I sat outside on the back deck, enjoying the warmth of the last sun rays of the day. I had been parusing the web and thought I would go check out my Alma Mater's web page on Facebook and get the latest news. A bunch of Alumni, students, faculty and parishioners are trying to save Wildwood Catholic from closing its doors. It appears it may happen…..being saved that is. I have been following the battle with mixed emotions.
Have I donated to the cause?
No...................
I attended Wildwood Catholic for my Junior and Senior year of high school. My family had moved to New Jersey from Florida. I was used to moving, losing friends and being forced to make new, and in most cases, temporary friends. This was the military life. What I wasn't prepared for was the small town, in your business, attitude or the narrow minds I ran into. For the most part if you weren't a local you weren't welcomed. I grew a thick skin in this town.......maybe that's just a thicker skin. I always thought I was pretty good at being me.....but there were times....a few times, my peers put me up against the wall and I almost crumbled into a heap on the ground. I found happiness in a small circle of friends in school and in folks I met through my job. My few friends at school for the most part was a group of misfits, the "square pegs." I heard the whispers, the remarks and I saw the looks. I didn't care......I was never oblivious to it all.....I just didn't care. We were, by all means, an odd group, and that made me like them all that much more. It was my times with them that made going to Wildwood Catholic bearable. It is them, that give me the warm memories and a sense of belonging.
The rest of Wildwood Catholic, well either they didn't notice me.....which is hard to believe in such a small school.....or tried to make my life miserable. I never thought being pelted with food was a whole lot of fun (with the exception of a massive food fight late one night at the Wendy's with all my co workers) but it was a common ritual if I ventured into the cafeteria alone. At these times I usually went to art class to draw away the time. Oh.... and the narrow minds..... having lived all over the US I just never gave much thought to speaking my views, but doing so sure earned me some hate mail. This rubbish was usually found between the pages of a book I may have left unattended for a brief moment, in my locker, or delivered to me via airmail by paper airplane or a wadded up piece of paper. Father Hodge was always good at reviewing the hate mail and finding a way to make me laugh, Eventually I learned to not even look at it and dispose of it in the closest garbage can. These are the things that make me not give a rats ass about Wildwood Catholic.
There were some pretty cool teachers, ones that made me laugh and ones that put up with some silly games.....hey Buck! seen Twiki? ........
I sat back in my chair and grabbed my glass of wine, while taking a sip I looked at the two envelopes on the table asking for my hard earned money. I only give twice a year to a cause. I picked up the Wildwood Catholic envelope and tossed it into the deck trash can.
Funny.......who ever thought some of those folks would want my money....
