World History with Mr. Salo. I'll do my best to do them justice, but I really am afraid my memories will come up short.
Most of what I remember about Foard's class has to do with reading Homer's The Iliad and then acting out the Trojan War. We didn't have an actual battle, but we did go out to the practice football field and faced each other with Rock, Paper, Scissors. Each of us drew parts to play, from mortals like Achilles and Paris to gods like Apollo and Athena. I drew Apollo. Yeah, that's right, I was an immortal. But, as fate would have it, I lost my match of Rock, Paper, Scissors... to a mere mortal. It was very embarrassing. As for the rest of the year in that class, I really don't remember much.
World History with Mr. Salo involved a great deal of distraction. Salo was the kind of teacher that could very easily get off-topic, and he very often did. In fact, the go-to off-topic discussion was how he damaged his finger. See, one of his fingers was missing a chunk of it. And he liked to tell the story. So we let him tell it. A lot. Another off-topic for him was the Book of Questions. This is the same Book of Questions from which I get many of my Questions of the Week.
The rest of 10th grade must have been kind of boring. At the very least, it was extremely uneventful. I did take a couple more art classes. Back then I was really into art. I guess I still am into art, I just don't draw or paint as much as I did in high school. I'm definitely out of practice. But that year I also took a ceramics class. And we're talking real ceramics, where you start with a lump of clay and you actually make something out of it. I gave more Christmas presents that year then I ever had before or since.
I'm racking my brain, but it's as if there's just a dark spot blocking that school year. If I come up with more, I'll be sure to do another 10th grade post. If not, we'll just move on to the junior year, which I think was a little better.
I had an American Government teacher who was like Mr. Salo. Only his topic was the "War of Northern Aggression". He was a devout Confederate re-enactor.
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